2 6 SPLINTER-BAR CH. Ill 



' we use in coaches is an excellent invention, as a 

 ' horse works in it from either shoulder, and of 

 ' course quite at his ease.' This, of course, refers 

 to the lead-bars, and shows that ' Nimrod' recog- 

 nises the importance of the principle. 



Le Noble du Teil (p. 349) thinks that with a 

 collar, the freedom of movement of the swindle-tree 

 is not important, although it is important with the 

 breast-collar, or bricolc, because the collar is pressed 

 forward alternately by the shoulders, and there is 

 pressure but not friction. This alternating pressure 

 must, however, tire the shoulders, even if it does not 

 rub the skin. 



After the preceding pages were written, I found 

 the following passage in Philipson On Harness, 

 p. 57, ed. 1882, written by ' Glencairn' (Colonel J. 

 P. Pedler) to The Field, in June 1878 : 



' A word about sore shoulders. I never drive 

 ' with anything but a swingle bar, and that not 

 1 fixed by a band of leather eight inches broad, 

 ' which defeats the object of a swingle bar, but by 

 ' a bolt running through it vertically, or by an eye 

 ' playing on a hook. I think a proper swingle bar 

 ' is a help to preventing sore shoulders, besides 

 ' having other and most important advantages. 

 ' Even in a four-wheeled carriage and with a pair 

 ' I always put swingle bars, and the following is 

 ' the best way to fix them, viz. : Put them on top 

 4 of the splinter bar, bring an iron support from 

 v the futchells to the top of the swingle bar, and 



