HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 117 



ments ; but in putting a team together there is one sine qua non 

 which must never be lost sight of : you must put your strongest 

 horse near-wheel, because and this is my first reason the 

 near wheeler has the hardest place in the coach ; for as you 

 go along a road you are certain to meet more vehicles than you 

 overtake, for you must meet them all, but you can only over- 

 take those that are going slower than you are. Therefore, from 

 the usual conformation of roads, which are always higher in the 

 centre than the sides, every time you meet anything your coach 

 runs down to the near side, and the near-wheeler has to pull it 

 out again ; for the same reason the formation of the road 

 if there be any difference, the near-side horses, both leader and 

 wheeler, should be the tallest. 1 



The length of the pole having been made to match the team, 

 or the team chosen to match the coach, the next thing is to 

 put them together ; and it must be always remembered that a 

 team well put together at first is half made at once. Altera- 

 tions will no doubt be necessary in the coupling reins, bitting, 

 &c., but if the traces and pole-chains are properly fittecT as re- 

 gards length at first, very slight changes need ever be made in 

 them afterwards. In nearly every road-coach, and in almost 

 all private drags of the present day, the horses, both leaders 

 and wheelers, are put very much too far from their work, in 

 most cases several inches, in many, without exaggeration, some 

 feet. The wheelers should be poled up so that they do not 

 come far enough back to touch the footboard when stopping 

 the coach or holding it back going downhill, but to place them 

 more than a foot beyond clear entails waste of power. The 

 leaders, when standing up to their collars, should be so far 

 in front of their bars that their tails, if long enough, should just 

 clear them when in action. Leaders' traces may be of equal 

 length, because the swinging of the bars rectifies any undue 

 strain, but the wheelers' inside traces should be what is called half 

 a hole shorter than the outside, because a wheeler naturally bends 



1 In posting it is better to have the riding horse, who is near side, less tall 

 than the hand horse. B. 



