Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-14
About Drivers.

Rev. w. IL. Murray, the famous
Boston preacher, in recent lecture,
held forth as follows about "horses
and drivers"
81 wish there could a fashion come
up among us men who drive horses,
of driving without rains, until we
know more than we do, or until we
will admit that we do not know
much. A horse cannot talk, and it
is very difficult to understand the ma
ture of any being that cannot express
its meaning in speech to you. Should
you come across a species of human
beings that had never uttered word,
and you wanted to master the secrets
of their being, how would you begin
to master them? What is just the
right pull to make on horses mouth
to save him when he breaks? When
is the proper instant to move the bit
in his mouth? What is the right
way to handle a horse to get him
through the air a second faster to the
mile? But very few men can find
out these secrets. Now and then
there are gifted ones that can see in
to the horse nature like Dan Mace,
Charley Green, Budd Doble, and the
elder Woodrnff-who, in my judg-
ment, In very may respects, was bet
ter than either--a few men like those
instinctively sense it, but we ignorant
and bungling drivers better let it
alone. I presume that do not take
the reins in both hands once in three
months, so far as need Of strength
goes, when l am driving on the road
OF course there are some horses that
we must make trot if they ever trot
at all. I for one do not desire to
have anything to do with that sort of
horses. But give me a horse that IS
a natural trotter, and am sure he
never will go except in trot, unless
it may be some soreness or uneven
ness of ground, or something else
that may cause him to break. In
that case, the best way is to let him
alone. l am driving a fivc-year old
colt that is fast, and if he breaks, l
let him run. After he has gone six
or eight rods l hint to him that it
would look about as fashionable for
him to strike a trot, and if he does
not take that hint, after he has made
few jumps give him another
But l don't yank HIM or jerk him,
pull him back settle him down, or
square him. as they say, and all those
excellent phrases that do not mean
anything. l know that the colt
means to trot, and if, for some unac-
countable cause he breaks, l know
the natural habit implanted in him
to trot will get him back to.this gait
if he is not frightened or pulled and
hauled out of shape. A green horse
cannot run along shmp and catch
into a trot suddenly without hurting
himself, so he will take another jump
or two. A horse pretty soon learns
what Is wanted and pretty soon you
will find him going along smooth
and his tail as straight as spirit
level. | never on such q horse use a
checkrein, never put on martingales,
but let him go right out, head up and
tail a streaming. These are the rud-
ders intended to keep the horse true
in his gait, and you have no right to
deprive him Of his steering apparatus.
The general rule is, if the horse is a
sensible, level headed one, he fire.
quently knows more about trotting
than than his driver. My best advice
in regard to driving is to once in a
while let such Il horse have his head
and his own way"