HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 119 



prevent them running back, then back the horse until you can 

 put the outside trace, which must always be done first, on to 

 the roller-bolt ; next take the inside trace off his back, where it 

 has been laid, and reaching over behind his quarters slip 

 it on as quickly as you can; then pole up to the desired 

 length of chain, the hook of which must be pointed down- 

 wards, into the proper link. For town or park driving, horses 

 may be poled up mode- 

 rately short, but for fast 

 work, long journeys, or 

 road-coaches, the pole- 

 chains must have plenty 

 of play in them, or else 

 sore withers and nume- 

 rous other ailments will 

 ensue. The wheelers 



Excitable Leaders. 



must now be coupled. Next back your leaders into their places; 

 they had better be already coupled, and it is quite as safe, if 

 not safer, to run their reins through the wheelers' tenets before 

 their traces are put on. With excitable leaders this is some- 

 times absolutely indispensable. Some people lap their leaders' 

 traces, which means that one leader's inside trace laps round 

 the other leader's, and then returns to the cockeye of his 

 own bar ; others cross their traces, which is a modification 

 of the last plan, and means that the inside traces merely cross 

 each other and are then fastened to their companion's bar ; 

 others connect the leading bars with two or three short links of 



