Riding and Driving

by Edward L. Anderson; Price Collier

Of the comfort of the horse much has been said already, and all that has been said may well be emphasized and even repeated. He should be ready to go out, that is, not too soon after nor too long after feeding. His bit and harness should be comfortable and adequate to the work he is to do. His shoes and feet should be in good condition. If a horse is properly looked after by his caretaker in the stable, casting a shoe should be a rare occurrence. The horse being comfortable at the start, everybody's comfort behind him depends upon his being kept comfortable. He should not be asked to go too fast or too slow, or asked to do too much at one time, and his mouth should be kept fresh.

As for the coachman, his harness, too, should fit him. The writer has seen a rein dropped and a horse in a four go sprawling on the pavement, all on account of the ill-fitting hat of the coachman, who was grabbing at his head-gear at an inopportune moment. It is even a matter of consequence, if you are to be the custodian of other people's safety on a drive, that your hat should fit you well enough to stay on, even in a fresh breeze.

Gloves should be of dogskin, and at least a size too big. Your hand should be able to bend as though there was no glove on it. If the glove is not as big as this, or even bigger, your reins will slip toward the middle of your fingers, where they should not be, but held snug in toward the roots of the fingers; and you cannot easily bend your hand round to make a pivot of your wrist, upon which the whole easy give-and-take between the hand and the horse's mouth depends. In our hot climate it makes for coolness in summer to punch a few holes in the backs of the gloves, and turn over the wrists on to the backs of the hands. Driving gloves with only one seam up and down the fingers are the most comfortable (see plates).

A pair of woollen gloves should always be taken in tandem or four-in-hand driving to use in case of wet weather. Nobody can drive in tight-fitting gloves. You may steer and pull, but drive, never. Every single suggestion as to holding and fingering the reins is negatived if tight gloves are worn. It then becomes a physical impossibility to so manœuvre hands, wrists, and fingers that the horse's mouth shall have a chance. Wet gloves can be got in shape and flexibility again by the use of Crown soap well rubbed into them while they are wet. When they are dry again, they will be as good as ever.

In the matter of the driver's cushion, it is well to be above your horse, even in a runabout. This gives better control, more power, and keeps the reins off the horse's back, so that they may come back directly from the pad-terrets to the hand. The cushion should always, in whatever vehicle, be of cloth, and tufted to avoid slipping. You will have enough to do without using your legs as props to hold you on your seat. So much depends upon the physical proportions of the coachman that it is impossible to give figures as to the proper size and slant of cushion. Three inches and a half is a fair slant of cushion. The knees should be bent at a comfortable angle, and the feet resting on the foot-board in such a way that the ankles are not bent at an uncomfortable angle. In driving two as a pair or tandem, or four horses, this matter of a comfortable and secure seat is important, and will repay considerable attention.

If for any reason—as in the case of a dog-cart balanced at different angles—the distance between the seat and the foot-board is altered, or where a child or short-legged person needs a brace for the feet, never under any circumstances have a rail. A foot-board covered with corrugated rubber made to fit in, and which can be taken out when not needed, is all that is necessary. A rail across the bottom of the foot-board, often seen in the lighter style of vehicles, such as buggies, buckboards, and the like, is an invention of the devil and most dangerous. It is entirely unnecessary, and it is easy to catch your toe or toes underneath it, and the consequences may be horribly serious. In one case a lady, catching a low shoe under such a rail and struggling to get it out, was thrown over the dash-board between her horses and killed. Such a rail serves no real purpose and has no possible defence except a very short-sighted economy. If your light vehicle has such a rail as a rest for the feet, either take it out or put another rail across parallel to it so that it is impossible to catch even the toes underneath it.

If a horse gets his tail over a rein, stop him and lift his tail off the rein; do not jerk the rein from under the tail. A clever whip, driving tandem or four, can often, by a judicious turning of the horse and a flick with the whip, make the horse take his tail off the rein himself, but this is for the cognoscenti; the beginner had best take the safest and surest way out of trouble and either let the groom or his passenger help him out. If alone, slow up, do no tugging and jerking, loosen the rein, turn your horse quickly and decidedly the other way, and flick him on the quarters with the whip. If it were not that every now and then some one is kicked in the head by leaning over the dash-board to get hold of the horse's tail, it would seem unnecessary to forbid absolutely such a copper-fastened fool proceeding.

Of docked tails, bearing-reins, cruppers, and the like, there are, season after season, endless discussions. The cause of the discussion is usually due not to a wise, but to a cruel, use of these, and is generally carried on in a legislature where only a small minority know anything of the horse except as a quiet farm animal, seldom driven out of a walk. As soon as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals adds to its board of directors half a dozen theoretically and practically competent horsemen, there will be a change for the better in these matters, both practically and legislatively.

There are many competent horsemen who maintain, and with reason, that the long tail is dangerous, particularly where women and children drive; that a tail over the rein may mean a mishap, and probably injury; that it is dirty, bedraggles and wets the legs, and with the fast-moving, well-cared-for carriage horse is unnecessary, even to his comfort. This does not, on the other hand, imply that horses' tails should be docked and "set up"; but it does point to a happy medium between the dangerous and dirty long tail and the unnecessarily short dock. The question should not be looked upon as having but one answer. Men who have themselves docked horses and seen scores of horses docked, and who take the most instructed care of their horses, are naturally provoked by criticism from citizens who hardly know that a horse's tail has joints in it, let alone anything about the feeding, housing, or handling even of their own horses.

So very few people know how much there is to know about the horse, that their ignorance neither oppresses, nor suppresses them.