view raw text
THE INCONSISTENT HORSES 4, FORM REVERSALS FREQUENTLY DUE TO TWISTS IN DISPOSITION OF THE RACER. 1 Thoroughbreds Vary in Their Likes, Dislikes, Moods i and Eccentricities Pretty Much as Mankind in General Does. ■ 1 i [ By Ed Cole. ] New York. December 1 . — Tod Sloan, who will ar- : rive here on tin* Adriatic Wednesday or Thursday, bavins been dejiorted from England on account of ] •tune alleged gambling transaction, has written a j book of his life in tlie saddle which recounts many j little incidents during hs career in cAnnection with ] men from tin? present King of England and his il- ] lustrious father down. He descril es his many Ti- j cissitudes and the varied dispositions of horses he j has ridden and the means he had to pursue to make ] thcin give up their best in races. One case in par- i liculnr of interest to turfmen on this side of the j Atlantic is in connection with the horse Lake Shore, j which in his late years belonged to F. 1. Parker, j It is during a discussion of sulkers and erratic j horses that Sloan says: 1 "•For instance, 1 remeinlier a colt named Lake Shore, on which I won four races straight off the reel. He was considered an awful sulker and sluggard. As a matter of simple fact he was nothing of the kind. He got his bad reputation because the lioys made the mistake of trying to keep him up to , his work by riding him too hard. I found out that it was necessary to fool him. He would not be bul- j lied. He became angry directly any one on his back started — as they generally did — by kicking and pull- ing at him, and whipping hiin. too. My way with * him was just the reverse. 1 acted as If I were trying to control him. 1 would tug at his bridle a bit and then 1 would give it up — the struggle, I mean I — and he would strike out and for all lie was worth under the impression that lie had conquered me. He nearly always won when ridden that way liecause he did his liest — on his own account." Few are there who look on the charitable side of a horses race when their choice is defeated. The tendency to cast reflections ou the running of the race and either the owner or jockey is the subject of condemnation. They never stop to think that horses ate frequently the cause of inconsistency and that riders who are not acquainted with the disposition of a horse rarely find it out uutil it is too late. Sloans account of the Lake Shore incident brings out at; instan-e of the inconsistency of horses that followers of the turf should profit by. It should keep them in check liefore condemnation, for the Ijike Shore case is only one of hundreds that have happened. The disi»osition of a thoroughbred can be compared, in fact is almost identical, with that of a human being. Horses have their likes and dislikes, t their whims and their eccentricities and when pleased with their environments they not only thrive, hut do things with a willingness, that does not exist otherwise. It is the lirst rudiment in training a horse to make him comfortable in his surroundings. How often is a race horse given a companion : Some will walk a stall all night if the old goat lias strayed from the stable or. the dog has been taken away. A stable pony is a great acquisition to a trainer. High strung thoroughbreds are kept calm and quiet by a little attention from the stable pony. James Howe has a pony which has jogged beside the greatest horses ever raced in this country. He has acted as a solace to many horses that would have lieeomo fretful had he not "oeen at hand and fretting means loss f nervous energy. Some horses have a dont care way about them and their tempers are rarely ruffled. Others, on the contrary, are excited by the slightest provocation and it is only the hand of the consoling rider or trainer or the presence of the comforting stall companion that can bring them back to a normal condition. Sloan was noted for his ability to make a sulking horse do its liest. It was to ride the pronounced sulking hprse. St. Cloud, if memory serves me rightly, that the late James It. Keene gave Sloan his flrst opportunity to ride in England. Every fashionable rider had tried to get St. tloud to run kindly but failed. Sloan caused a transformation in the running 4tl the horse. He had the happy knack of jollying a horse, as it were, as soon as lie put a leg over hiin. Many a time on the way to the post he has been seen to smooth out a horses ears, stroke its neck, pat it and otherwise appeal to its fancy. One only lias to imagine the efTect of such treatment in preference to being whipped and yanked about by some less intelligent jockey, whose" disposition is probably much worse than that of the horse. There is no question that Sloans story of his life will not only be instructive to the present-day riders and those of the future, but it should give many a follower of the turf an insight into the disixisition of horses and cause them to reflect In-fore casting aspersions on jockeys, owners, trainers and officials. The records of the department of commerce show that 44.345 horses and 10.094 mules were shipped to Europe last September. The total number of horses and mules ship|»ed to do their part in the war since its inception is more than 500.000 head, valued at something like 01.000.000. These figures should be convincing enough that horse breeding in this country deserves to lie fostered and encouraged rather than checked through mollycoddle iiolitics. This country has been well comlied for inirses. Now is the time for replenishment and the restocking, and its attendant side dishes, meaning contests of speed or racing, should not only be encouraged in the several states, but should be sanctioned and supervised by the federal government, as it is in nearly all European countries.
