The Death and Performances of Dispute. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2069, 19 October 1893, Page 30

The Death and Performances of Dispute. TO THE EDITOR.

Sib, — I wish to say a few words re a paragraph in "MazeppaV notes in a late Rsue of the Witness relating to the death and performances of Dispute, an animal which was an occupant of my stable for home considerable time. The writer is in error in describing Dispute as " a ■weaklyconstitutioned horse." He was without exception the hardest and possessed the best constitution of any horse I ever trained. I never knew him miss a feed, not even in physic, norhave a cold the whole of the time I had him intraining, and a gamer horse never looked through a In-idle. The real and only cause of trouble was in one of his fore feet, which had sustained am injury on board ship by being caught in some* iron, and which caused the foot to contract, and' it was not hereditaiy. Had this not interfered! at times in his preparation he would not hava been a second-class horse but a first-class one-, as he was from the b»st blood in the colonies. One of his best peiformances is alro omitted— wh^n, on account of not been able to get through his horses, he was beaten by a head by Heather Bell in the Spring fc takes when a field of 14 started, one mile over a wet course, in the fast time of ]mm 46see, the mare carrying only 0" !) The wiiter also says it was a great relief to Mr Arthur Smith when he left his stable. Mr Anderson's words were, '" Any time you like st'nd him home," and that gentleman's word is his bond. I should not have gone into the subject at such length had not the remarks been the cause of some annoyance to his late owner.— l am, &c, Arthur Smith. Macandrew street, South Dunedin.