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56   DRIVING FOR PLEASURE.

and how to put a certain snap into his way of doing his work. By degrees, as a strapper, the cleaning of horses, harness, carriages, saddles, bridles, leathers, and all the incidental and additional duties are mastered, and he commences his career as a groom in livery. In this capacity he has to learn a great many little niceties as to the proper way of filling the positions of tiger, carriage, and pad groom. These qualifications mastered, he is passed to the degree of undercoachman, and then, if he is to be further advanced, he must be sufficiently interested in his work to learn the practical care of the horse ; his feeding, treatment, etc., in case of sudden sickness (and before a veterinarian can be summoned) ; he must look into horseshoeing from an intelligent standpoint, so that he can advise with the farrier as to the correction of some defect in balance or in action ; he must be well posted in mouthing and bitting as applied to horses of different temperaments ; he must know how to harness his horses properly, and how to drive a single horse, a pair, a tandem, or a four, in a finished and workmanlike manner, and, finally, he must not use liquor to excess. How true the maxim is, that a coachman is born, not made"; for, with all the requisite making here outlined, the number of men with the keenness and ability to profit by such training is extremely small.

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