HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 135 



Sit by the side of a good coachman when you can, and take 

 advice when you can get it ; much knowledge of driving can 

 be gained by seeing a good coachman drive. 



Never drive with your reins too long. It is much better to 

 hold the reins three inches too short than three inches too 

 long. If a horse stumbles when you have much 'slack out,' 

 it is long odds against saving him from a fall ; and if a horse 

 shies, your team may get into confusion, for if your reins are 

 too long you cannot so quickly gain the command over the 

 horses that you ought to have. 



Take the draught off the leaders' traces before turning a 

 corner ; if you do not do this, your leaders may pull you on to 

 the post if they turn quicker than you expect. 



Before turning a corner, give the leaders a gentle hint, by 

 slightly feeling the rein, of the direction you intend to take. 



Never go fast off the top of a hill ; you may get safely 

 down almost any hill if you go slowly off the top. 



Be careful about shortening your reins when going down 

 hill, for if you get a rein twisted in your hand it ma)rget you 

 into trouble. 



It is rather a common fault with beginners to allow the 

 leaders to do too much work. It is a melancholy sight to see 

 the leaders with tight traces pulling steadily at the bars, and 

 the wheelers with slack traces and a tight hold of the pole- 

 chains, yet you may sometimes observe this in London, the 

 man on the box holding the reins meantime apparently quite 

 contented. 



The first thing to learn in driving is to drive the horses 

 with a light hand, but at the same time to drive them, well up 

 to their bits, and make them share the work equally. With a 

 good coachman a coach will rattle along as if it were light ; 

 with a bad coachman it will appear as heavy as a loaded waggon. 



In the old coaching days the coachmen generally kept good 

 time, but the horses driven by all the coachmen were not 

 equally fresh at the end of the week ; on the same road some 

 men's horses were much more jaded and worn than those 



