72 DRIVING. 



quite an exception. For quick harness-work it is the opinion 

 of a large contractor and jobmaster, that it requires a very 

 good horse to do regularly fourteen miles a day. 



Coach-horses, which at the present time are better looked 

 after than in old days, and which generally command good 

 prices at the end of a season which lasts for less than six 

 months, travel on the average fourteen miles a day for five 

 days a week, the work being done in two stages, and the 

 pace about ten miles an hour. These horses are sometimes 

 supplied by contractors, but more usually bought by gentlemen 

 who manage the coach. 



I think, then, we may fairly say fourteen to fifteen miles 

 a day for a single horse or pair of horses, if continued five 

 days in the week, is very fair work, and only sound and good- 

 constitutioned horses will go on doing it regularly that is, 

 supposing the pace to be eight or nine miles an hour. Cobs 

 will, as a rule, do more work than horses ; but even those I 

 have mentioned in hard contract work do not do much more 

 than one hundred miles a week. 



These job-horses, it may be mentioned, are entirely manger- 

 fed, their hay being given in the form of chaff, and they 

 have as much as they can eat. 



For long journeys, perfectly level roads are more tiring than 

 those which are slightly undulating. It is always possible by 

 accelerating the pace towards the end of a hill greatly to lighten 

 the labour as well as to make a start in ascending the other 

 side of the dip. In driving long distances a great speed should 

 not be attempted, nor should horses be hurried at the start, 

 until they are warmed to their work. Before the end of the 

 journey it is desirable to slacken the pace in order that the 

 horses may be brought in as cool as possible. The maxims 

 given by old Markham in * The Way to Wealth,' published in 

 1731, are worth repeating. * When the days are extremely hot, 

 labour you horses morning and evening, and forbear high 

 noone. Take not a saddle off suddenly, but at leisure, and 

 laying on the cloth set on the saddle again, till he be cold. 



