In The Sulky Forum
General Category => General Harness Racing Discussion => Topic started by: Wilderness on April 23, 2013, 07:32:27 PM
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This is a bit long for this forum, however it's a very interesting point of view, and well expressed.
From Mar 29, 1950 Harness Horse:
Readers Comments
It is not astonishing to observe recent criticism and suggested correction for the driving of harness horses. The writers' desire to improve conditions and honesty is not questioned, but their suggestions are not practical. Surely in many cases they do not know whereof they speak, and if they had the knowledge of what is required to get a horse to give his all they would take an entirely different view. Race horses, like human 'beings, are of many different temperaments. Some will give their all under one style of driving, while other require strenuous teaming to give their test. Those who grew up when horses were in regular use on the road, the field and in the cities, often with six and eight horse hitches, entertain a different view based upon years of practical experience.
We know some horses that are foaled even tempered and from the first education to harness to the grave are agreeable. Others foaled upon the same farm the same year, handled by the same horseman are as full of cussedness as the others were of kindness. Discipline and different handling are required to convert a virtual outlaw into a usable horse, including some pretty harsh methods, to subdue an ugly, determined, contrary, raring, plunging, striking, biting and kicking horse. The would-be reformers would be very bitter about these methods, but something has to be done.
I have witnessed harness racing for many years, have bred, trained and raced them and I predict that if the future of horse racing shall be dictated by those that have a basket heaped up and running over with theories as to just how drivers should drive, they would wind up doing more whipping, kicking and so-called disgraceful driving than present-day drivers. The late John Hervey used to say "Theory is 99% based upon very questionable premises, so much so that a covered wagon can drive through them in many places."
Whipping the number canvas, cracking the whip upon the shaft and hopples so often necessary add to popular hairraising finishes. Required moderation by a few of the bike drivers would dampen the race-goers pleasure and enthusiasm. The overflow gate receipts are a testimony to the tight finishes and good contests, using energy and skill, with or without the whip; the ones that excite favorable comment around the "hot stove league" when the white carpet takes over the green.
Top drivers bring every known trick into play to win and often without the lifting, encouraging and whipping the heat would have been lost and the owner would be justified in registering a kick. What is wanted by the public is an honest to goodness contested horse race, with one hand or both hands, whipping or no whipping, hopples or no hopples. We will always have with us this, that and the other thing that is wrong and will want something else, but it should be remembered that there are a lot of people in hell who would like to have some ice water and a change.
On Friday, September 9, 1949, I witnessed a brilliant driving feat the third heat of the $9,420 Hoosier Futurity. In a nip and tuck battle with ten starters, Mighty Grattan, driven by Dr. Parshall won the first heat in 2:062/5, only to bow to Miss Kay Song the next trip in 2:08. In thefinal, coming at a terrific clip, Miss Kay Song was a full halflength in front a hundred feet from the wire and' Mighty Grattan appeared to have faltered. At just the right moment, Parshall seemed to literally pick Mighty Grattan up, slashed him with the whip, lifted and hit him. once more and just threw him under the wire to win.
Certainly Mr. Hayes could not have faulted the Doctor's whipping finish to win the heat and race. The packed stands were on their feet in a flame of excitement, applauding wildly for the brilliant display of teaming, a finish the like of which many may never see again. Now such an accomplishment may be faulted by the tender whop multiply words without knowledge.
It is also surprising that some should fault Good Time 3, 1:584/5, the 1949 Horse of the Year, because he wears the hopples. Good Time, in or out of harness, with or without hopples is the envy of 99 and 99/100% of those who can and do appreciate wonder accomplishments. Our group of Indiana horsemen would feel that THE HARNESS HORSE's attractive calendar of 1950 would have been incomplete had Good Time been omitted due to the squawks of the anti-hopple brigade. He not only looks the part of a champion, he looks like a million, and his honors are based on outstanding accomplishments.
I have owned horses of every disposition and when an oldtimer reads the objection and corrections favored 'by those of limited experience, he is compelled to quote "God forgive them for they know not what they do." I bred and raised a full brother and sister, the latter a good-acting animal, !but the gelding from birth till almost three was unmanageable, vicious as an angry lion, destroying harness, carts, shafts, trying to bite and kick everybody. Enough was enough and when patience had ceased to be a virtue I covered him with a blanket, fastened him to the manger with a chain and started in to work him over with another to dissuade him from endeavoring to destroy me. Drastic correction, yes, but it corrected. Otherwise he would have had to be destroyed, as do murderers in the electric chair. Thereafter this gelding welcomed my presence, never ripped-off another shirt, taking hunks of flesh with his desperate dashes and became a useful and average agreeable horse.
The know-it-all horsemen(?) that does not know anything about horses from experience, brushes aside solid accomplishments as they would a buzzing gnat. A real horseman does not have to be told how to drive. There will be some who will belittle the views expressed herein, but harness racing will grow in spite of them, aided by our favorite magazine, THE HARNESS HORSE, that will be in there pitching when criticism is useful and constructive
Yours sincerely,
D. E. HARRIS, Marion, Indiana