96 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
means of which an angler transfers the shy but gamy 
trout from water to land. Nor is it necessary to 
mount a sulky in order to experience these delights. 
Mr. Vanderbilt drove Maud 8. and Aldine, harnessed 
to his road wagon, a mile in 2.153; at Cleveland, 
some years ago, a four-in-hand accomplished the 
same distance in 2.40; and a moderately fast horse, 
a moderately light wagon, and a smooth road supply 
all the necessary conditions for artistic driving. 
There is another function of the bit scarcely less 
important, and that is to encourage and restore a 
tired horse. When, at the end of a stoutly contested 
heat, two trotters are struggling for supremacy, they 
can be urged by the voice, reinforced either by the 
whip or by the bit. A coarsely bred, sluggish animal 
may, at this critical moment, require the lash, but its 
application to a beast of any spirit is almost sure to 
disgust and dishearten him. In some subtle way, 
however, when the driver moves the bit to and fro 
in the horse’s mouth, the effect is to enliven and stim- 
ulate him, as if something of the jockey’s spirit were 
thus conveyed to his mind. If this motion be per- 
formed with an exaggerated movement of the arm, it 
is called “reefing,” and it sometimes appears, when 
itis “neck or nothing,” at the end of a heat, as if 
the driver were actually “sawing” the horse’s mouth, 
whereas in reality, he is only giving the bit a loose 
but vigorous motion therein. 
At this point, it might not be amiss to state the 
conditions of a trotting race, for it is highly probable 
that to some of my readers the following explanation 
will not be superfluous. 
The race is over a mile track, almost elliptical in 
