92 DRIVING. 



bits ; and on the whole, horses perhaps suffer much less from 

 bearing-reins than from heavy hands and curb-bits. In double 

 harness, however, the employment of loose bearing-reins has 

 saved many an accident. If a pair of horses, or four, are 

 driven straight away for, say, ten miles, baited, and driven 

 home again, bearing-reins are often, it may be admitted, not 

 wanted ; but it is different with horses driven in the Park, and 

 those which have to stand outside shops or private houses, 

 while the occupants of the carriage are shopping or visiting. 

 Horses soon get warm under the bridle, and when they are 

 pulled up it is to the moist spot that the flies are attracted. 

 They cause a certain amount of irritation, and the horse natu- 

 rally enough scratches himself, or at least he would do had 

 he a hand for the purpose. He drops his head to the pole ; 

 and possibly gets the bit fast. Out comes the proprietor of 

 the carriage, or perhaps the policeman on duty appears with a 

 moving-on mission. The entanglement is not perceived till too 

 late ; the horse does not answer to the reins ; a collision occurs, 

 or perhaps the horse starts kicking and then falls down. When 

 the evening papers appear, the ubiquitous reporter will be 

 found to have sent in a paragraph detailing ' A singular carriage 

 accident at the West End.' This is no fancy sketch ; and a 

 bearing-rein which is short enough to prevent such a catas- 

 trophe is, at the same time, long enough to allow the horse un- 

 restrained freedom of the head. It is the abuse of bearing-reins 

 (which takes the form of the gag shortened to a cruel extent), 

 and not the use of them, which merits universal condemnation. 

 Breech-bands, or breechings as they are more commonly 

 called, are very useful in broughams, T-carts, and other 

 vehicles when a single horse has to stop a load, but they are 

 very little wanted in buggies, gigs, or dogcarts, except in very 

 hilly countries, where they are also still sometimes considered 

 an essential part of four-horse and pair-horse harness ; but 

 with the present improvements in breaks, they are seldom 

 required, are very unsightly, make more weight for the horses 

 to carry, and add to the cost of the harness. 



