There is no part of stage-coach economy in which greater alteration has been made than in changing horses. Unless business is to be transacted—as taking fares for passengers, setting down, getting out parcels, &c.—the average with fast coaches is three minutes for each change.
ACCIDENTS, &c. TO HORSES.
A cantering leader, or one that frets, is generally mismanaged by young coachmen. They are apt to pull him back, and endeavour to get him to trot, by the bit, which generally fails, or makes him even worse, by bringing him back on his bar. The right way is to pull him back by his harness; that is, to keep the wheelers back, so that he may feel his collar and bit at the same time.
A horse that kicks ought to be taken very short in his pole-piece, and gagged; and, when he begins to kick, he should be whipped on the ears—a punishment which should never be inflicted but for vice.—Hallooing to a horse when he kicks, has sometimes an effect. A hot leader is sometimes benefited by mopping. An experienced driver says, “I once bought a capital coach-horse for twenty-six pounds, because no one could drive him: and, as he had broken two carriages, he was the terror of the neighbourhood. I mopped him, and could drive him with the greatest safety, either leader or at wheel.”
In the case of a horse falling, a periodical writer, replying to another, states, “In one of his letters on ‘the Road,’ he says, ‘If the coachman be driving with the short wheel rein, and a horse fall beyond recovery, he had better open his hand, and let the reins fall out, than run the risk of being pulled off the box.’ With all due deference to such authority, I cannot subscribe to this, as it frequently happens that a horse falls, is dragged along the ground for a short distance, and recovers himself the moment the coach stops, and then starts off at full gallop, the other horses following his example. Now, if coachee has opened his fist, and let the reins tumble out, and the above occurrence should take place, I would certainly rather be on the top of Cheviot than on the top of the said coach, as the catastrophe would not be very difficult to foretell.”
On many horses, hot weather has a singular effect; and, therefore, it often happens that a good winter horse is an indifferent summer one. Coach-horses are subject to many accidents, of which one is peculiar to them—namely, fracture of the legs in trotting on level ground.[77] Fractures of the foot in draught-horses and others are common; but fractures of the leg in coach-horses when trotting over level ground, are probably caused by over-tension of the limb in the act of drawing. It is said that a coach-horse’s leg is more frequently broken, when, with a heavy load behind him, he snatches at his collar in a turn of the road.
[77] When driving one of the Birmingham fast coaches, just entering the town of Dunstable, my near leader fell with her off hind-leg snapped clean in two, held together merely by the skin. On pulling up to clear her from the coach, I found the cause of the accident; a piece of flint, shaped like a hatchet, and with a blade as keen as a razor, still adhering to the bone, against which it had either been whirled by a kick from one of the other three, or had flown upwards from the tread of the mare herself,—Ed. Fifth Edition.
They are also subject to an affection known by the appellation of the lick, which greatly injures their condition. In this state they lick each other’s skins, and gnaw their halters to pieces. This probably proceeds from the state of the stomach, caused by the excitement of high feeding and work. It may be removed by opening or alterative medicines.
They are likewise subject to a kind of vertigo, which on the road is called megrims. This, of which the immediate cause is temporary pressure on the brain, is often brought on by running in the face of a hot sun; and, therefore, horses subject to megrims ought to work at night. The attack appears to come on suddenly, though a snatching motion of the head is sometimes observed to precede it. If not immediately pulled up, the horse thus affected drops. Such horses should have attention paid to the state of their bowels, and have frequent antimonial alteratives. What is called “a megrim horse” is always dangerous, especially near a precipice or ditch, as, when seized, he rolls away from his partner, and, of course, takes him with him.