The collar goes on first, and where horses are worked hard, and regularly, as in a road coach or on a driving tour, it is well to put the collars on, and leave them on a few moments before the rest of the harnessing is done. The collar thus gets warm against the neck, and there is that much less danger of rubbing and chafing the skin, and making a bad start. The usual custom is to put the collar on with the hames attached. It is better to fasten the hames about the collar after the collar is on the horse, thus avoiding the tendency to squeeze the collar on over his head. After the saddle is on, the crupper under the tail, and the saddle-girth loosely buckled to keep the saddle in place, then is the time to tighten up the hames. The traces are crossed over the back of each horse with the outside trace on top. The bridle is then put on, and the reins drawn through the pad-terrets, and the outside or draught rein buckled to the bit, the inside or coupling rein fastened to the nose-band underneath by passing the billet through the loop, but without buckling it. Then take the rein, double it, pass the bight of it through the terret, with the loop over the bearing-rein hook.
The horses are now ready to be led out by the nose-band, not by the bit, and put to. Bring the horses up from behind alongside the pole, rather than toward the pole, when they must be turned, and pushed up to the pole. Once there, fasten them to the pole, and buckle the pole-strap at the end hole, the near horse first, then the off horse. Next fasten the traces, the outside one always first. This seems awkward, and like doing things upside down. The reason for it, however, is all-sufficient. If the inside trace is put on first, the horse may, often does, in fact, edge out from the pole at the touch of something on the pole side of him, and there is a struggle to get him back so that the outside trace may be put on. This may upset the other horse, and trouble follows.
Here, and at all other times, remember that in dealing with horses, under every and all conditions, a stitch in time saves at least eighteen. Therefore put the outside trace on first, then the inside trace, then proceed to pole up your horses, that is to say, put your pole-pieces through the kidney-link from the inside out, and tighten them up to what you consider the proper length. This adjustment is a very nice one, and can only be done accurately by one who, when driving, notes carefully the effect upon pole, pole-pieces, and collars, of a hole more or less. The horses should not carry the pole, through being poled too tight; neither should the pole go bobbing about, through being poled too loose. Over rough roads, horses should be poled up rather loosely, to give play to the pole; otherwise, every jar will swing and bump the whole vehicle. In park driving, or driving over smooth roads, they may be poled up more closely.
The more compact are horses, vehicle, and coachman acting together as one, the more easily and smoothly everything goes; but this is not to be interpreted as approval of poling up horses so tight that they are carrying the pole, and are cramped and impeded. Pole-pieces of leather, or chains, are a matter of custom. No vehicle has chains where the coachman drives; while a mail-phaeton, or lady's phaeton, where the master or mistress drives, usually has chains rather than leather. An authority to be depended upon always in such matters, writes: "Pole chains should be used only on a carriage driven by the master or mistress, such as a coach, mail-phaeton, or lady's phaeton; never on a carriage driven by a coachman, such as a landau, coupé, or Victoria, when straps should be used. This is a custom based upon the fact that the working originals of coaches and mail-phaetons had chains; an adherence to it marks the difference between well turned out and badly turned out vehicles." Both breastplates and pole-pieces should go, the former round both collar and hames, and the latter round the collar and through the kidney-link ring and not through the ring alone; otherwise the small strap at the top of the collar holding the hames together is the only safeguard, and should this break, away goes your pole, and probably your horses. But this precaution is only necessary in heavy work. The breastplate holds even if the hame-strap breaks, and to put the pole-straps around the collar chafes the horse's neck.
After the horses are poled up and their traces fastened, the coupling-reins are fastened to the bits. Certain writers on the subject advise buckling the coupling-reins first of all. The writer has no criticism to pass upon this, except that experience shows that fastening two horses together by the head, and then going to their heels for the traces, often works badly. As long as they are fastened together by their collars to the pole it is not a matter of much moment anyway. It is a matter for one's own judgment and experience rather than of fixed law. All the other matters of precedence and procedure in harnessing have a rational sanction which makes them imperative.
The reins are buckled together on the off side and, as in the case of each single rein, the bight of them passed through the off pad-terret of the off horse and looped over the bearing-rein hook. Your pair is now ready for your inspection; this done, and as you are about to take the reins, the bearing-reins are put on their hooks. In the case of green or nervous horses it is well to start them off first, fastening the bearing-reins as they move off, and thus avoid jibbing, backing, and even rearing in the stable. Take the reins in the right hand with the middle finger between them, see that the buckles of both reins are the same length from your hand, pull both reins out some ten inches, then give the off rein a few inches more, get your whip in your hand, mount to your seat, sit down, put your reins in your left hand with the index and middle finger between them, and you will find yourself with both reins of about the same length and of about the right length. Another measure of the proper length of the reins before mounting is to hold the reins in the left hand, step back until you are on a line with the horse's hocks, holding the left hand close to the body. When seated the reins will be of the right length (Plate XXIX.).
Always ask if everything is right before you feel the mouths of the horses. The groom may be just putting on a last touch, or he may be looking the other way, as you give the signal to start, and there follows a lame foot, or even a knock-down; and so much depends upon a fair start that it is worth some pains to get it.
The whip should be held at the place where the ferrule goes round the handle, as all good whip-makers make their whips to balance at that point (Plate XXIX.). The knees and feet should be together; the feet not poked out as though you were standing on them, nor tucked under you as though you were ashamed of them. You will balance better if you sit straight with your back hollowed in at the small of it. To lengthen or shorten the reins put the right hand on the reins in front of the left with the little and fourth finger on the right hand or off rein, leaving the left hand or near rein between the fourth and middle fingers, and the thumb and index finger over the same—the near rein (Plate XXIX.). You may shorten the reins now, by just so much, as you place the right hand in front of the left, by sliding the left hand up to the right, and taking your grip again. It is best to do this gradually, taking in a little of the reins at a time, rather than by taking ten or twelve inches at a time. Whether it be the left or the right hand that is in front, the hand in front should for the time being hold the reins. Never, under any circumstances, get the thumb under the near rein nor the little finger under the off rein, a very common and faulty practice. The reason being that in such a situation your right hand is hampered in moving quickly, by having the thumb under the rein, your left hand likewise by having the little finger under instead of on top of the rein. As all these movements should be made mechanically, without looking at the reins, the fingers should be so placed and kept that there is no mixing up in the process. The right hand indeed should do its fingering of the reins as quickly and accurately as a practised pianoforte player picks out and strikes his notes.
In stopping, place the right hand on the reins from eight to ten inches in front of the left, as described above, press the right hand in toward the body while raising the left hand. If this is not enough, hold the reins in the right hand, pass the left in front, and take in more rein, the right coming forward again to the front place. In an emergency, it is always safest to pull the reins through from behind with the right hand (Plate XXIX.). To the inexperienced this is quicker and safer, whether with two reins or four. In driving a pair of "roadsters," so called, they are put to with their heads far apart, and bitted with plain snaffle-bits. Such a pair must be driven with two hands, one rein in each hand, in order to keep an even pressure upon their mouths.
Before you have gone very far along a straight road you will notice, unless you are driving a thoroughly made, mannered, and properly put together pair, that one horse does more work than the other, or that one horse seems to be in front of the other. This is caused by the formation of the horses, the length of the traces, the coupling-reins. Traces stretch with wear, and when this has become apparent, the shorter traces should be used on the inside; if they are on the outside, it is easy to see that this will put the pull on the collar where it should not be, and gall the shoulders. The lazier or shorter horse should be in shorter traces. As to the coupling-reins, this is, strange to say and to see, a part of the harness that many drivers of horses never examine, and never alter, any more than they think of trying to change the diameter of their wheels. As a matter of fact, the coupling-reins are the key to the problem of driving a pair or a four comfortably.