Читать книгу Hints on Driving Horses (Harness, Carriage, Etc) - Captain C. Morley Knight - Страница 11

CHAPTER III.

DRIVING—DOUBLE HARNESS.

TO drive a pair well, that is, to be able to put-to and drive any two horses, is not such an easy thing as at first sight it may appear to the uninitiated. To drive a pair of good goers thoroughly accustomed to their work, and harnessed up in the right manner, is such a very simple matter that the merest tyro ought to be able to compete with it, with fair success. But when he has two entirely different and unknown animals to take in hand, it is quite another question.

Belly-bands.

Double harness is fitted exactly the same way as single, except that the belly-bands should be slightly looser, so as to admit two or three fingers between them and the girths.

We will suppose that the harness has been put on the horses and correctly fitted to them, and that they are standing in the stable ready to be put-to; then the correct way of bringing them out would be as follows:—

How to lead horse out of stable.

The traces having been placed across his back, the horse should be led out by the noseband, not by the rein or the bar of the bit, otherwise the groom is very apt to job him in the mouth without intending to do so, a performance to which he may object and run violently back, or rear up and fall over. Great care should be exercised when leading out of the stable. It not infrequently happens that horses hit their hips against the walls, which is liable to chip them, and cause lameness, besides teaching them the extremely bad habit of rushing out of the stable-door.

Hooking in alongside of pole.