48 DRIVING AS I FOUND IT. 



Vicious as well as unsound propensities in the horse 

 frequently lay dormant for a \ ery considerable time. 

 When speaking of dealer's horses, I mean young ones. 

 I am quite satisfied that where one young horse does 

 mischief from vice, ten do it from alarm, and there 

 is no telling what a frightened horse will attempt to 

 do. Be is a hundred times more difficult to control 

 than the vicious one. A coachman may have driven 

 his carriage for years in perfect safety in all situa- 

 tions and may be an excellent coachman, but if he 

 suffers himself to forget he has hold of a pair of 

 young ones without any other fault on his part, he will 

 get into certain difficulties and danger, if not worse. 

 The sudden stroke of the whip to a young horse who 

 lias, perhaps, never before felt it, would set him 

 plunging at once. Going more rapidly down hill than 

 they have been accustomed to do will alarm them, turn- 

 ing very sharply round a corner brings the other horse 

 according to the turn right and left, suddenly on the 

 pole, and confuses him. That most cruel and uncoach- 

 manlike practice of pulling up horses sharp at the door 

 throws them suddenly upon their haunches, causes 

 their feet to slip and unless their mouths are made 

 of cast iron severely injures them. There can be no 

 doubt that the numerous accidents New Yorkers see 

 and daily hear of — I wonder there is not more — ^three 



