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WHIMS OF THOROUGHBRED HORSES. Some of the Greatest of Racers Have Had Peculiar Likes and Dislikes. "You often hear the remark," says a trainer, "that thoroughbred horses are as capricious as women. Id rather put it that theyre as whimsical as children. "Their likes and dislikes are formed all of a sudden, like a childs, and as often as not a thoroughbred horse has the same sort of instinctive guidance behind his whimsical notion that a child has. For instance, a naturally sneaky, treacherous man has no more- chance to gain the good will of a highly-bred race horse than he has to gain the confidence of a child. "But the horses of high calibre have an even wider range of whims. Thats why every good race horse has to be studied by his trainer. "Ten years ago I trained a great race horse — one of the greatest of his time — who was as calm and s.-lf -contained as a judge, except for one thing — he couldnt tolerate the sight of a man with a beard. "It was pure nervousness, of course, but you cant tell me that that horse didnt get that aversion somewhere. We hear about children being marked with some trait or characteristic from their mothers. Dont you believe that that immortal old four -footed boy Im talking about wasnt marked in the same way as children are. before his birth, with that hatred for a bearded man? "I believe just as thoroughly as I believe that Im wearing a hat. that that horses dam had been •Baaed by some fellow with a beard, and that she transmitted her fear of and hatred for bearded men to the son. It may not be scientific and all that, but I know a lot of plain old facts about horses and other things that are not included in any system of science-. "Thoroughbreds have their favorite animals, too, just as human beings have. Some of them are born with a hankering for the society of goats, others are dead gone- on any old kind of a dog, others are partial to cats, and still others to parrots. "I knew of a high class horse which would not do] I a single- tiling his trainer asked him unless a young 1 j pig was kept in his stall. Hed got used to the piggies when a yearling on a farm, and he demanded the company of a pig for the remainder of his career. "Thoroughbreds show their individuality by their conduct just before their races. All race horses know the days they are booked to race, not only because of the scant feeding they get on the mornings of those days, but — well, 1 imply because they know, thats all. "Ive got, now, a horse which has a way of behaving before a race thats new to me, although they tell me that a lot of English racers act this way. On the morning of his race day he becomes as solemn as an owl, and stamls perfectly rigiel. with scarcely a blink, for nearly all of the foreneion hours, apparently in deep meditation on what is about to come off. "He breaks out in a sort of cold sweat, and yet he is so deadly solemn over it that you could wave a burning newspaper in front of his eyes without making him turn a hair. And yet. on other clays, when hes not booked to race, hes an agreeable, normal sort of a horse, and as playful as a kitten. "Other horses become- exre-mely ami paintr.lly ne-rvous on their race days, tramping around their boi-s like cage-el lions, and shaking their heads and rolling their eyes and kicking up a bobbery in general tl at takes a good deal out of them when it comes to the r.iciug. "And then the-re are the horses which, on their race- mornings, go right cm about their complacent and goe.el-n iturecl I usiuess. no, bothering at all. but which, when you visit their boxes to take your last heok at them before the saddling hour, just rest their muzzles in your shirt front and look you in the eye. as much as to say — " Old man, Im going to do the best I can, thats all. "And thats the kind of a horse that I like — that is t.i s; y. supposing its possible for me to like any one kii d of a horse any better than I do all c f em."
