CHAPTER XIX. 



DRIVINO. 



531. — Good drivers are far more common than good rider?, 

 especially in England. There is more demand for them. They 

 are often paid for taking other persons' safety in hand as well as 

 their own, and it is an art that can be learned, and learned well, 

 at any age. It is quite possible to sit alongside of an accomplished 

 driver, and to inspect all his movements ; all the calmness and 

 presence of mind needed is soon acquired by regular practice, 

 and anything like desperate daring is by no means desirable. A 

 driver's courage should always be tempered with a good, deal of 

 caution, and he should always choose safe ground if he can get it. 

 In riding the natural instincts of the horse ensure himself and 

 his rider against many an accident. In driving the instincts of 

 the young horse tell on the other side, so that they are more 

 likely to produce than to prevent mishaps. With no difficulty 

 about his own seat, a driver's eyes and hands soon learn to judge 

 distances accurately, and to steer steadily, whilst with well broken, 

 well matched, and daily worked horses, it is not at all a difficult 

 thing to drive them very well. 



532. — Still a very large portion of the drivers that get 

 through 'their daily drives with so much satisfaction to themselves 

 and their employers, are only fine weather pilots, who would be 

 utterly at a loss to know what to do with animals less highly 

 civilized than those in their care, or which did not answer the 

 simple signals with which they are accustomed to drive them, 

 and, which, in their blissful ignorance, they fancy that their 

 horses are obliged to obey. In many cases of the most showy 

 and applauded driving, almost everything has been done by the 

 educator, so that little is left for the driver to exercise any skill 

 upon. P 



