ON THE BOAD. 



87 



and the lines are held properly, it cannot occur. But in phaetons 

 and other low-seated vehicles, it is not easy to hold the lines out of 

 reach of a practiced tail-swinger. When it does occur, the best way 

 is to reach forward, seize the tail and liberate the lines at once. 

 Figure 51 shows a serviceable device for prevention. It consists of 

 a double loop A of copper wire, fastened to the brace-strap at its 

 junction with the back-strap. The reins are passed each through 

 one of the loops in the wire. 



Hanging out the tongue is a ridiculous habit, which comes from 

 various causes. A very effective preventive is the use of the bit 

 shown in figure 53. It is made of leather and in the back part of it 

 are fastened two small screw-eyes a little more than two inches 

 apart. A piece of stiff No. 10 wire, seven inches long, is bent to 

 two right angles, and an eye turned in each end and inserted in the 



Fig. 52. — ^HOME-MADE LEATHER TONGTTE-BIT. 



screw-eyes as shown. This lies lightly on the tongue, yet prevents 

 it from being thrust over the bit and hanging out of the mouth. 

 Various patterns of tongue-bits are in the market, each having a plate 

 or loop attached to the bit and resting on the tongue. But the 

 home-made leather bit is as serviceable as any. 



Shying is in most cases caused by imperfect vision. Some 

 horses are naturally " buck-eyed," as it is called, the lens of the eye 

 being too convex, as in short-sighted persons. An English gentle- 

 man who owned a horse of this kind had a pair of spectacles fitted 

 to its eyes, which were worn with much satisfaction to both driver 

 and horse, the latter never showing any further disposition to shy. 

 Other horses have their vision impaired by standing in dark or foul 

 stables, wearing badly-fltting bbnders, or by getting hay-seed and 

 dirt in their eyes when feeding from high racks. A horse is more 

 easily frightened by an object which it cannot make out than one 

 which it can see plainly. It vriU stand quietly near a railroad sta- 

 tion, and regard the hissing, screeching engines with perfect indiffer- 

 ence, but will spring aside in an agony of terror if a white calf or a 

 man in his shirt sleeves appears suddenly in a wayside field which it 

 is being driven past. Besides this involuntary shying from nervous- 



