2 28 REINS CH. XI 



soft places will stretch. The greatest wear on the 

 lead-rein is where it passes through the pad-terret 

 of the wheeler. 



According to the dimensions given, about 40 

 inches of the ends of the reins will hang down be- 

 hind the hand, which is as it should be ; if there is 

 more than 40 inches, the ends will drop over the 

 edge of the foot-board on the off side, and be likely 

 to catch on the roller-bolt when the coachman is 

 getting up. The buckles of the coupling-reins will 

 be about 23 inches in front of the hand, near enough 

 to be reached for the purpose of changing the coup- 

 lings, and not near enough to bring the buckles 

 into the hand when taking the horses up short, : — 

 a serious fault with coupling-reins which are too 

 long, and one which results in getting a handful of 

 buckles at a critical moment, when pulling up sud- 

 denly. This is a very common fault of reins by 

 even good makers. It is better to have the buckles 

 too far away from the hand than too near to it ; 

 there is always a groom or a guard on a coach who 

 can change the couplings if necessary. 



It must be said, however, in favour of long coup- 

 ling-reins, that should the horses run away they 

 may sometimes be stopped by seizing the wheel 

 coupling-reins in front of the buckles and pulling 

 the wheeler's heads together. 



A loop is frequently sewed upon the coupling-rein 

 about 10 inches in front of the buckle, through 

 which the draught-rein passes. On the wheel-reins 



