FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



eight hundred pounds of human beings ( if four 

 ride), and that down hills and with a leader to 

 possibly snatch him onto his knees, is inhuman, 

 and the S. P. C. A. might well take a hand. If 

 through any of these reasons your wheeler does 

 chance to fall, you will certainly find the landing 

 on your head and knees on stones or macadam 

 most unpleasant, and that is where you must 

 bring up. Undeterred by these prospects and 

 difficulties, it is a curious fact that pretty well any 

 one will get up and try to drive a tandem, where- 

 as if a four is offered they respectfully decline ; 

 the latter task being infinitely more easy of ac- 

 complishment. 



There are many performances which one may 

 go through with by himself, or with a friend to 

 prompt, that will forward him vastly in the art of 

 driving a team. Driving figure eights at a walk 

 and trot (finally holding the reins in one hand 

 only, and making all turns by moving the fore- 

 arm and turning the wrist and hand) is splendid 

 practice if a broad road or field can be had ; pull- 

 ing up at all sorts of unexpected places, upon 

 signal from a friend or servant on the coach ; 

 backing round in narrow lanes and yards, driving 

 through pegs and posts with many sharp turns in 



226 



