HUMOURING THE HORSE.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 3, 21 April 1894, Page 11

HUMOURING THE HORSE.

Mr H. C. Merwin, in his “ Road, Track and Stable,” says that the peculiar success of American ,hprseArainers is due chiefly to the fact that tihey have consulted the equine nature; and, instead of subduing, the horse’s spirit, have, endeavoured to win his confidence. “ Instead of breaking colts,” he adds, “we ‘gentle’ them.” He has seen a high-spirited stallion, on the fourth occasion of its being in harness, going so kindly that the owner did not hesitate to take his child of three years with .him. ~ The case of Johnston, the famous pacer, illustrates what can be accomplished by humouring the sensitive equine disposition, “He was the most nervous horse ithat I ever saw,” writes John Splan, Ms trainer and driver, “and I found Hiat in shipping him about from one toack to another he became more nervous and .irritable.. If you left him alone in, the stable' he would tramp arouncLlike a: wild:; animal, and get * himself iii a,-sweat. •> If anybody went' into the.stall next’to him>>anck begabf

to hammer or make anything like a loud noise he would try to climb put of the window. Whenever a stranger stepped- into his stall he would gave a snort and back into the corner.”

With some difficulty Splan obtained the services of a quiet, faithful “ rubber,” or groom, called Dave. Dave procured a dog as additional company for Johnston, and those three remained inseparable through the.period of Johnston’s training. It was a matter of course that the groom should sleep in the stall, but he never left it, day or night, haying all meals brought there. Under this treatment Johnston rapidly improved. He became less nervous, ate better, and in the event lowered the pacing I'ecord to 2min. a' mark which has not yet been surpassed upon a regulation track.

All the great trotters have had their grooms. Goldsmith Maid, like Johnston, had not only a groom—“ Old Charlie but a dog. For five years Old Charlie was never absent from her stall exception two nights. “ They were a great family,” says Mr Doble, “ that old mare, Old Charlie, and the dog—apparently interested in nothing else in the world but themselves, and getting along together as well as you could wish. When it was bedtime Charlie would lie down on his cot in one corner of the stall, his pillow being a bag containing the mare’s morning feed of oats ; the Maid would ensconce herself in another corner, and somewhere else in the stall the dog would sti’etch himself out.

“ About five o’clock in the morning the Maid would get a little restless and h angry. She knew well enough where the oats were, and she would come over to where Charlie was sleeping and stick her nose under his head, and in this manner wake him and give notice that she wanted to be fed.”