FOUR-IN-HAND DRIVING 133 



the chief part of the work, the leaders just, and 

 only just, carrying their bars. Nothing looks 

 worse than to see the leaders drawino- a coach 

 by themselves. It is also dangerous, since they 

 are apt to drag the wheelers on to their noses. 

 The whole art of coachmanship is summed up 

 in the power to make each of the four horses 

 do its share of the work. With a private team 

 of well - broken horses this is comparatively 

 easy, but the real art and pleasure of coaching 

 is surely to be found in working different teams 

 over a distance, and learning to make different 

 horses adapt their powers to drawing the coach 

 with ease to themselves and pleasure to their 

 passengers. 



To this end two things are necessary — 

 caution and nerve. No coachman worthy of 

 the name will neglect such precautions as may 

 be necessary to the safety of the coach. First 

 among these is care in descending a hill, for it 

 is during such descents that the worst dangers 

 arise. The coach should start steadily from 

 the crown of the hill at a slow trot, the leaders 

 doing no work at all. Nothing is more 

 dangerous and uncoachmanlike than for four 

 horses to go slinging down a hill with the 

 coach rocking behind them. Then if anything 

 goes wrong, an accident is a certainty. But if 

 the horses are started steadily off the crown 



