Riding for Ladies: With Hints on the Stable

by Mrs. Power O'Donoghue

Bencraft Hames.—There is sometimes immense difficulty in fitting horses that are peculiarly shaped with collars that will not gall them; in such cases the above may be tried, as by using them the draught can be shifted to suit the shoulders or the height of the wheels. They have an awkward appearance, but nevertheless serve their purpose admirably.

Shaft-tugs should be of a length to suspend the shafts at exactly the correct height, by which I mean the centre of the swell of the pad-flaps, measured both ways. When the shafts are much bent, the tugs must be shorter than if ordinarily straight. The traces must be of proper length, otherwise the correct horizontal position of the shaft-tugs cannot possibly be maintained. When too short the motion of the horse forces tugs and pad forward, thus drawing the crupper uncomfortably tight—and when too long, the vehicle is drawn by the tugs instead of by the traces. It is rare to sit behind a horse that one can pronounce properly harnessed in every particular.

A Kicking-strap will be worse than useless—it will chafe and irritate—unless properly put on. A strap that is either too light or the reverse, or that passes in a direct line from shaft to shaft, had better not be used at all. It ought to be just loose enough, nothing more, to allow of the horse travelling without feeling chafed by it, and should be fastened at least two inches behind the hip-bones, as a loin-strap would be.

Fitting the Bit to the Horse’s Mouth.—This, as I have already stated, is an advisable plan. A Buxton or Liverpool bit is commonly employed in harness, but if a horse has a light mouth, he may travel well in a snaffle. Buxton bits are made without ports. Experience will tell whether the reins ought to be buckled to the cheek or to the bars. In my opinion, almost all horses go well in properly fitting bits. I altogether disapprove of the enormous affairs with cheeks eleven inches long, and weighing quite two pounds, which ignorance sometimes makes use of. I believe that comparatively few animals require bits of larger dimensions than one and three-quarter inches for the upper cheek, and three and a-half for the lower. This latter ought never to be more than double the length of the upper portion. Even when the reins are fastened to a ring below the cheek, the weight of the projecting arm will effect the leverage of the entire affair.

Horses addicted to Running away frequently lay hold of the cheek of the bit; it is a fault in large measure cultivated by using bits that are too broad for the mouth. To avoid it, the cheeks might be bent backwards, after the Wimbush pattern.

Correct Bitting gives control in harness without inflicting pain. Any suffering that cannot be got rid of by the horse dropping his head to the right position, is barbarous cruelty, however it may be glossed over or concealed. Half the horses that one sees in London and elsewhere, poking their chins in an unnatural manner, are made to do so by the use of powerful bits and severe curb-chains—yet ignorance cannot be brought to see it, although the evils of it are frequently and earnestly set forth.

Blinkers are generally considered indispensable adjuncts to harness. Why, I do not know.

Bearing-reins are only tolerable when the snaffle bit is suffered to hang well below the corners of the mouth, and when the reins themselves are of such a length that the instant the horse lifts his head and sets off, they become amply slack. I cannot at all see why they should be thought an absolute necessity for draught purposes, when not used in the saddle. There are, of course, cases in which they are advisable; when, for instance, extremely nervous or badly-broken animals are of necessity driven through crowded thoroughfares; but otherwise I cannot believe that they are either necessary or ornamental.

Fashionable Coachmen concoct an instrument of torture by drawing up the gag-bit until the horse’s mouth is dragged back quite two inches: a curb much too long and very much too wide being next added, and strained up to the last extremity of tightness. The cruelty of ordinary bearing-reins is unspeakably great, and to the use of them may be attributed the loss of sight in many fine young horses—undue pressure on the glands that lie just under the angles of the jaws being the fruitful cause of this melancholy evil.

Nagging at a horse’s mouth when driving him is a most objectionable practice, and one that is, unfortunately, too generally indulged in. If an animal appears sluggish, the driver finds it easier to rouse him temporarily by means of chucking at his mouth, than by either a suitable use of the whip, or an investigation into the general state of his health: a low or disordered condition of which is far more frequently the cause of sluggishness than the “roguishness,” of which helpless animals are often wrongfully accused.