HARNESS AND HARNESSING.   69

vision or attention, and in consequence the management of all the details must be left to servants.

Those who have sufficient leisure will find occupation for many pleasant hours in "fussing" about their stables, considering whether the harness appears to the best advantage when hung this way or that, whether this or that horse's tail is properly trimmed, whether the shoeing has been attended to, and so on.

A man who drives tandem or four-in-hand should take down his whip and catch a few double thongs, not only to keep his hand in, but to be sure the thong is soft and mellow.

Many grooms hang their whips when they come in and leave them until just before they are needed for use, when they run over the thongs with a little pipe clay. This course makes a thong feel like pipeclayed wire. Not only is it impossible to catch a thong properly when it is in this condition, but the tendency is to take the heart out of the leather, thus causing it to break at inopportune moments.

The very best treatment for a thong is to have it rubbed with a bullock's heart once a week or so. It can be dressed down in the meantime with mutton tallow or saddle soap.

The thong should always be so soft and pliable as to admit of doubling it sharply between the thumb and forefinger without apparent displacement of the