A "MECHANICAL" PACER

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1933, Page 25

A "MECHANICAL" PACER

BALLOON TYRES AND CAS

Tho artificial and mechanical aid to speed allowed in connection with pacers has apparently no limitations (writes' "Sentinel"). Every ingenuity that can be possibly devised is allowed, and racing as an improvement to the horse as far as pacing is concerned stands today as an absolute farce.

The amount of gear worn by the average pacer (the writer continues) is nothing short of a joke to a' lover of a real horse. They carry gear from eartip to toe. Mufflers on the ears, plugged ears, blinds on the eyes, shadow shades on the nose, overchecks "to' hold up the head, standing reins to hold clown the head, side bars to keep the head straight, knee boots, cannon boots,' fetlock boots, quarter boots, hock boots, and similar gear both fore and aft as they say in nautical circles.

Some years ago the writer was so impressed with the amount of gear worn by horses seen during three days' racing-at Addington that the idea was conceived of imparting rigidity to hobbles. To carry the idea to full fruition a mechanical horse became necessary. A mechanical man that can walk and use ordinary gestures has been achieved. That indicated possibilities. A mechanical' horse looking like the real pacer ambushed by gear did not seem a particularly wild stretch of imagination. Then came the idea of a motor-propelled sulky pushing a mechanical pacer with rigid hobbles acting as pistons. Some may remember the story of an imaginary race the writer described