Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1899 — HAVE HOT BATHS FOR HORSES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAVE HOT BATHS FOR HORSES.

South Dakota Trainer Wrfects an Equine Ba thin a Place. James I. Welo of Yankton, S. D., has a Turkish bath for his horses. What is Rood for man must be good for the horse, was the argument uppermost in Mr. Welo’s mind when be began to work out his idea for the treatment of tired race horses by the Turkish bath method. If a wearied business man can get freshened up, revivified and restored to his former buoyancy by being parboiled; rubbed, scrubbed and kneaded and then vigorously toweled and put to rest on a slab, why should not the condition of a thoroughbred be improved by the same process? The argument appealed to local racing men tas sound and logical, and Welo was (encouraged to concentrate his mechanical powers on an apparatus that would be suitable to perform the “Turkish” process of stimulation of tired muscles

at the race track or in connection with the traveling stable. The finished work’ is a complete vapor bath that is portable and will permit of trainer or attendant giving his horse a Turkish bath immediately before a race is run and send him to the starting post keyed up to the very pitch of perfection, or, as he comes off the track in a steaming sweat, he can be led off to the bath, boxed up, partially boiled and taken out to the compartment where the rubbing down process is z to be carried on. TWaccompanying illustration shows the/exterior and interior of what may be/called the “hot room” of Mr. Welo’s Turkish bath for horses. The animal is led to the double doors that afford entrance to the apartment. He is allowed to put his head and neck through an aperture in the front of the bath, so that the hot air shall in no way be dangerous to his lungs; the doors are then closed on his flanks, and he stands enveloped in vapor that curls around his glossy skin and opens up a hot and wholesome pathway to horsy health. The possibility of Improving the condition of a racer by giving him a hot air bath may have occurred to the owners of thoroughbreds before, but it is so difficult of accomplishment that it has never been carried out. A horse cannot be led into a hot room and made to* keep still during the sweating process. It is none too easy to get a human being, to whom the luxury of a Turkish bath is a novelty, to stay the requisite length of time in the hot room. To expect a highly strung flyer of the race track to stand still while being half boiled alive was out of the question. The device designed by Mr. Welo for giving his horses a Turkish bath provides for all this. With the equine’s head in the open air the horse is prepared to submit with a good grace to warmth at his flanks. In case of the animal, however, exhibiting wildness, a rope can be attached to rings fitted to the hot room, wlilch will prevent the animal from trying to bolt through the aperture Intended only for the head.

TURKISH BATH FOR RACE HORSES.