Rules for driving that have been made by the proper authorities should be carefully observed. Occasion may arise when it is necessary to take liberties with prescribed forms. In tandem driving, which should be done with one hand as much as possible, there is one rule, the observance of which is essential to safety, and that is never to lose your horses' mouths by getting your hands so close up to your chest that you have no space to spare for pulling up. You may see some drivers with their hands nearly up to their chins and looking supremely happy in their ignorance of the risk they incur. The proper position of the left or rein hand is a few inches forward of the body, with the elbow adown the side and close to but not pressing against it. Nothing is more awkward than the elbows at an angle showing daylight between them and the body.
The draught on the reins from the elbows to the horses' mouths should be as nearly as possible on a straight line.
I would strongly advise beginners to avail themselves of the instructions of any recognized professional dragsman of whatever pretensions. If you find one incompetent to teach you, you are confirmed in your own skill, which is worth all you have paid for the information. It would be strange if any man who had practised the calling for any considerable length of time had not picked up some wrinkles or dodges worth knowing that had escaped the learner hitherto. An accomplished instructor having been found, pupils should take a full course of lessons, as, however apt scholars, they will hardly have absorbed in a limited number all the knowledge acquired by one who has devoted a lifetime to the pursuit. Nearly all beginners are too anxious to exhibit their self-reliance, and declare too early their independence of the mentor.
Acquire the correct methods, or aim to do so, of doing all things connected with tandem driving, and be satisfied with nothing else; there can be no compromise with what is called "form," a word, it may be remarked, so significant as to admit of no qualifications; a thing is "form" or is not "form," and the terms "good" and "bad" prefixed to it are as superfluous as if applied to perfection (compare p. 314). And when adopting the customs peculiar to another country, one should make sure he can reach an accepted standard before attempting to improve upon it or surpass it. Ambitious parties who always aim to exceed recognized standards, essay to drive a tandem of three or four horses, which they style "trandom" and "random"—a straining after effect in name as well as performance. As any number of single horses, not less than two, harnessed in a single line, are properly described as a tandem, such aspirants for fame, having a name provided for their turnout, may be concerned solely lest they find themselves with too many horses and too few hands for driving them. In my lexicons of coaching and driving, no application of either "trandom" or "random" is found, and, unless the parties have a dictionary of their own, I do not believe there is any authority for such use of the words. A tandem of two horses, of which the leader turns round and faces the cart, may be said to be driven at random.
I wish, in closing, to express my obligation and acknowledgment to Mr. Burton Mansfield, the accepted authority in this country for many years upon tandems and tandem driving, for the valuable assistance he has given me in preparing this article.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Draft Book of Centennial Carriages displayed in Philadelphia.
Report on Diseases of the Horse, 1903. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.