i go ANNALS OF THE ROAD. 



bars. Nothing looks so bad as to see leaders a long 

 way from the end of the pole. Great attention should 

 be paid to the equal length of the traces. 1 With respect 

 to the leaders, it is necessary to cross their traces when 

 you have one strong and one weak horse together. The 

 strong horse helps on the weak one, and keeps the 

 draught more level ; or, as the coachmen say, ' he helps 

 on the other side of the coach,' which is true enough ; or, 

 in other words, it prevents angles — the greatest obstruc- 

 tion to draught. Many coachmen lap their leaders' 

 traces in wet weather, as it prevents their galling their 

 sides by the friction, which is increased by wet and dirt 

 working up between the trace and the skin. Lapping 

 and crossing traces are two distinct things. In crossing, 

 the inside trace of one horse hooks on to the inside bar 

 of his partner ; but, in lapping, it only passes inside the 

 other horse's trace, and returns to his own bar. In the 

 the latter case, the lapped trace should be somewhat 

 longer than the other, to enable the horse to work even ; 

 for, if he do not work even, a sore shoulder is a certain 

 consequence. 



It is most material that the traces of wheel horses 

 should be exactly level, for the reason I have before 

 stated. Some splinter-bars (or wheel-bars, as they are 

 called by others) are not quite straight, but have a little 

 curve inwards at each end. When this is the case, the 

 outside trace of a wheeler should be a hole longer than 

 the inside one. With leaders, this minute exactness is not 



1 The wheelers' inside traces should be one hole shorter than the outside, 

 to enable them to pull straight. — Editor. 



