To get out of a trap when you have no groom, first lay the whip on the seat pointing toward the back of the trap, then place the reins in the right hand, taking them up enough to feel the horse’s mouth. Grasp the dash with the right hand and step out of the trap backward, with the right foot on the step, the left foot coming first to the ground; then step forward until opposite the pad and put the reins through the off terret in the position described on [page 197].
When, however, a servant is in attendance, he should, as soon as you pull up, stand at the horse’s head; you then simply drop the reins with the left hand so that they lie over the dash; either lay the whip, as above described, to the left of the reins pointing to the rear, or else place it in the socket; then step out of the trap, facing forward, the left foot on the step. The servant then steps into the trap on the same side on which you have stepped out.
If the horse will not stand, it is quite correct to step out forward, keeping the reins in the left hand, and then to hand them to the servant when you have reached the ground, having first laid the whip on the seat pointing to the rear.
If you are driving a phaeton with a servant on the rumble, he should jump out as you begin to pull up and run to the horse’s head. If, however, your horse is very nervous and will not stand, it is quite correct to have the servant stay on the rumble, and then, after you have pulled up, to pass the reins back to him on your left side. Then place the whip in the socket and step out, facing forward.
[1.] “Driving As I Have Found It,” by Frank Swales, pp. 94–100; “How To Drive,” by Captain Morley-Knight, pp. 24–28.
CHAPTER XIII
FOUR-IN-HAND AND TANDEM DRIVING
As this book is limited in its scope to riding and driving for women, I shall not attempt to discuss four-in-hand and tandem driving in detail, and for a very exhaustive work on four-in-hand driving, would refer the reader to “A Manual of Coaching,” by Fairman Rogers (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., 1900), and to “Driving for Pleasure,” by Frank Underhill (D. Appleton, 1897).
One of the best short books on the technique of driving is “Hints on Driving,” by Captain C. Morley-Knight, R.A. (George Bell & Sons, London, 1895). Chapter VI of that book describes in detail the method of holding and shortening the reins in four-in-hand driving, and chapter X the same problem in tandem driving. Like other English authorities, he, however, gives quite a different position for the right hand in tandem driving from that in four-in-hand driving, while the chief American writers, and nearly all the best whips of my acquaintance, advocate and use substantially the same position of the right hand in both.