The Harness Morse 



tried my hand at it, and was surprised to find to 

 how light a touch the horse responded. It re- 

 quired the same kind of gentle firmness that the 

 leader of a tandem does. When the leader turns 

 round and looks you in the face, it is often not so 

 much because of any vice on his part as on account 

 of the weight of the driver's hand. The beauty 

 of a tandem is, that if you have two animals you 

 can drive tandem at almost no additional cost. 

 Leader harness with bars is not very expensive. 

 I say with bars, because that is by far the pleasantest 

 and safest way of attaching the leader, and because 

 with bars you can turn in a much smaller space 

 than is possible with long traces. I think the bars 

 look smarter, and they tell you how much work 

 your leader is doing more accurately than if you 

 use the long traces. But, of course, that is a 

 matter of taste. 



The first thing to do in learning to drive is 

 to make yourself acquainted with the harness. 

 Every separate bit of harness should be studied in 

 its relation to every other part. A great number 

 of accidents happen every year because harness 

 either does not fit or is carelessly put on. A 

 driver with any claims to coachmanship should be 

 able not only to harness or unharness a horse, a 

 pair, or a tandem, but to take a set of harness to 

 pieces and put it together again. There are num- 

 bers of small things that may happen. The 

 horse's back may be pinched by the saddle or the 



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