238 



DRAUGHT AND HARNESS. 



must, when suddenly called upon to stop the carriage 

 from a sharp trot, inevitably throw out their croups 



Fig. 21. 



in the direction h" h", which w^hen carried to excess is 

 no doubt very unsightly ; whereas by prolonging the 

 pole to the line y y they bring them only to h' h', and 

 if the pole be extended to z, then only to h h. It is, 

 however, also evident from the figure that by putting 

 a crosstree on the head of a considerably shorter pole — 

 as, for instance, at x x — the same useful efifect may be 

 produced as with the pole reaching to y y. In the 

 end it comes to this — the long pole and pole-chain, 

 like the long trace, would not suit town-work, and 

 therefore a crosstree is, as the 'Handy Horse-Book' 

 says, a very useful contrivance ; but by using a some- 

 what longer pole, moderately long traces, and pole- 

 chains to match, you will for country-work save your 

 horses' fore legs, shoulders, and hocks immensely — for 

 the freer and less hampered a horse goes in draught the 

 less will he suffer, and the longer will he be able to do 



