all depended on holding the reins as hard as they could, never relaxing
the pull on the horse's mouth, or giving him the least liberty of
movement. They are always talking about keeping the horse well in
hand , and holding a horse up , just as if a horse was not made to hold
himself up.
Some poor, broken-down horses, whose mouths have been made hard and
insensible by just such drivers as these, may, perhaps, find some
support in it; but for a horse who can depend upon his own legs, and who
has a tender mouth and is easily guided, it is not only tormenting, but
it is stupid.
Then there are the loose-rein drivers, who let the reins lie easily on
our backs, and their own hand rest lazily on their knees. Of course,
such gentlemen have no control over a horse, if anything happens
suddenly. If a horse shies, or starts, or stumbles, they are nowhere,
and cannot help the horse or themselves till the mischief is done. Of
course, for myself I had no objection to it, as I was not in the habit
either of starting or stumbling, and had only been used to depend on my
driver for guidance and encouragement. Still, one likes to feel the rein
a little in going downhill, and likes to know that one's driver is not
gone to sleep.
Besides, a slovenly way of driving gets a horse into bad and often lazy
habits, and when he changes hands he has to be whipped out of them with
more or less pain and trouble. Squire Gordon always kept us to our best
paces and our best manners. He said that spoiling a horse and letting
him get into bad habits was just as cruel as spoiling a child, and both
had to suffer for it afterward.
Besides, these drivers are often careless altogether, and will attend to
anything else more than their horses. I went out in the phaeton one day
with one of them; he had a lady and two children behind. He flopped the
reins about as we started, and of course gave me several unmeaning cuts
with the whip, though I was fairly off. There had been a good deal of
road-mending going on, and even where the stones were not freshly laid
down there were a great many loose ones about. My driver was laughing
and joking with the lady and the children, and talking about the country
to the right and the left; but he never thought it worth while to keep
an eye on his horse or to drive on the smoothest parts of the road; and
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