Why is this horse backing up? Why is this horse not running like she used to? What happened here? The trainer watches the race replays again and again. The trainer has to figure it out. There’s always puzzlers. Just when you think you know a lot about a horse he’ll show you how stupid you really are.

You study the film to learn about the other horses, too. Some like to go to the front and they have enough staying power to close. Others like to come off the pace, come from behind. Some come on the inside. Some don’t like to be on the rail.

The best trainers work with what the horse wants to do. You want to see them bounce off the track, swinging their tail. You want a happy horse at the front of its stall, popping its head up, talking to you, nickering, cleaning up its feed.

You watch their ears — are they perked, happy? Pinned back, pissed off? Look at their eyes. A dog can have pleading eyes, begging eyes — it wants a biscuit. You look at a horse’s eyes — are they bright, alert? Or does it have a dull eye?

You see a horse at the back of its stall — that’s not good. That horse is starting to get sour.

THEY GET THEIR HEADS JERKED OFF

It’ll happen that an owner wants to see his horse run — don’t matter there’s no race written for him. He’s in town for the weekend and wants to show off to his friends. So he pushes the trainer to put a horse worth two thousand in a race for eight. The horse is outclassed. It’s going to get its head jerked off.

When a horse runs where he don’t belong, he runs dead last. You do it often enough, he starts to feel like a loser. He gets depressed. He’s sore and broke down because he’s running so hard to keep up with the better horses. Pretty soon he develops a sour attitude and stops eating.

To build the horse’s confidence back up, you pet him aggressively on the neck — Oh, good boy! You go overboard with the petting and hugging. He starts to think better of himself.

In morning workouts, you pick three companions and go head-to-head on the track at a gallop. When you give the signal, the other riders let you pull forward. It’s like a fixed race. Your sour horse gets a burst of winning feeling. You do it again and again, and after a while, the horse gets his heart pumped back up.

I THINK YOU’LL BE SAD

Director Dean — he was fathered by Charlie Stut, Doctor Stut, a really good horse, an old class horse, a fifty, sixty thousand dollar horse.