238 ONE-REIN DRIVING 



until your arms ache ; but, on the other hand, it is far from 

 being the delightful feel of the school method, where there 

 is a fine and delicate but constant appreciation by the 

 man of the horse's mouth, and by the horse of his mas- 

 ter's mood and wishes. It is certain that no school airs 

 could be taught with a bit of which the horse is as shy as 

 he is of the cowboy's and the Arab's ; and I have noticed 

 that in the fantaslyas of which anon the Arab is wont 

 to make his bit less severe, if it is of the kind he can alter, 

 or else to use an easier one. Nor could school airs be 

 taught to a horse capable of boring on your hand. 



While speaking of guiding by the neck, I will mention 

 a very queer way the Arabs have of driving with a single 

 rope, one almost as peculiar as our own way of driving an 

 army mule-team. The horse or mule so driven wears only 

 a rope-halter, from which the rein-rope passes back to the 

 cart on the nigh side of the neck. He has a very high, 

 round saddle to bear the cart-shafts. If the driver desires 

 to turn to the left, he simply pulls the rope. If to the 

 right, he tosses the rope over to the off side of the saddle 

 and then pulls. This pull bears the rope against the nigh 

 side of the horse's neck, and thus turns him to the right. 

 In other words, the horse is taught to guide one way by 

 the neck and the other by the rein. This is common 

 enough under saddle, but the method of driving seems 

 original. 



In our old Civil War times the method of teaching mules 

 to turn to right or left was wont to be more speedily effi- 

 cacious than reasonable. The nigh mule of the pair of 

 leaders had a single rein buckled in the nigh ring of the 

 bit. The off mule had a bar from the front of the nigh 

 mule's collar to his own bit, so that he must turn, nilly 

 willy, with his mate. To turn the pair to the left the rein 

 was steadily pulled ; the near mule had his head brought 



