Riding and Driving

by Edward L. Anderson; Price Collier

Above all things, don't lose your temper, and make matters absolutely impossible of remedy by doing just what the horse is doing—pulling! The horse may be merely nervous, or ignorant of what the bit means, or really suffering; and you have more intelligence than he has—the comparative weights of your brains and spinal cords prove it—and that being true, you should illustrate this physiological law by managing him, rather than to permit him to manage you. But, you reply, what if you have tried everything, and he still continues to pull your arms out and endanger the lives of yourself and others? Then get out of a bad fix as best you can. Telegraph him that you decline the nomination as candidate unless he reforms, and get him back to Nebraska as speedily and with as little danger as possible.

Anything that can be done to freshen or to keep fresh the animal's mouth, and to give him something rather to play with, than to pull against, is important. Hence the reason for changing the position of the bit, for movable mouthpieces, or for any other device to keep the horse from taking the bit too seriously.

There are innumerable experiments to be tried before a horse is to be set down as a "puller." Often when a horse finds he is not to be hurt, he goes well enough. Take out the heavy bit, and drive him in a snaffle. Cover his bit with rubber, or sew salt pork on his bit; or give him a bit that works up and down, or change from the straight bit to one with a slight port, so that it does not rest on his tongue, or go to your harness maker and have a Liverpool made with a jointed mouthpiece,—why not? What you want is something not unsightly to drive your horse in, and, as we have said before, though "form" and "correctness" are absolutely essential to persons and things without content, they are to be set aside always when there is a rational sanction for doing so. Dress parade at quarters if you please and without a speck or a spot or a stir of a muscle; but undershirts and bare feet for coaling ship and going into action. The man who is overawed by twaddle about "form" in the treatment of a live animal, whether man or beast, must have cur blood in him from some source, and is not a proper person to be put in authority over either.

There are many things about the harness which annoy the horse and make him restive and uncomfortable to drive. His brow-band may be chafing his ears; his winkers may be flapping or pushing against his eyes; his pad or saddle may not fit, and be rubbing his backbone; the crupper may be too short, catching him hard under the tail or pulling the saddle backward; the traces may be too long or too short, hampering him in his work; his shoes may have been on too long and become too small for his ever growing hoof; the bearing-rein may be too tight; the bit too wide, or hard on his tongue, or pressing against inflamed tissue caused by ragged teeth which ought to have been filed down.

All these matters, it ought to be the pride, as it is the duty, of a coachman to look out for. It is for this reason, if for no other, that the owner of a horse or horses should know the elements at least of the history, housing, harnessing, and handling of the horse. Ignorance not only means discomfort and danger, but it means cruelty as well.

A martingale is intended to prevent the horse from throwing up his head. It is looped through a buckle and attached to the belly-band at one end; the other end is a split strap with rings through which the reins pass, or it may be fastened to the bit itself, or to the nose-band if the horse is refractory or fussy about his mouth.

The question of bearing-reins is not a question of bearing-reins or no bearing-reins, but a question of the use and misuse of bearing-reins. No horse or pony of spirit should be driven by a woman or a child without a bearing-rein. It prevents the animal rubbing his head against shaft or pole, and catching and perhaps pulling his bridle off; it prevents him from getting his head down between his legs and becoming unholdable; and it makes kicking more difficult. A halter is enough for Dobbin when Dobbin goes his sleepy way, but there is no knowing what day in ten years Dobbin gets well, and devil a saint is he! The bearing-rein, properly adjusted, does not inconvenience the horse in the slightest and is a valuable safeguard in time of need. For a boring or heavy-headed or gross-necked horse, the bearing-rein takes weight off the coachman's hands and helps rather than impedes the horse.

On the other hand, the bearing-rein, like a certain feminine piece of harness, may be used for purposes of fashionable distortion. The horse's head is twisted up high in the air to make him lift his legs and to give him a lofty and proud appearance. This use of the bearing-rein is indeed an abomination. The gag bearing-rein is a rein passing from a point of the headstall on each side, through a swivel attached to the snaffle, thence through another ring, and fastened on to the hook of the pad or saddle. The sides of the horse's mouth are drawn up, and with a tight crupper to boot, the horse looks as though he were tied together at the teeth and the tail. One sees little of this nowadays. Only the very newest dollars, daubed with unusual ignorance, permit this turkey-cock style of harnessing.

The crupper, passing from the pad or saddle and ending in a padded loop under the tail, holds the saddle from slipping forward when the harness is without breeching, and also, as a horse always tucks his tail into his quarters when about to kick, prevents kicking to some extent. The crupper should be stuffed with linseed to keep it moist, and to prevent its hardening and becoming a worry to the horse.

In these days, when even light carriages have brakes, breeching is seldom used except with state or very dressy harness. In a hilly country or with two-wheeled traps, particularly those driven by women or children, it should be a part of the harness. In such cases, safety rather than appearance or lightness is the essential thing. The breeching should hang about twelve inches below the upper part of the dock, and have four to six inches' play when the horse is in his collar.