Edward L. Anderson

“ The saddle-horse should go backward in the walk with the same freedom and lightness as that with which it advances in that pace; and it should pass to either hand with precision, the spur demanding the changes of direction, the bits, acting like a rudder, guiding the forehand upon the path along which the croup moves. ”

“ In teaching any one to drive, particularly children, this point cannot be too much emphasized. The eyes, so to speak, should be in the boat, or in equine parlance on the horse, the whole livelong time,—from the moment you take up the reins till some one has the horse's head at the end of the journey. Lacking this fundamental axiom of all driving, everything else goes for nothing. ”

“ The legs, well muscled above, clean and hard below the knees, are truly placed under the mass, the drivers capable of propelling the weight of horse and man with vigor,—the fore legs giving no suggestion that the body is leaning forward, the hind legs having no appearance of buttressing up the body. The crest is marked, but not too strongly, and the muscles below it play like shadows as the animal proudly arches its tapering neck, which buries itself in broadly divergent jaws. ”

“ The man who can bit, harness, and drive four horses, or two horses, comfortably to himself, and to his horses, is adding just so much to the understanding of a subject which is of practical bread-and-butter interest to every man, woman, and child in the United States. Every ounce more of work that a horse can be harnessed to do, every practical hint that the master of horses can be induced to apply, every yard of road that can be improved, take something off the cost of everything we eat, drink, or wear. ”

“ I would rather have a poor stable, with a first-rate man in charge of it, than the best stable ever built, with a careless, indifferent, ignorant, and occasionally inebriate man in charge. No mechanical arrangements, no matter how minute and delicate in their serviceability, are of the slightest value when in control of the incompetent. Spend time, thought, money, and patience in building yourself the best stable your purse permits; but in proportion spend even more in procuring the man who is to be at the head of it. ”

“ Baucher says, somewhere, that to give an indifferent horseman the spur is as bad as to give a razor into the hands of a monkey. There is not one rider in ten thousand who knows how to give the sharp rowel, or is aware of its true uses. Improperly and too frequently applied, the spur makes the horse sluggish and never answers its real and full significance. The rider's leg and heel, or the sharp rowel when necessary—a rare occasion—gives the horseman control over the impulses which produce action, and over all the movements of the hind quarters. ”

“ All forms of driving are dangerous, from piloting Dobbin in a farm-wagon, to driving a drag to a race meeting, if the coachman is ignorant, careless, and nervous. Even Dobbin may go down on his knees, or shy, and run away, if he is not looked after. But tandem driving is no more dangerous than other forms of driving, if harness, cart, and horses are suited to the sport, and the coachman is forever vigilant. ”

“ In my limited experience in driving tandems I have never had a leader, however vicious, part company with the wheeler and bolt with his harness dangling about him; but if that event is yet to occur, and the twenty-three feet of lead-reins run clear, leaving my wheeler's bridle intact and in place, I shall attribute such good fortune to unbuckled hand-parts, and to the freedom of action of the swivels in my wheel throat-latch, so very practical, and so much to be preferred to the fixtures attaching to the rosettes at the wheeler's ears. ”

“ How often I have seen Piety in the saddle, sawing the tender bars of the horse's mouth, and sliding back and forth from pommel to cantle of the saddle, excoriating the tender skin and flesh beneath. How often I have seen Philanthropy and Worth driving horses with cruel bearing-reins, traces too long, pole-straps too tight, coupling-reins of the same length for the long-necked and the short-necked horse, belly-band tight and girth loose, bit too wide, nose-band flapping up and down, and breeching too tight or too loose. ”

“ The more seriously, then, sport is undertaken,—the more nearly it resembles work, in short,—the more completely it accomplishes its purpose. It goes without saying that when sport absorbs the whole man it defeats its own aim, since it is intended merely to supplement by artifice what has been lost by the changes in man's environment. Now that shooting, fishing, sailing, sparring, riding, driving, are not necessities, we wish to retain still the good results of them for men [V] doomed by the rearrangement of life to live more or less sedentary lives. ”

“ It is in these early days of the training of the road-horse or harness-horse that the wise owner puts all he knows of bitting, harnessing, shoeing, and feeding into practice. It is at these times, too, that he learns by scores of experiments which of the many counsels he has read or listened to is the wisest. It may be said, indeed, that an owner is and remains partially ignorant and incompetent, until he has watched and bitted and driven, day after day, an equine problem of his own. ”

“ In every use, other than draught-horse work, the trotter stands alone as a general utility horse. The intelligence and nervous restraint which makes the two-minute trotter a possibility also makes him, when used as a carriage horse, safer than any other, even when surrounded by the many hideous objects and noises he must face in the city streets of to-day. Prominent coaching men say that no horse in the world can draw a loaded coach at the same speed, and stand the work so well, as the American trotting-bred horse. ”

“ To put a coach on the road for a few weeks in the spring, to turn out a well-mannered pair for a lady's phaeton, to temper the disposition of two horses so that they bowl along pleasantly in a tandem, may at the first blush seem to be merely the idle vagaries of the unemployed rich. ”

“ We are a nation with over a billion dollars invested in equine machinery. It is an absurd misunderstanding of the subject to look upon the time, money, and intelligence devoted to the driving, bitting, and harnessing of horses as so much time, money, and intelligence devoted to a sport of the rich and fashionable. ”

“ Compared with a man's hand, for example, the horse's knee is represented by the human wrist; the hairless spot of skin with its cushion beneath—fatty cushion of the fetlock—represents the prominence behind the root of each finger opposite the knuckles; and the hoof itself represents the nail of the middle finger of man. ”

“ When the forces of the extremities of the trotting-horse are as closely united as is compatible with a forward movement, any increased impulses will be turned into height of action under the body, and the animal will seem to grow under the rider, as with curved crest, in which the quivering muscles prove the pliancy of the mass, the horse goes from one pair of diagonally disposed legs to the other in a slow, measured, brilliant trot—the most beautiful effect possible to obtain. ”

“ It is not to be expected that every man who owns, or handles, a horse should be a veterinary, but the elementary principles of harnessing and bitting a horse so that he can do his work comfortably ought to be required of every one who, either for his own pleasure, or for hire, has anything to do with horses. Such an one ought to know how he came to have his present teeth and legs, his present mouth and small stomach, which reveals at once the secret of many of his weaknesses and their proper care. ”

“ Above all, get all idea out of your head of "breaking" a horse. He is the last animal in the world to be made companionable or useful by being beaten and roughly handled and, as the phrase is, "broken." In his bitting, harnessing, and handling he should be made to do things by patience rather than by force. The notion that a horse should never be allowed to refuse to do what is required of him, but that he should [299] there and then be beaten into obedience is not only a false notion, but results badly. ”

“ I am no advocate for any paces other than the walk, the trot, and the gallop, these being the only movements in which the rider can obtain immediate and precise control over the actions of the horse. The riding-horse must be managed by reins and heels; no motions or signs are so exacting, so unmistakable in their demands, and it is impossible readily to obtain movements from a horse that is confused by eight or even five gaits, particularly when some of these gaits require an extension of the animal's forces incompatible with the union required in quick turns and in immediate obedience. ”

“ Within short railway journeys of Lexington, through a lovely, smiling country, are a number of stock farms devoted to the breeding of riding-horses; for, although the stupidity of "the market" demands that these animals shall be quiet to drive, they are bred on purely saddle-horse lines, and the breeder hopes that no animal leaving his hands will ever be called upon to look through a collar. I have known of one case where a farmer asked the privilege of taking back a very fine animal at the purchase price rather than see it put to harness work. ”

“ Not only the shockheaded MicMac who tools the grocery wagon about our crowded streets; not only the Sunday boy who indulges his Rowena in an hebdomadal picnic on wheels; but the hundreds of so-called coachmen who drive the high-priced horses of their masters in reins, bits, head-stalls, and collars fitted without discrimination upon any horse that comes into the stable,—all alike are in dire need of learning how to make the most of their opportunities. ”

“ Hence it is that a good sportsman, in undertaking such a duty, goes rain or shine, makes a point of being on time, insists upon promptness, not as a fad of his own, but because these are the implied articles of agreement between him and the city when he takes out his license. Like all other good sport, there is an element of hard work and tyranny in it. The coachman must at all times obey the laws of the sport. ”

“ There is no real pleasure, no real sport, in this world that does not entail intelligence and labor. It is one of the greatest of pleasures, one of the most wholesome sports, to own, to ride, and to drive horses. But to have a stable of, say, from three to ten horses and to get your own fun out of it, requires work, intelligence, and oversight.
Visit your friends who have horses and see how often this horse cannot go out, that horse cannot go out. ”

“ Above all things, abjure the maudlin sentiment of the day, that there should be no master and no man. The universe, so far as telescope can see, the earth, from centre to rim, recognize love, law, and obedience. Every intelligent man is the servant of somebody, and ought to be proud of it ”

“ It is much easier to avoid trouble than to get out of it. If you are alone, and with no one dependent upon you for support, your neck is your own; but with passengers, for whose safety you have tacitly pledged yourself, the moment you take the reins you have no right to take the smallest risk, and besides you are in honor bound to use your very best efforts for their safety and comfort. Above all things do not fancy that you are a coachman, because you own horses and can drive them. Bad driving in New York is responsible for one death a day the year round. ”

“ It would be a trifling task to write a book on driving for those who only wish to become drivers; but it is no small matter even to hint at the variety of knowledge necessary to one who wishes to become even a moderately good coachman. Now that we have arrived at this subject of the handling and fingering of the reins, it must not be overlooked that this is literally the superficial part of the business, and if it is built upon a foundation of complete ignorance of the horse, his house, his harness, his history, and his physical make-up, it will always remain superficial and unsatisfactory. ”

“ Training and teaching may accomplish much and make fair or even excellent performers; but beyond that it is divine grace, born not made, given not attained. The same is true of driving: you may be one of the elect, but if you are, you belong to a society as small as that of the Knights of the Garter, and you need not be vain, since it was no hard work of yours, but an endowment. It is a combination of physical and mental traits, a quickness of connection between nerve and brain and muscle, that may be cultivated and improved in all men, but which reaches perfection only in the few. ”

“ I dare not say how old a man may be and yet retain all of those powers which make him a skilful horseman. I know many riders who are well up in the "sixties," who do not appear to have lost any of their adroitness. That master of the art, De Bussigny, is no longer very young, although no one would believe the fact on seeing him on a horse. I saw James Newsome riding and training when he was far past seventy. ”

“ The horse may be merely nervous, or ignorant of what the bit means, or really suffering; and you have more intelligence than he has—the comparative weights of your brains and spinal cords prove it—and that being true, you should illustrate this physiological law by managing him, rather than to permit him to manage you. But, you reply, what if you have tried everything, and he still continues to pull your arms out and endanger the lives of yourself and others? ”

“ Then in case the brake does not work, or you are without one, the refusal may cause trouble. The brake is only for use when there is too much strain on horse and harness—not for use every time we go down the smallest declivity. Such use of it spoils rather than helps the horse. It is torture to a passenger to see and feel the brake go on, before the descent is reached even, and then kept on yards after there is no need of it. As a matter of fact, good men and good horses are able to negotiate any ordinary road, without any brake at all ”

“ All that reading, study, and experience can do is to avoid the worst faults, to keep in mind the salient good points, and then to make the very most of your purchase by care and training after he is your property. You may learn the good and bad points of a horse by heart and be as a [178] babe in the hands of a clever horse-seller, whether he be professional or amateur. He knows the weaknesses, and also the good points, of what he has to sell, and you do not; and there are very few Launcelots in the horse business. ”