“We are too apt,” said the late Lord Erskine, “to consider animals under the domination of man in no view but that of property. We should never forget that the animal over which we exercise our power has all the organs which render it susceptible of pleasure and pain. It sees, it hears, it smells, it tastes, it feels with acuteness. How mercifully, then, ought we to exercise the dominion intrusted to our care!”
Speaking to coach-horses from the box is now considered slow, but it is not without its effect. Whipping, however, is sometimes indispensable. The manufacture of four-horse whips has arrived at great perfection, and affords employment to many hundred hands.
Refined management of the whip is not of many years’ birth; and even now there are but few who execute this effectually and with grace. There are as many ways of whipping coach-horses, says a clever writer in the Sporting Magazine, as there are horses in the coach; and, as there is a right and a wrong way of doing most things, a young beginner may observe the following directions, beginning with the wheel-horses:—
Before a coachman hits a wheel-horse, he should twist his thong three times round the crop of his whip, holding the crop at that moment somewhat horizontally, by which means the thong will twist towards the thin end of the crop, when the thong, being doubled, will not exceed the length of a pair-horse thong, and in some measure resemble it. Being double renders it of course more severe, as it falls more heavily on the horse; and by the two ends of the thong not being spread, but close together at the time of the blow, it falls with increased force.
When the off-side wheeler is struck, the coachman’s right arm should be put out from his body in the same position in which he presents it to his tailor to measure him for a coat, but the blow should proceed entirely from the wrist. The part on which the horse should be struck is about four inches behind his false belly-band, or somewhere near the short rib on his right side. The stinging part of the blow is then felt under the belly; and, unless he is quite beaten, or of a sulky and bad disposition, he seldom fails to answer it. If he do not answer it here, he must be struck before the belly-band, when the blow falls just behind the fore-arm, on a part on which the skin is very thin. In hitting a near-wheeler, the coachman brings his right hand exactly opposite to his face, and, turning the crop three times around, as before directed, he lets the thong fall sharply across the horse’s loins three times in succession, if he do not answer sooner,—observing that, after the third blow, he draws the thong obliquely across the horse’s back, by which means his arm returns to a state of rest, and the crop falls gently across his reins, just about his left hand, the crop pointing a little upwards to prevent the thong getting under or touching the near wheel-horse’s tail. Should the latter be the case, if the driver lower his crop, the thong will almost always get released; but should it not, he must let the thong loose, and draw it out from the point. When it comes up from the tail, let the coachman throw back his crop a little to his right hand, and the point of the thong will fall across his fingers, when he catches it, and puts it back into his hand. It must be observed, that, in striking the near wheel horse, the wrist only, as in sword exercise, is at work: the body must be quite at rest; and, after the whip is brought to bear, the arm must be quiet also, until the third blow is struck.
There is only one other method of hitting a wheel-horse, which is called pointing him. This is done by hitting him with the point of the thong, when loose, just behind his shoulders, but it is not considered neat execution. If there should be a free leader before the bars it causes him to fret, and is only to be had recourse to in emergencies—as, for instance, in turning round a corner, or into a gateway, when a leader is to be hit, and before the coachman can recover his thong a wheel-horse requires whipping also.
If a wheel-horse show symptoms of vice, as a disposition to kick, &c., or, in short, if he refuse to answer either of the other calls upon his exertions, a blow with the double thong on his ears generally brings him to his senses. Without great necessity, however, it is very reprehensible to strike a coach-horse over the ears, the parts being very sensible.
It is generally supposed it is in whipping a leader that neatness of execution is more especially displayed. It is, however, quite a mistake to suppose that it is in the power of a coachman to punish a leader with the single, as he can a wheel-horse with the double thong. No doubt, however, the blow from the loose thong falls very sharp, as it falls on a tender part—the inside of the thigh.
As the off-leader presents himself more fully to the right hand of the coachman than his partner does, the horse that is the less free of the two is generally put on that side. There are but two ways of hitting an off-leader: one, by letting the thong fall gently over his neck, or just behind his pad, when his driver merely wishes to refresh his memory, and let him know that he has a whip in his hand; and the other, when he wants to hit him sharply, by striking him with the point of the thong just under his bar. The hard hitters of the old school never conceived they had done the latter effectually, unless they struck their horse twice at least, if not three times, the last stroke always ending in a draw.
As this word “draw” is peculiar to the road, it must be explained to such as may not exactly comprehend it. Suppose a coachman to hit his off-leader three times. The first two blows are given, as it were, under-handed—that is to say, the hand is lowered so as to admit of the thong going under the bar the first two strokes. When the third or last is given, the point of the elbow is thrown outwards, so as to incline the thong inwards, which brings it up to the coachman’s hand after the stroke, it generally falling across his breast, which would not be the case were it not for the draw. Another advantage also attends the draw: a thong so thrown very seldom hangs in the bars, and nothing is more uncoachman-like than to hit a leader above his bar. A horse’s mouth should always be felt before his coachman hits him.