232 



ATTENTION. 



faster and farther than a large lieavy one. A very fat horse 

 is never fit to go fast. 



549.— Always keep the wheels of any carriage you drive 

 on the broadest and smoothest part of the road. The immense 

 difference that this makes to the draft will only be realised 

 by those who have tried it on any vehicle, propelled by their 

 own muscles, whether it be a perambulator, a bicycle, or a wheel- 

 barrow. 



550.— You may either teach your horse to depend entirely 

 on your guidance, and jjiek every inch of the road for him, or 

 you may encourage him to pick the best road for himself, and to 

 pass vehicles on the correct side, without much interference from 

 you, leaving his mouth alone as much as possible. The former, 

 when well done, is the best driving, and with some inferior 

 horses, is the only good driving, but it demands uninterrupted 

 attention to your horse, and spoils him for driving in the dark, 

 when he alone is qualified to pick the road. 



651.— A stumbling, sluggish horse, must not be left long to 

 his own devices. It does no good to stiffly rein him up, nor to 

 practice him over turnip fields, nor to hold his head staring up 

 to the sky, nor to punish him every time he stumbles, but it 

 does a lot of good to keep such a horse thoroughly awake, to give 

 him a wholesome fear of your whip, and to insist upon a lively 

 step with eyes on his work, his ears listening to your voice, his 

 head a little back, and his mouth paying attention to every move 

 of your rein. Such a horse is in fact more fit for the manners 

 and customs of a butcher's boy than for those of a gentleman, far 

 less of a lady. 



552. — Absent-minded, careless, inattentive drivers, often get 

 their horses into bad habits that are very difficult to ei-adicate. 

 One of the most common is a habit of boring to one side of the 

 road, and hanging perpetually on one rein. When such a habit 

 has been formed, it will take a lot of time and patience to cure 

 it. The first step must be to change the bit, which the horse 

 has learned to pay no attention to, and use something that will 

 introduce a totally different sensation to his mouth. Avoid curb 

 bits in this ca.?e, as with them a side pull is so much like a back 



