HOW TO DRIVE ONE HORSE OR A PAIR. 95 



in length and just tight enough to feel the mouth of the 

 horse gently. When starting off, either with a click 

 or slight touch of the whip, drop your left hand a little, 

 that is, push it a little forward so that when the horse 

 gets into his traces and extends his head and neck he 

 will not feel himself checked in his endeavors to start. 

 Some liorses, especially those with a bar or Liverpool 

 bit buckled down, and i)erhaps a tight curb, will baulk 

 or get out of temper. Double ring snaffles are the best 

 bits to use for cart work unless your horse is a very bad 

 l)uller and even then if used with a nose strap, the reins 

 buckled in the single ring will hold him. In fact I have 

 used them myself repeatedly on horses whose mouths 

 were calloused and hard from the severe use of a curb 

 bit. Some horses after pulling awhile against a curb 

 get their lower jaw numbed and lose all sense of feeling. 

 Now, having started off all right you might wish to take 

 your horse back a little or take a shorter hold of the 

 reins. If a lady or young person be driving they can 

 X)ull the reins through the fingers of the left hand which 

 is easily done by putting the right hand back of the left 

 and taking firm hold of the reins, at the same time push- 

 ing the left hand forward and so letting the reins slide 

 lihrough, the :^gers until the necessary lengtlh is 

 through. Do not separate the reins, that is, 

 holding a rein in each hand. You can do all the turn- 



