FOUR-IN-HAND DRIVING 



to settle and to show you possibly how they like 

 things ; they may have reasons which you don't 

 appreciate (and be right at that). Above all 

 things, don't be eternally changing couplings, 

 bittings, and bits. One very well-known ama- 

 teur carries in his coach a bag of all sorts of bits, 

 and the occasion that does not find him changing 

 them two or three times all round is marked as a 

 day lost. If horses drive pleasantly in simple 

 combination, let it go at that, and never provoke 

 trouble that you could have avoided, or tamper 

 with mouths already amenable. 



The horses " put to," wheelers well poled up, 

 and both pairs coupled close (for a beginner, as 

 they turn and stop more easily), we come to 

 the reins and their manipulation. The conven- 

 tional method, acceptably correct, is to place the 

 near lead over the left forefinger, the off lead 

 between the first and second fingers ; the nigh 

 wheel between the same two fingers, and below 

 the off lead, and the off wheel between the sec- 

 ond and third fingers. The only advantage of 

 this method is that you may take either pair back 

 a trifle more easily than in any other way, but 

 only a very trifle, and an immaterial one. The 

 loopings are made by taking the desired rein in 



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