ROAD DRIVING. 449 



failed against them with the circumstances reversed — and, that, 

 by such considerable distances, and with such ease, as showed 

 the cause to be indisputably the nature of the surface-. 



There is more reason for dwelling on this point, because it 

 is exactly the reverse of what is generally believed to be the 

 case, by tyros ; and because nothing so common as to hear it 

 said — " Oh ! here is a nice stretch of ten or twelve miles, on a 

 dead level ; now is the time to make play " — and to see the 

 string administered, and the horses put along at a spanking 

 pace, over ground which is only less severe than a direct, up- 

 hill dead-pull. 



On a gently rolling road, by letting the horses go down the 

 descent at a good fair trot, with their traces loose, a little faster 

 than it is necessary in order to keep them well ahead of the 

 carriage, the latter will have gained such an impetus that it will 

 follow them over the bottom and up the first part of the next 

 ascent, by its own previously acquired velocity ; and up to, and* 

 even over, the top, by the mere tightening of the traces, with- 

 out any thing like a hard collar-pull. 



This is the way in which a good whip, by merely holding 

 his horses sufficiently in hand to ]3i'event their breaking away 

 with him, or coming down in consequence of treading on a 

 rolling stone, will get over a country with just one-half the 

 distress which will be inflicted by another on his horses, who, 

 seeming to be more steady and more cautious, by making his 

 team hold back the carriage, when there is no occasion to do so, 

 will give them the unnecessary double labor, first of holding 

 back the descending, and then dragging forward the ascending, 

 load, by dint of direct expenditure of animal power, when, if 

 left alone, the same result would have been reached by almost 

 natural causes. 



In regard to watering horses, again, a great error is con- 

 stantly made, in two ways — first, in letting a horse become 

 partially cool, just enough to be half shivering, before giving it 

 the pail, and then in allowing it to drink a bucket, or even two 

 buckets full, at a draught. 



Unless water is intensely cold and fresh from a very deep 

 well, there is no danger in allowing a horse to take a few swal 

 lows, while he is in a glow of heat ; provided that he is put in 

 Vol. TI.— 29 



