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Coach House, Harness Room, and Driving Appliances, in the Badminton Driving, say : "Bearing reins have been, and will always continue to be, a bone of contention between coachmen of different classes, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and others who periodically write a considerable amount of rubbish on the subject when the newspapers are not feeling well and the gigantic gooseberry season comes in. It may safely be said that were not bearing reins still in use among the ordinary traffic of Piccadilly, Bond Street, Regent Street, etc., the number of accidents as well as the amount of coachbuilders' bills would be largely increased. There is no reason in the world why they can not be put on to be of use when required without causing torture, though no doubt in many cases they are improperly employed. As, however, there are some people-it is doubtful whether they are practical coachmen-who decline to see in bearing reins anything but horrible barbarity, it may not be out of place to state briefly in what cases they may be of some use. Except for the purpose of show, they might be dispensed with for horses in single harness in ninetynine instances out of a hundred. The hundredth horse might be some heavy-headed boring brute requiring more room in which to be pulled up than is always available in the streets of London. With such a horse a bearing rein, not tighter than is absolutely necessary.
