Chapter XXIV: An Equine Paradise

In striking contrast to the simplicity of Rensslaer's house was the vastness of these outdoor belongings, where was celebrated the cult, the worship, the very apotheosis of the horse, and yet the atmosphere was one of rest; the sunlight slanted through the green boughs that overhung the wall, the water sparkled in the centre, there were no signs of hurry, and but few visible of the small army that served the beauties in their stalls and loose boxes. There must be magnificent organisation here, thought Gay, as she noted the noiseless, perfect machinery--when a man was wanted, he sprang up, when not wanted, was not to be seen, and without raising his voice, Rensslaer's orders were implicitly obeyed--even for the "show" arranged that afternoon he had merely dropped a few words to his stud groom, and the thing had gone by itself.

As she moved from horse to horse, each with his famous name on the wall above, and below, a print of one equally famous, and in the centre, a superb medallion in marble of a famous trotter going at full speed, Gay admired the way they just turned their heads to look quietly at her, like the true aristocrats that they were. But Rensslaer was another matter--they knew him even better than he knew them, and manifested the most lively pleasure when he called each by name.

"Look out!" he exclaimed, as Gay approached a veteran of twenty-one years old, who was only retired for old age, after racing till he was nine, getting a record at 2.15, and then being driven constantly hard on the road till two years ago. "He won't let anyone but me go near him," explained his owner, "he bites everyone else. Each of these horses has worn out five or six of the English carriage horses that did not have nearly so hard a life"--and he explained that the American horse can do the work of two hackneys, his legs being as hard as iron.

Amongst the old pensioners, (as their master had never sold a horse that had done him good service) he showed Joe W., a horse seventeen hands two inches high, who was nineteen years old. He had driven him on the road twelve years, had raced, and only now retired him because he was getting old, though his legs were still perfectly sound and he had never been lame, except once from an overreach in a race. He had not been coddled, but whenever he was driven on the road, was pelted along at twenty miles an hour, however hard that road might be.

Only the pick of the horses were stabled there--about sixty were at a place too far off for Gay to visit, and she got bewildered when she found that the stable sheltered scores of horses collected from all points of the compass--English hackneys, American, Russian, and Austrian trotters, polo ponies, hunters, exhibition leaping horses, and harness ponies, but Rensslaer did not go in much for steeplechasing, and for what was done, the boy who had ridden just now, was responsible.

Gay sighed. What a little heaven to Chris, and what would not he and that other boy do--a pair of dare-devils--if pitted against each other! She dreaded, while she longed for him to know such bliss, and herein lay her inconsistency--that she herself loved horses, was happiest near them, yet would put a limit to Chris's far greater passion, as if it were to be measured by rule of thumb!

It was in this spirit that she asked Rensslaer to get him down later, but on no account to let him and the other boy meet, and Rensslaer laughed, and promised. He had already decided on making Chris a certain offer, and had great hopes that he might accept it.

Resuming their progress, he explained to Gay that his horses did one thing only--the trotters only trotted, the jumpers only jumped, and the horses went through special courses of medicine, and special courses of food on a strict system. To train a horse so that he shall be both heavy and fit, requires a refinement of training to which only the Americans have attained, and at Elsinore the most elaborate system of discipline was carried out, but in a kindly spirit, and the horse prepared for the life he had to lead. He took her off to the breeding paddocks, that had a lot of both American ex-champion trotting and "Pace and Action" mares, and also prize hackney mares, all with foals by trotters and hackneys, his idea being to breed, besides racing trotters, for racing on the Continent, show horses which should have more speed and quality than the hackney, whilst retaining their action, and to this end he crossed the American trotter with the hackney.

"If my attempts to improve the English hackney by giving him some of the pace and action of the fast trotting horse should be crowned with success, I shall be satisfied," he told Gay, and he pointed out a foal that looked like a thoroughbred, and moved like a trotter with hackney action. In fact, most of these cross-bred foals looked the ideal carriage horse--good whole colours, great quality, long necks, very high action, great speed, and perfect manners, and there was never any difficulty in breaking them. Then came an inspection of the racing sulkies, which had an extra low seat so as to come round the turns better; then there were the long-shaft sulkies for a horse who has high action, and makes the ordinary sulky bob up and down, the jogging carts for exercising in, and the four-wheeled, single-seated racing wagons, called speed wagons, used by gentlemen driving in the States for Matinée or Amateur Trotting races. This obviates the necessity of spreading the legs apart on each side of the horse, and for some horses this does not diminish their speed, in fact they can go faster in a wagon than in a sulky, in spite of the extra weight, as it runs smoother, and does not hamper them.

Rensslaer next took Gay to the outdoor training school, which is specially designed for the education of jumpers, on the inner side of which was a platform from which the attendants controlled them, and she watched them run loose on the track, jumping heavy tree trunks, fences, and other obstacles, and if they failed in their riderless freedom to clear them, they gained experience in the tumble that ensued, which served them well later.

She was shown how a horse is made familiar with the trials and the terrors of the road, and is taught to understand them. A machine that makes a noise like a score of motors all going at once, convinces the animal that the hateful thing means no danger to him, and quick to take a hint as his nature is, he approaches with confidence and freedom the tasks he has to face in his curriculum, and is soon well-equipped to face the emergencies of his career.

Then followed an extraordinary exhibition of skill in which Rensslaer was evidently keenly interested, that consisted in the lassoing of a supposed vicious horse by long reins held in the hands of the _Haute École_ rider, so that he is brought first to one knee, and then another, and rendered helpless, and the lesson taught him that force is of no avail against brains and cunning.

Gay sighed when at last they left the great quadrangle, steeped in the peace of the evening hour, and visited the yard where choice Belgian griffons and Pomeranians yelped in ecstatic chorus when Rensslaer approached their kennels--yet much as Gay loved dogs, she could not admire them like the beauties she had just left. Moreover, it was growing late, and they entered the house.

When she had dug out the Professor, still dead to the world, and asking nothing better than to remain dead, they had tea, and departed.

"Really a most remarkable individual, my dear," said the Professor, for a man who could do all the varied things his host could, and yet have the brains and taste to collect such books as the Professor had been gloating over, was not to be met above once in a lifetime. "In _his_ case, success is not due to his wealth."

"In spite of it, you mean!" cried Gay. "If it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it's a million times more difficult for him to live his own life, act up to his ideals, and fulfil the genius that is in him. The world won't _let_ him as a rule."

"And to think that such a man as that should keep _Trotters_!" said the Professor, who, if he thought at all of what Gay had been doing that glorious June afternoon, concluded that she had enthused over something a trifle better than the weedy specimens he had seen at Waterloo Park.

But Gay sat very still, thinking. She had found herself admitted to a paradise hitherto undreamed of; it was as if, seeking a single diamond, she had found a Golconda, and something of Chris's passion for horses had been breathed into her ... they were so much, much more beautiful than humans, more clever even in some respects ... with one-half of her soul she worshipped, with the other half feared them, as the real rivals to her happiness.