124 DRIVING. 



here all recognised rules and laws at once break down. The 

 chief particulars, however, to be attended to are, that you have 

 got your horses ready, no rugs to be whipped off when you are 

 gone, and, above all things, no officious individual holding on 

 to any of their heads. A rug being snatched off has often 

 caught a leader's rein and pulled it back, and that and the 

 above-mentioned officious individual are the causes of making 

 many bad starts, and of many honest horses becoming jibbers. 

 Be as quiet as you can, and do not attempt to make a move 

 until you know for certain that it is ' all right.' Nothing annoys 

 a high-couraged horse, and nothing makes a bad-tempered one 

 worse, than starting, stopping, and having to start again. 



If you have begun with your reins exactly as you mounted 

 the box with- them, the near-wheeler's rein being, for choice, a 

 trifle shorter than the off-wheeler's, you will find that there will 

 be little alteration required that cannot be done in a moment. 

 Should the leaders be not going quite straight, say hanging a 

 little to the near side, by shortening the off-leader's rein, or 

 quicker still, by pushing back the off-leader's and near-wheeler's 

 (they are both together between first and middle fingers, and 

 therefore very easy to manage), you have them straight at once. 

 In shortening your reins never pull any single rein from the 

 back with your right hand through your left, always //tf/! /"/ back 

 from the front. Only to avoid an accident, such as some one 

 running into you, or all the horses making up their minds to 

 go at once, is it allowable to pull ah the four reins together 

 back in a bunch from behind ; then and only then. The reasons 

 for this are obvious. The practice of lifting up, pulling back, 

 and changing reins causes more to be dropped than any other 

 bad habit. Looping the reins must be learned from a professor 

 who is well able to instruct. Experiments made by an amateur 

 from what he may read in a book would most probably prove 

 disastrous. 1 



1 It is, however, often advisable to shorten your wheel reins from behind 

 your hand. For instance, if you find they are too long, and your wheel-horses 

 are more free or impetuous than your leaders. B. 



