8o 



HINTS ON HORSES 



The manner in which a horse stretches his 

 harness is, after all, the chief criterion by 

 which a driver may be judged. 



In single harness there is not much to 

 note. Should, however, a horse appear coming 

 downhill with tight traces, it may be safely 

 assumed that the pace will keep increasing, 

 and the difficulty of clearing an obstacle at 

 the bottom be considerable. 



With a pair, if the horses are equally strong, 

 each horse should do his fair share of the 

 work. 



In breaking a young horse, it will be 

 noticed that the old stager, who is put in to 

 convey his experience to the beginner, does 

 all the work of starting, but as soon as the 

 pupil begins to feel the collar, the old hand 



gradually hangs back, until eventually his 

 traces are quite slack. 



In sketching a team, note two things, the 

 reins and the traces. 



In starting, if the leaders stretch their 

 traces first (Fig. 49), they will pull the coach 

 on to the wheelers, who will promptly hang 

 back as if going downhill. The driver will 

 pull on the reins to stop the leaders ; but the 

 leaders' reins being too long, he will still 

 further pull the wheelers back, without, 

 perhaps, ever getting a proper feel of the 

 leaders' mouths. 



The weight on the leaders' shoulders will 

 then become too much for them, and they 

 may jib o-r rear. In any case, for some time 

 the drive will be thoroughly uncomfortable. 



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