FoK AND Ac-i/xsr Blinkers. 359 



The first objection would be sound if every driver trained his own horses, and could be 

 sure that every horse he purchased had been regularly driven without blinkers. It does not 

 make a horse restive to put on a bridle with blinkers, but one accustomed to a naked bridle 

 probably would become so. 



After giving the subject — ever since the American Rarey published his arguments against 

 the use of blinkers — a good deal of consideration, I have come to the following conclusions : 



That it is a good plan to break in horses to harness without blinkers, because, when 

 gradually introduced to the weight and noise of a carriage, they are much less likely to be 

 frightened if they can see what is going on, if you have plenty of time, and break them in 

 a light single carriage, without blinkers ; if you are hurried, you must use a break-horse and 

 blinkers. 



That there !s no objection to driving a single horse without blinkers in the country or 

 in town, if it be one of those bold or placid animals that are not afraid of anything, especially 

 of the waving whips of drivers met and passed, and that if he has a really handsome head 

 it cannot be bridled too nakedly. But the average harness-horses are very much afraid of 

 whips, and have large heads, which blinker-bridles improve by apparently diminishing their 

 size. 



That the objection to driving a pair of horses, as well as many single horses, is, that they 

 are always looking back, watching the driver, starting the moment he mounts his seat, and 

 flinching whenever he lays hold of the whip, so that he cannot touch the slug without exciting 

 the free-goer. 



That the advantage of blinkers, especially with high-bred, high-couraged fresh horses, full 

 of corn and beans, is, that they help to concentrate their attention on the road straight before 

 them, to render them in crowded streets less liable to shy to one side or the other on any 

 sudden display of any alarming objects. In an American pattern of harness introduced with 

 American horses by one of the tramway companies the blinkers are made to stand out. This 

 looks strange and ugly, but it has the advantage of hiding the movements of the whip and 

 not heating the horse's eyes ; he can see all before him, but not behind. 



That the eyesight of horses varies very much. Some fine goers, but timid shiers, are 

 obliged to be driven with a band of leather connecting both blinkers, thus only allowing them 

 to look down on their toes. There are racehorses of no mean merit that are run in blinkers, 

 and even with front shades. It is certainly an advantage, where horses used in harness are 

 also regularly ridden, that they should always wear the same kind of bridles — that is, without 

 blinkers. 



That where horses — for instance, those of a medical man in full practice — are driven fast 

 and hard every day, they become such steady machines that they may safely be driven in 

 almost any bridle or bits. But where they are objects of luxury and show they must be 

 endowed with a placid, sensible temperament, and have careful training, if they are to face 

 the crowds of the parks and streets of Londop in the season without blinkers. 



Messrs. Barclay and Perkins the great brewers, as well as the owners of most of the trotting 

 railway vans of London, have given up blinkers ; and many sets of plough and cart-harness 

 are to be found without them. But some persons urge as a reason for retaining them the 

 necessity of protecting the eyes of cart-horses from the whips of their own drivers. 



Any one who proposes to drive one horse, or a pair-horse phaeton, without blinkers, will find 

 a very obstinate opposition in the harness-makers, who are naturally opposed to every change 

 in the direction of that naked simplicity which is to be seen daily in the accoutrements 



