|Position of body on driving seat.| When driving, the body should be kept upright and square to the front, but all stiffness should be avoided. The driving seat should be low, and about three or four inches higher at the back than in front, so that the driver can sit down in a really comfortable position. |Position of legs.| The ankles and knees should be just touching each other, and the arms close to the sides, the point of the elbows touching the hip bone. |Position of arms.| The forearm should be about horizontal, and the left hand from three to four inches from the centre of the body, the back of the hand being turned towards the front and nearly vertical, but inclined a little towards the horses. |Position of left wrist.| The wrist must be bent slightly towards the body, and on no account allowed to bend the other way. This is far the best position for feeling the horses’ mouths, as the wrist then acts like a spring, and a perfectly even pressure can be maintained. |Leaning forward bad.| Sit well back, and do not lean forward over the reins in the attitude of a dairymaid on a milking-stool. |Driver should sit well down.| The driver should on no account be half standing, or merely leaning against the seat, with unbent knees, as, in the event of a wheeler falling or shying up a bank, he will inevitably be jerked off the coach.
CHAPTER VI
FOUR HORSES—THE REINS.
|How to hold reins.| The best way of holding the reins is to have the near lead over the left forefinger, the off lead between the forefinger and the middle finger, the near wheel between the same and under the off lead, and the off wheel between the middle and the third finger (fig. 17) |Thumb and forefinger must not hold the reins.| . The reins must be gripped firmly by the three lower fingers of the left hand, so that they cannot possibly slip, the thumb and forefinger never being used to hold the reins except when looping. The thumb should invariably point to the right, and the forefinger be held well out. The near lead rein should pass over or close to the knuckle of the forefinger, and not over the first or second joint. The beginner will find that after a time the muscle at the base of the left thumb will develop wonderfully, and that the reins will be held between this muscle and the lower fingers very firmly without any apparent effort.
FIG. 17.—FOUR-IN-HAND—HOW TO HOLD REINS.
|Adjusting length of reins in hand.| There are various ways of adjusting the reins, either by pulling them out or pushing them back from the front, or by pulling them from behind, or by taking out the lead reins.
|Shortening reins.| One general principle as to shortening the reins is to do it by putting the right hand in front of the left, and pushing those required to be shortened through the left hand. In doing this the thumb should never be used, as it is fully occupied in holding the whip. But the beginner will very often find it easier to shorten the reins from behind by pulling them through the left hand. In this case the thumb and forefinger must be used. I consider the following the easiest and most effective ways of adjusting the reins, viz.:—
|To shorten all four reins.| All four reins can be shortened, if much is required, by pulling them through from behind, but it is generally quicker and neater to hold the reins with right hand two or three inches in front of left (the little and the third fingers over the off-side reins and middle finger between the near-side reins), and then slide the left hand up to the right. By this means a perfectly steady pressure is kept on the horses’ mouths. This movement is generally required when going down hill.
|To shorten both wheel reins.| Both wheel reins.—It is better to shorten these by pulling them through from behind. This is necessary when going down steep hills, especially when the wheelers are loosely poled up, so as to prevent the bars hitting the leaders’ hocks.