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is approaching on the other. To turn a right angle you must have space accordingly, and it is better to make use of that which you see insured to you than to be depending on that which is uncertain.

It is hardly necessary to remark that it is infinitely safer to make your turns at a slow pace than faster. Turning quickly round corners is reckless work, but the faster your pace the more necessary it is to get to the wrong side of the road when turning to the left before you make your turn to the new, or before entering a narrow gateway or passage. When the turn is to the right, you will keep to your own or left side of the road.

Where a narrow gateway has to be entered with four wheels, having brought your vehicle fairly in front of it, place your pole directly over the centre or bolt stone; in the absence of this guide, mark with your eye some object in the centre, and bring your pole right over it. The wheels will take care of themselves, if there is at all room for the carriage.

With single harness the horse is brought direct at the gate, and kept very straight, his hind feet passing over the centre object.

In driving through crowded streets or in a narrow way, especially with vehicles coming rapidly towards you, and every prospect of a collision, take a stronger hold of your horses, and moderate your pace, remembering that, if you cannot avoid grief, the less the impetus the less the crash, if it should come. This result is amusingly exemplified by the stage-coachman's definition of the difference between the results of road and rail accidents. Coachey says, 'If even an upset occur on the road, there you are; but if an accident takes place by rail, where are you?"

Remember to collect your horses well in hand before

you alter your course on the road, or to cross it, in order to have them alert and handy for any emergency.

When travelling in damp weather, the roads being sticky, half wet and dry, your horse requires saving and consideration, no matter to what extent the wind may be blowing, if it goes only in the same direction as himself. When the roads are perfectly dry with a light wind blowing against your horse, he travels under the more favourable circumstances.

Neither blinkers nor bit should ever, upon any consideration, be removed from a horse while he is attached to a carriage, whether to feed or for any other purpose. Want of caution in this respect has been a fertile source of most serious accidents.

When a horse falls irretrievably in harness, the driver should avoid leaving his seat till some assistant can go to the animal's head, who, placing his coat or some soft substance between it and the road, to prevent injury to the eyes, presses one or both knees lightly on the neck, but so as to prevent the beast from rising; which done, the driver can get down from his seat, and, availing of all the aid he can procure, frees all the harness as rapidly as possible, and, running back the carriage from the horse, assists him to rise. To disengage buckles easily in such cases, instead of dragging at the point of the strap in the usual way, force both ends of it to the centre of the buckle, which will cause the tongue to turn back, and so free the strap.

When a fall in harness occurs on slippery pavement such as some of the London streets, or in frosty weather, before the horse is permitted to make any effort to rise, some ashes, dry clay, sand, sawdust, hay or straw, or even any old rug or piece of cloth or carpet, should be

so placed as to prevent him from slipping in his ineffectual and distressing endeavours to recover his legs.

Backing. When a horse takes to backing, and danger is threatened, if you cannot get him forward, and have no assistant to take him by the head, the more rapidly you bring the brute's head to the point where he aims at bringing his tail the better. It is a bad habit, however, to give an animal, to allow of his being taken by the head when he is obstreperous, and should only be resorted to when quite unavoidable.

Kicking in Harness.-When there is no kicking-strap or other means of restraint available, and an animal seems disposed to persist in kicking, the driver, retaining his seat, should direct some one to hold up one of the fore feet (if he finds a difficulty in doing so, doubling the knee and tying a handkerchief tightly round it) so as to prevent the foot reaching the ground, which done, the driver may help to unharness, while the other assistant takes hold of the horse's head.

Shying. See page 88.

Runaways are frequently checked by sawing the mouth. In such cases, retain your presence of mind, determined to stick to the ship to the last; if you have the luck to meet with an ascent, that is your time to get a pull.

A horse that has once run away, especially if, in connection with that feat, he has met with any noisy disaster or breakage, is never, as long as he lives, safe to drive again. It only remains for his owner to use humanity and judgment in disposing of him.

Stubborn horses, or jibbers, in single harness.-On the first appearance of this disposition at starting, the neck should be examined, to discover whether the fit

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may not have been occasioned by indispositon to work against an ill-fitting or dirty collar, which may have produced abrasion or tenderness of the skin under it (see page 61). If the unpleasantness proceed from innate stubbornness in the brute, and simple means do not succeed in single harness, place him in double harness, beside a well-tempered, good worker, that will drag him away, starting down-hill. In this manner the habit, if not confirmed, will be overcome. treme cases, different appliances have been used with varied success in making the beast move on-such as a round pebble, about the size of a hen's egg, placed in the ear, and secured with a cord tied round the latter, near the tip, or stuffing a glove in each ear. I have also seen coachmen put two or three handfuls of mud into the horse's mouth, and rub it against his palate with good effect, or tap him with a stick at the back of the fore legs, just under the knee.

Letting a stubborn beast stand for hours in harness in the spot where he has taken the fit, and, when he has become well hungered, placing a feed of corn before him and gradually walking away with it, is a dilatory proceeding sometimes resorted to, but scarcely worth mentioning.

DRAWING.

The size of horses should be in proportion to the weight and size of the vehicle and loads they are intended to move, upon the principle, easily demonstrated by experiment, that weight drags weight. For instance, a horse having to drag a cart up a hill, will do so more easily with the driver on his back than other

wise, as the weight of the man assists the horse against the weight he has to move. The latter part of this argument only refers, however, to short distances, or to starting a draught.

The higher the wheels are, and the closer together, whether they be two or four, the lighter will be the draught. In fact, to render the draught as easy as possible, the axles ought to be on a level with the tracehooks, or point of traction, or as nearly horizontal as possible with the traces and their place in the leg of the hames. It is self-evident that if a horse has to be pulling up, it is like his having to raise a certain part of the weight of the carriage with every step he moves; and the faster he goes, the more injuriously does this principle operate against him.

The point of the pole-and-chain attachment should be always so elevated from its insertion in the carriage as to be on a level with the rings of the hames through which the pole-chains pass. On the point of the pole should be a revolving steel cross-tree, from eight to ten inches in length, in the ends of which the pole-chains or leathers are inserted. The working of this contrivance will, to any practical man, demonstrate its utility.

In light double harness, I much prefer using swinging-bars instead of one inflexible splinter-bar, unless for very heavy draught. Horses should be placed close to their work. For adjusting the traces to that effect, see page 58.

It should be remembered that the farther forward in a carriage the weight to be drawn is placed, the easier will be the draught on the horse. Thus the weight of one man at the extreme end of the vehicle (like a conductor on an omnibus) has as much effect on the trac

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