Name: Jim Tracy Stables (Maximizing Your Horse's Potential)

Trainer: Jim Tracy

First licensed as a trainer: 1985.

College: State University of New York (A.A. Liberal Arts, B.A. Political Science).

Past employers: John Veitch (Trainer of three world champion thoroughbreds and the legendary Alydar, and a 2003 Hall of Fame Nominee); George Forshey, my uncle, (a 1998 Inductee into the Saratoga Harness Hall of Fame); Neal Shapiro (Silver Medalist in Equine Competition at the 1972 Olympics).

Our Mission: Superior Standardbred offers, at very reasonable rates, to feed, exercise and talk to your horses to get them used to human voice and contact, and to calm and encourage them to follow lead or stand still when hitched or groomed. I train horses for race using standards for gait, form and manner, and I break bad habits such as kicking, pulling, resisting bridling and running in and out of stalls. And, most of all, I maximize your horse's potential through kind, ethical treatment.

21st Century Training: I do a lot of reading and researching of racehorses and know it is important to be cognizant of the many ideas and approaches that are out there. I use the research to pick up pertinent information on training techniques, conditioning programs, swimming, new treatments, nutritional studies - virtually anything and everything related to the well-being of the horse.

Speaking Equus: I try to maximize the potential of the individual horse by making him as comfortable as possible. I feel that the horse is very intelligent, very emotional and sometimes suffers from phobias. The horse is trying desperately to communicate through his own language about how he wants to be trained, rigged and treated in order for him to be at his best. And the most successful horsemen listen to the horse's needs, and fulfill them in order to maximize their potential instead of fighting them - forcing them to be trained and rigged the way the trainer wants them.

Individualism: I use a variety of training methods, each one tailor-made to your individual horse's needs, including interval training, conventional training, Bill Robinson's everyday training, equi-cisor, swimming, walking, jogging, turn-out, physical therapy, grassing and riding under saddle.

Hands On: I believe you can't train a horse unless you're right there all the time. To get the most out of a horse you have to know them - know how much they eat, how quickly they eat, how much water they drink, how much they lay down - so when they start changing, you know if you're doing too much or too little to get the most out of them.