POLING- UP AND BREECHINGS. 199 



it often causes a horse to play with his bit, and renders 

 his mouth lighter. When a coach horse gets a trick of 

 getting the cheek of his bit into his mouth, a round piece 

 of leather should be fastened to it to prevent him ; for 

 when he does so, he is dangerous, as no coachman can 

 hold him. 



POLING-UP AND BREECHINGS. 



The most dangerous horse of any in a coach is, what 

 coachmen call a ' stiff-neck'd one ' — that is, one which in 

 going down a hill, instead of inclining his head towards 

 his partner, and throwing out his quarters so as to place 

 himself in a position to hold back the coach, tzvists his 

 head the other way, looking, as it were, over one shoulder, 

 and with the other, what we call ' shouldering the pole,' 

 or pushing it against the other horse. When a horse 

 does this, pulling at him is useless ; and nothing will 

 keep the coach in the road but whipping his partner up to 

 him — and if that will not do — crossing the road quickly 

 with the leaders, which I shall explain in another place. 

 Numberless have been the accidents which horses of this 

 description have occasioned in hilly countries ; — for the 

 best coachman in England is at no certainty with them. 

 I cautioned a coachman against one of them in the — - — 

 Mail, a short time since, but he persevered with him 

 until he upset his coach, and mischief ensued. 



In answer to your correspondent's query respecting 

 pole piecing, 1 or poling-up, coach-horses, no general rule 



1 We make a verb or two now and then on the road. 



