The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-11-30


different systems-in fact, France,
England, Switzerland and Germany
each has its own peculiar method-but
when one or the other of these various
schools has been decided upon devia-
ton from one Of the prescribed points
is as objectionable as striking a false
note.
Americans for the most part follow
the English method, which dates back
more than a century and half ago, to
one of the earlier sporting dukes Of the
house of Beaufort. ANY changes in the
rules made since then are of character
too trivial to point out.
Naturally, four-in-hand and tandem
driving are looked upon as the most
difficult branches of the science. There
is and always has been a difference
Of opinion as to which form requires the
more skill. A great many of the rules,
however, which govern the handling Of
a four are applicable to tandem. At
the Horse Show, if one would discover
how the reins of four-in-hand are held
and how they are picked up, he must
observe the coachman while he is on the
ground, standing a few feet back of the
pad of the off wheelhorse. Before get
ting up to his seat the coachman will
approach the apparently hopeless
bundle of reins CHATS the way they
look to a layman) which have been
Topped above the tug buckle, and TAX
ing the near lead rein, he draws it with
his left taut from the bit. With his
right hand he draws the off lead rein
until it is tight and passes it to the left
hand which in the mean time he has let
fall so that the arm is hanging straight.
Afterward he transfers both lead reins
to the right hand and repeats precisely
the same manoeuvre with the wheel
reins. When this has been done the
near lead rein lies on the top of his first
finger, the off wheel and the near lead
rein between the first and second fingers
the lead on top. The off wheel rein
should be between the second and third
fingers. Then when the reins have been
adjusted to the proper length-and this
should be done with each separately
he mounts to his seat and changes the
reins to the left hand, holding them
precisely in the same order, and catches
up the whip in the right hand. When
he is ready to start his team-and he
will not be until he has felt each horses
mouth by gradually tightening the rein
the left arm should be almost horizon
tai, the hand holding the reins slightly
below the elbow. Men who drive with
their hands much higher than this are
often said to be driving in front Of
their Gravel PIN The whip is held in
the right hand at such an angle that
the thong is just above the near wheel
er, These are only the elementary rules
to be observed in four-in-han and tan
dem driving; to give even partial list
of all the little niceties a volume would
be needed. But, though a man may
know theoretically all the laws of
lingering, unless his hands possess that
mysterious quality which might be
called magnetism or sympathy, he will
never become other than made to or
der coachman. He may handle four
finland or tandem in the ring in a
manner that to the outsider seems
faultless, but let him try a green forr or
bad one, and see how quick the grace
full, pleasing pictures he makes on the
box seat goes to pieces. These made to
order coachmen bear the same relation
to the natural born coachman that the
performer on a self-playing piano does
to musician ~
To the courtesy of Mr.. Maelstrop, of
Cross & Co., thanks are due for the
and the incorrect methods of grasping
the reins and which appear on the first
page of this supplement-.
To the man who does not aspire to be-
come a finished coactman, who has no
ambition to appear in the Garden be-
hind show horses, but would be content
to take his family out of Sunday,
either with his own horse and surrey or
one he has hired from a livery stable,
there are certain tricks knowledge of
which should serve him in good stead.
Possibly the most valuable of these is
the one to be used when the family
horse suddenly takes fright at some OBJ
ject in the road or by the wayside.
There is no member of the equine
family, by the way, who can scatter a
more picturesque ruin over a greater
stretch of highway than the honest,
staid and faithful old family horse who
has never been known to take fright
at anything until the day when, after
passing six red automobiles and four
steam rollers without blinking an eye,
he suddenly turns himself and the COM
Portable little family party behind him
wrong side out at the terrifying spec
tacle of nurse trundiing baby car
riage. Nine times in ten he will strew
that happy little domestic group over
four miles Of macadamized road before
he brings up against barbed wire
fence. In such case the usal pro-
cedure of the man in command is to
pull the animals head violently
toward the object that has frightened
him. If he would just reverse the
j. ].