ON DRAUGHT. 



421 



J^.n. 



Btantly do we see the efforts of horses paralyzed by misapplication of their 

 respective qualities ! In the preceding cut, (fig. 10,) for instance, which 

 represents a very common specimen of this, the light, muscular, little horses, 

 which is capable of considerable exertion, is nearly lifted from the ground, 

 and prevented from making any exertion, by the traces leading upwards; 

 while the feeble old horse, scarcely capable of carrying his own body, is 

 nearly dragged to the ground, and compelled to employ his whole strength 

 in carrying himself, and even part of the weight of the leader; so that the 

 strength of the one willing to work is not employed, and the other is so over- 

 loaded as to be useless. 



The mode of attaching the traces does not admit of much variety. The 

 shoulders have always been made use of for this purpose. 



Homer, who is supposed to have lived about 

 nine hundred years before Christ, describes 

 very minutely, in the twenty-fourth book of 

 the Iliad, the mode of harnessing horses at the 

 time of the siege of Troy, nearly 3,000 years 

 ago ; but if we suppose that his description was 

 taken from the harness in use in his own time, 

 it is still referring to a period about twenty, 

 seven centuries back. 



A simple strap, formed of several thick- 

 nesses of leather, so as to be very stiff, and 

 fitted well to the neck and shoulders, served 

 as a collar, as seen at A A, (Jigs. 11 and 12.) 

 A second strap, B B, passed round the body, 

 and was attached to the shoulder-strap at the 

 withers. At this point was fixed the yoke, C C, which was fixed to the pole. 



Ftg. 12. 



A pair of horses were thus yoked together, without traces or breechings, 

 as oxen are seen at the present time in many parts of the country. 



This was a simple arrangement, but by no means a bad one ; and it 

 would appear that they performed all the manoeuvres of cavalry with cha- 

 riots and horses thus harnessed. The pair yoked to the pole were called 

 yoked horses; abreast of these was frequently placed what was called an 

 outer horse, with a simple shoulder-strap or collar, FF, and a single trace, 

 GG, passing inside, as in Jig. 13. Sometimes there were two of theso 

 Worses, one on each side, eaqh furnished with his strap or collar and trace. 



