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TRAINING AS A VOCATION Gilpin Describes the Advantages and Drawbacks of His Calling. 1 Would Not Select Any Other Profession in Preference to His Own if He Had tlio Choice to Slake Over Again. P. P. Gilpin discusses horse training as a life work, stressing its advantages and draw-tacks in the following article, which is hero reprinted from the London Weekly Dispatch : In the ordinary course of things one Is Bometimes asked if he were to live his life over again would he choose the same vocation. No doubt, in the life of after-knowledge, most of us can see where we might have acted more wisely in our youthful days, hut it is also possible that if we were gifted in early years with the wisdom that is supposed to come with age we would miss a KGOd deal of lifes enjoyment, even if we avoided many of its pitfalls. But, as for myself, I do not think I could have found any ; other life work that would have proved more : congenial to me than that of training ra.ee-I horses. As a boy my first thoughts of a career favored ranching in South America. I had. heard much about the sort of life it was, and as one who disliked book learning intensely the free and open-air life of the rancher made a strong appeal to me. At . that time ranching in Australia and New : Zealand, as well as South America, was in! good repute, and one heard of many who, j after having been at it for a few years, were able to retire early in life. Also the thought of practically living on the back of a horse out in the open air, more or less from morning till night, seemed to me to be an ideal existence. A rLEASANT ritOSPECT. In every way it was a manly life and, as I regarded it, it was no drawback that it did not necessitate me living out there for the rest of my days and that if I stuck to it for a space was likely to yield me a competency sufficient to permit my coming home and taking up the country life which 1 have always looked upon as the best this country offers. My father was dead, I was an only son, and my people did not like the idea of my going so far afield. They were anxious that 1 should go into the army as my father had done before me. An army career had its attractions, no doubt, but I was confident that unless one took it up seriously it would not lead to anything substantial. After all, there are few soldiers who make a name for themselves, and fewer still who have made a name who have made anything else by it. J Having served your country for many years you are likely to be compulscrily retired when you reach a certain age on a pension that seems scarcely worth talking about. However, I yielded to the wishes of my people and joined the Fifth Lancers and I thoroughly enjoyed the few years I spent in the regiment. "We were a happy family and had a right royal time. But after three or four years soldiering I married and retired. I do not think anybody has any business in the army as a married man below the rank of field officer. No married quarters are provided for young officers and following the regiment from place to place means a great deal of discomfort for an officers wife. LEFT THE ARMY. So I left the army and settled down at my old place in Kildare. It was pleasant hunting in the winter and I thoroughly enjoyed a country life. But it soon became apparent to me that I should have to do something to assist my resources, which were all too slender to enable me to live in the way I wished and the only thing I could think of, the only thing I knew anything at all about, was a horse. When, therefore, the thought of training occurred to me it was not looked upon with favor by my relatives, who knew I had always had a predilection for racing and consequently for "backing my fancy," and my early ruin was confidently predicted. To the remonstrances of my relations I had only one thing to say and that was that if I were -going to play a game and we all play a game in this life the only one to play with any chance of success was one that I knew something about; therefore it seemed to me 1 had little choice. It is no sin for a man to labor in his vocation, and this was surely mine. I did not enter upon my new calling hurriedly; in a way I dropped quietly into it. I began in the most modest way. Previous to this time I had had two or three horses in training at the Curragh and had done fairly well with them, and what I now contemplated and proceeded to do was to train these horses myself. Experience is achieved only by industry and time. FIRST TRAILED OWJf HORSES. Fcr two or three years I had horses of my own only, and from having two or three I became possessed of four or five, all of which I turned to practical account in a small way. I used to train them round the fields at home and I won races at most of the important meetings in Ireland, notably at Cork, which was a favorite hunting ground of mine, as was Lecpardstown, which was, I think, the first really enclosed meeting in Ireland. It was started by my old friend Captain Quinn with a small capital, his chief supporters being Colonel, now Sir Arthur, Paget and Captain George Aber-crombie, and from its commencement the venture was a success. I won a lot of races at these two meetings. With one little horse called Castanet I carried off six races at Cork and seven at Leopardstown. Invariably I stayed at Leopardstown for the meetings there and consequently often met Colonel Paget, who , at that time had a few horses in training with our mutual friend Captain Quinn and occasionally an odd horse or two in England. Captain Quinn was not then in good I health and could not give the necessary time ; and attention to the horses, so Colonel Paget asked me to take his two or three horses; he was, therefore, the first person I ever trained for other than myself. We immediately "struck oil." The first horse of Colonel Pagets I ran was Romancer at Leopardstown, which, after a strenuous i finish, ridden by John Conolly, beat one of the best horses in Ireland cleverly. We . were a happy little company at every Leop ardstown meeting, to which I always brought X two or three horses and from which I sel- dom returned empty handed. At one time or another I won all the principal races there and several important ones at other meetings, and from originally starting myself with horses which ran over a country and over hurdles I gradually became possessed of one or two flat-race horses. ! After wo had been three or four years together Colonel Paget, who was in tne Guards in England, said we ought to start a stable there and we often discussed the idea together. I had then been training for some years at Ballyfair originally named Normandy Lodge, near the Curragh, where I had won many races, when at Colonel Pagets request I went over to England, made the acquaintance Of Ludwig Neumann, and decided to remove my establishment to England. j I took Langton House, near Blandford, in Dorsetshire, and Mr. Neumann sent me some j twenty horses that he had hitherto been training witli the late Mr. Stevens in Berk- shire. Mr. Higham also sent me two or three horses, and with half a dozen or so which I had brought with me to England I started ! training seriously. It was not all plain sail-1 ing to start with. I left behind me all the employes I had in Ireland, some of whom had been with me a great number of years, as I thought it best in my new venture to start with an entirely new staff. There were naturally a good many changes before I got a staff together that was satisfactory. . Soon, too, I discovered that the horses of Mr. Neumanns I had acquired were prac-1 tically useless, and I lost no time in ac- quainting him with the fact. He was surprised, as lie had spent a lot of money in; their purchase. However, he yielded to myj persuasion and allowed me to dispose of j them. Two or three were good enough to win selling races and were immediately sold after they had done so. Others I disposed of as speedily as possible whenever occasion offered, no matter what the price. I then x started buying not hurriedly, but only when I thought I saw something likely to turn out well. GEXERAL PAGET SELLS HORSES. At this time, for army reasons, General Paget, as he now was, did not wish any longer to have horses in training, and he sold i his lot to Mr. Neumann. They included Sire- ; nia and Waterhen, two good mares with ; which I had won important races when in Ireland, and they gained my first two big successes in the year I arrived in .England, 1898. The general outlines of my training activities since that date are public knowledge, and its outstanding features I have been dealing with in these articles. My stay at Blandford was brief, as in 1902 I found it convenient to remove to Newmarket, and ever since I have been settled at Clarehaven. I have also at various times in these ar-; tides dealt with the routine of a trainers life. I have never concealed that despite its worries it has many compensations, not the least being the healthy and wholesome existence incidental to it. Up early and out with the horses in the keen morning air on the training ground brings one back with a zest and appetite for breakfast. Then tne inevitable mornings correspondence and a peep at the newspapers precedes an out.ng with the second lot of horses until about 12:30 p. m. AFTERNOON ROUTINE. A welcome break now until afternoon stables, when all the horses are thoroughly examined after their mornings work, their condition noted, and any damage developed by the days work attended to, for the latter docs not become manifest until the evening examination as a rule and both inspections have their anxious moments when an important race meeting is just ahead. "The feeding and resting of the horses provide ad- : . ditional worries, and by the time "evening I stables" are over one has put in a day full I . of activities, a day which is, however, never j without its special interest. j . Any part of the trainers day which is left , is completely absorbed in consideration of , the horses engagements where to run them and what sort of races are best suited to j . them. Indeed, he may have to be a bor-: rower of the night for this purpose. For the judicious engaging and placing of the horses ! j require much careful study, as on them de- pends to a large extent the trainers success. It is easy to enter horses broadcast, but it j may prove a most expensive business to ones owners. A trainers is indeed a crowded and busy I life, but it is full of fascination for the lover of horses, and the man who likes the open , air and an active country life would find it , difficult to choose a better occupation than I this, in constant association with the noblest I of Gods creatures.
