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124

DRIVING FOR PLEASURE.

I see with pleasure lie has resumed the subject of " the road."

On the subject of bearing reins" I quite agree with him. It is not only a relief to the arm of the driver, but to the horse himself in a long journey. The look of a thing goes a great way in England, and no man who wishes to turn out well would dispense with the bearing rein. One of your correspondents thinks horses will go safer without the bearing rein, and brings in the Continental practice as proof. I also have been on the Continent a good deal, and have seen the fallacy of that argument. I have also traveled a good deal in mail and fast coaches, and never yet saw a horse fairly down in one of them. I have seen a wheel horse sometimes all but down, and only kept on his legs by a bearing rein.'"

imrod, in his chapter on Bearing Reins, Fast Coaches, and Linchpins, in Annals of the Road, says `' I have clearly stated the absolute necessity of bearing up the coach horse, which equally applies to the hand post horse, with only this trifling distinction : the coach horse is generally more above his work than the post horse, and he is also always running home (ergo, in a hurry), which is not the case with the post horse. All those who have been accustomed to fast work well know the difficulty of holding horses together and having a perfect command over them even with bearing


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