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HINTS ON HOUSES* HARNESS. 
By Edwin Hill, M.R.C.Y.S., Nottingham. 
“ A righteous man regardeth his beast, but the tender mercies of the 
wicked are cruel.” 
Custom is a perverse enemy to all advancement, and 
possesses no greater stronghold than it does among horsemen ; 
thus the harness of horses, as now used, has made little pro¬ 
gress as regards workmanship and embellishment, custom 
rebelling against any innovation (i. e. improvement). 
Harness should be made as light as possible compatible 
with strength and durability, so as not only to lessen the 
burden of the horse but to allow greater comfort. The dis¬ 
continuance of those large unsightly leathern collars, as for¬ 
merly worn by agricultural and carriers’ horses, is a step in the 
right direction. 
There are many of the parts appertaining to a complete set 
of harness calling for reform; but as I shall only interfere 
with such portions where improvement suggests itself, my 
remarks will be confined, in this paper, to winkers, collars 
and bearing-reins. 
Commencing with the smaller evil, I ask what benefit 
“ winkers” confer on a horse other than enabling him to 
catch the dust in his eyes, and preventing him from seeing 
what he is doing. Custom will reply that if a horse is worked 
without winkers he will be affrighted when he hears the 
noise of and sees the vehicle behind him. 
I cannot realise why a distinction is drawn between saddle 
and harness horses—why the latter should and the former 
should not wear them. 
Admitting that you have more command over a horse when 
in the saddle than from the box, which is asserted to be the 
reason for the non-necessity of winkers in saddle horses; surely 
this should not subject a horse taken from riding and put to 
driving purposes (and many horses are as they advance in 
age) to the evil of being demi-blindfolded. How is it that 
in the Field Artillery, Army Service Corps and other 
branches of the service, that the lumbering guns and w r aggons 
with burnished accoutrements do not frighten him ? And a 
field gun travelling over uneven ground at a rapid pace 
creates a considerable din. Why, from the absence of winkers 
the horse can see what is behind him and knows that it is an 
inanimate body, which will do him no hurt, having examined 
