CH. XIV POSITION OF HAND AND ARM 303 



perfectly familiar with his team, and knows exactly 

 what he can do with them. 



The other extreme may be with a heavy, lugging 

 team which the coachman has never before seen, 

 with bad mouths and perhaps no one horse bitted 

 as he should be. The coachman must then keep 

 his hand down and his arm rather straight, or he 

 will be tired out in a short time. 



It is just the difference between riding a highly 

 trained horse with a very light hand and steering a 

 pulling brute across country with a snaffle-bit. No 

 doubt a fine horseman with good hands can take 

 the puller with one-half the exertion that a bad 

 horseman can, and at the end of the day will have 

 him pulling less than when he began ; in the same 

 way an accomplished coachman will drive a bad 

 team with less exertion than a poor one will, but 

 he cannot keep his hand and arm as high as with 

 a light team. 



The hand need never be higher than the elbow, 

 that is, with the forearm horizontal ; even this is 

 rather too high for ordinary work ; any greater 

 elevation is an affectation. Every now and then 

 the fashion comes up, especially in pair-driving, of 

 holding one or both hands up under the chin, but 

 for this there is no reason. In road work, and with 

 any but the most finely dressed park team, the 

 hand should come down to about the lower button 

 of the waistcoat, which will give the forearm a de- 

 cided inclination downward ; and the hand must be 



