INTRODUCTION. 7 



ever so slight a declivity, the coachman claps on his break ; 

 and the consequence is that the horse is always pulling, the 

 practical effect of which, so far as he is concerned, is that he 

 always seems to be going uphill. It should be the object of 

 the driver to make the horse's work as easy as possible and to 

 relieve him from this unnecessary strain. If the descent be 

 severe the break should of course be applied ; but coachmen 

 must discriminate, and there can be no doubt that most of 

 them are far too apt to employ this comparatively modern 

 convenience. 



With regard to the question of the proper length of the 

 coupling reins, they should be so adjusted that you can touch 

 both sides of your horse's mouth at the same moment. In 

 fitting this portion of the harness it is to be noticed that a 

 great deal depends upon the horse's neck. You may have a 

 pair of horses apparently the same length from the tip of the 

 nose to the root of the tail, and yet one horse's neck may be 

 four or five inches shorter than the other ; and it is extra- 

 ordinary what a considerable difference to the adjustment of 

 the coupling reins this makes. Without being present to point 

 out these things, it is impossible for any author to lay down a 

 hard-and-fast rule : it must be left to the common sense of 

 those who drive or put the horses to. 



A coachman will often find that, for some inexplicable 

 reason, a horse will wear himself in a different form one day 

 from what he will another, and when this is found to be the 

 case, the driver, if he has time, should pull up and alter the 

 coupling reins to meet the requirements for the moment. 



The rule already laid down with regard to driving with one 

 (the left) hand, so that the right may be available for shortening 

 or lengthening the reins, applies here as in the case of driving 

 one horse indeed, is more important with two or with four 

 horses than it is with one. 



In former times, when there was no break for carriages, 

 it was absolutely necessary for a man to drive with one hand, 

 because when going down a steep hill with a heavy load, and 



