FOUR-IN-HAND DRIVING 



the course, etc., are excellent manoeuvres, and make 

 a man a better coachman in thirty days than are 

 half the " regulars " who have always driven only 

 on the roads. Rough horses, all kinds, are the 

 sort for learning from, and the meaner the better, 

 provided you don't set too much store by paint 

 and varnish, which can always be renewed. 

 Practice is the only useful way to make perfect, 

 and independence and sensible appreciation of the 

 real issues are the desirable qualifications; com- 

 petent performance is the criterion of individual 

 merit. 



The driving of one horse is nowadays, with 

 most of us, an acquisition of youthful days, and 

 usually performed in very slovenly style. The 

 American fashion of holding a rein in either 

 hand obviously does not tend to that delicacy of 

 manipulation which is so essential to competent 

 performance, and the fashion of one-hand driving 

 is gaining ground everywhere. The attitude has 

 much to do with proper performance, and the 

 slouchy charioteer is generally not driving his 

 horse, but " being taken to ride " behind him. 

 Proper bitting has as much to do with comfort 

 in handling one as four horses, and is a detail 

 generally disregarded, nor do we appreciate the 



227 



