HARNESS

The harness has two fundamental functions: first, to attach the horse to the vehicle, so that he may pull it; second, to enable the coachman to guide the horse. The elements of all harness, therefore, are: the collar, hames, and traces, and the bridle, bit, and reins.

The pulling part—the collar, hames and traces—should, of course, be first of all strong and then as light as will fulfil their purpose; the guiding part—the bridle, bit, and reins—should first of all be light, but strong enough to hold the horse. Whether you buy harness, or use harness, or wish to be guided in examining and keeping in repair your own harnesses, these are the underlying principles of the whole subject.

All questions of form or fads or personal peculiarity must first conform to these principles, otherwise the harnessing will be wrong. From judging the appointment classes at a horse show to the buying of a harness for your children's pony, these first principles of what a harness should be apply rigidly.

Unless there is a rational basis to go upon in all these matters, form and style and so on are mere silliness. As an example of this, there is the absurd dictum in this country that a lady should sit on the right side of her own carriage, due, of course, to the fact that in England vehicles pass to the left, which of course makes the right side the prominent side. In this country vehicles pass to the right, which of course makes the left side the prominent, and, for purposes of seeing and being seen, the more convenient side. This is a very happy illustration of vehicular toadyism, or of so-called "form," which is simian, rather than sensible. Wherever, therefore, in the matter of manners and appointments on the road, from the harnessing, furnishing, and handling of a pony cart to a "drag," you are met with a statement or given advice that has no rational sanction, be sure you are wrong and investigate further.

A similar question to the above is the much-mooted one as to whether the reins, particularly in four-in-hand driving, should be buckled or left unbuckled. When the mail-coaches were making the best time possible from stage to stage or when the amateur whip was making the best time possible in imitation thereof, it was claimed that a certain amount of time was saved at the end of each stage by doing away with the unbuckling of the reins. True, time was saved, and with professional coachmen there was the minimum of danger from dropping a rein. But nowadays, in driving a coach, either on the road or in the park, the safety, comfort, and pleasure of the passengers are first of all important, and the seconds saved in unbuckling reins are of no consequence.

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1. Bridoon.2. Double ring snaffle.3. Half-check jointed snaffle

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The best road coachman I know in this country, and a man who probably never dropped a rein in his life, drives with his reins buckled. As to the question of the leaders running away, when of course buckled reins would catch in the terrets of the wheel horses' pads,—that is as though a man should sleep every night in a rope harness for getting out of windows in case of fire.

These two questions are typical of certain vapid discussions of questions relating to harness and harnessing, and they are also typical of how the student of such matters should settle them. Usage is the law of language, so, too, usage should not be dethroned in any department of life without good reason; but when usage becomes an empty form, and when a change makes for safety, comfort, and convenience, there should be no hesitation about making it.

The earliest form of vehicle and harness, and upon which all improvements have been built up, are the Indian pony with two long poles attached to his belly-band and a rawhide rope around his neck. There you have all the elements of a harness, but with no comfort and no convenience, and only the most precarious safety. In the famous picture, "Attila at Rome," by Raphael, the Huns are riding without bit or bridle, merely a rope or strap around the neck of their mounts. In certain pictures of Roman chariots there is but one rein attached to a snaffle-bit, and the horse was evidently guided by the pressure of the rein and the whip; though it is to be remembered that the complicated turnings of modern traffic and modern roads were unknown, and to keep straight, and to start and stop, were the main thing.

To begin at the beginning in a discussion of modern harness (Plate XXII.), it is proper to emphasize the fact that the very best leather is none too good, whether in your traces or in your reins. The best leather is made of the hides of heifers or steers and tanned with oak bark. The total supply of oak bark in England is only about three hundred thousand tons a year, which amount is quite insufficient; and most of the English leather is tanned by cheaper and quicker methods. The old oak-tanning process took eighteen months, and made leather of unequalled quality. To-day the process hardly consumes as many weeks, and in America, hemlock bark is the most important material used.

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It is not easy, except by long experience, to tell good leather at a glance. One authority says that good leather should "be solid, but not hard; mellow, but not soft." The black leather in a harness should have a smooth surface, close texture, and when bent between the hands should not show minute cracks.

The collar is the keystone of the pulling part of the harness. It should fit to a nicety, every horse having his own collar as much as the coachman should have his own boots. The collar should be lined with some non-porous material, preferably soft leather—even thin patent leather is good and easily cleaned. If the collar is too wide, it will rub the shoulders; if too short, it will choke the horse; if rounded at the top, it will press on and gall the withers. Usually the collar that will go over a horse's head will fit as to width, and is long enough when four fingers, held vertically, will go between the collar and neck, when the head is held in its usual position. The sides of the upper part of the collar, as well as the sides over the shoulders, should be well filled out, to prevent the rubbing of the point of the collar on the withers. In cases where the horse has an unusual conformation of head and neck a collar opening at the top is a convenience—one or two such collars should be kept in every stable. Collars may be either straight or curved back, the latter variety showing off the horse's neck to advantage.

The hames must, of course, fit the collar; and the draught-eye in the hames, to which the tug is attached, should be placed so that the pull comes upon the muscles of the lower part of the shoulder-blade, or at a point where this large bone is narrowest. Usually hame-rings are placed too low by a full inch on the hames when fitted to the collar. This is important, as it puts the draught where the horse can most easily apply most power and leaves his shoulders as free as though the collar were not there. The incline of the trace from the collar, so far as applied mechanics are concerned, matters little so long as it is not too high nor too low; but as a wheel meets with friction and obstructions up and over which it must be pulled, it is an advantage to have the trace decline from the collar to the vehicle.

It is well to put the collar on some minutes before the horse is to be used in it, so that his neck and shoulders may be warmed for their work; and it is absolutely essential to sound skin on neck and shoulders that the collar should be left on the horse five or ten minutes after his return, hot from work. Pads or saddles should fit as well as collars and should be placed just back of the shoulders, where the muscles are no longer prominent. If horses were saddled twenty minutes before they were wanted, and only unsaddled—girths of course being loosened—twenty minutes after their return to the stable, these precautions, and a liberal use of alcohol rubbed into the skin, would lessen materially the number of sore backs. A Dutch collar, or breastplate, is sometimes used in light harness instead of a neck collar. In the case of a horse with sore shoulders this is a convenience, or a horse with graceful neck and shoulders in the lead of a tandem shows off better with such a collar. But for draught it is not as good as the neck collar.

To the hames on the collar is fastened the tug, to the tug the trace, which at its other end is fastened finally to the vehicle. Of the length of tugs and traces it is to be said that they should be of such length that the back-band lies on the middle of, not in front or behind, the pad, when the horse is pulling. The reason for this is that otherwise the horse will be pulling the vehicle, not by the trace, but by the back-band. Many illustrations of this awkwardness may be seen wherever you see horses in harness.

Of the particular fastenings of tugs to hames, and of traces to vehicles,—these must depend upon the type of vehicle, and had best be left to the choice of the technically experienced. But it is every owner's business to see to it that these draught portions of the harness are strong and of the proper length. In the case of traces in a coach harness, the inside trace should be about half a hole shorter than the outside trace to make the draught even, and the convenient way to do this is to wrap the inside roller-bolt with leather, thus taking up more of the trace on that side, and saving the weakening of the trace by punching an extra hole in the tug end of it.

Good, strong, pliable reins, particularly of the length, 23 feet 6 inches, required for the lead-reins of a coach, are hard to get, but merit all the time and money spent in getting them. Of the size, viz. the width, of the reins, one writer says: "Medio tutissimus ibis," which back-of-the-dictionary Latin would apply equally well to a man's gloves or collars. If you have short fingers, the reins should be, say, three-quarters or seven-eighths of an inch wide; if long fingers, one inch wide or even a little more. A man with short fingers would be hampered, and his work in fingering four reins would be cramped, with wide reins.

A horse's bridle should fit him nicely and with no loose ends hanging or sticking about his head. Nothing looks more slovenly than trace points or back-band points or bridle billet ends sticking out of, and beyond their loops.

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The horse's eyes should come in the middle of the winkers, and the headstall should be so fitted as to keep them there. The winkers should not bulge out nor turn in, and thus almost touch the eye. Above all, they should not, as is often the case, drop so that the horse can see over, and behind them. Many horses under these circumstances will pay so much attention to the man and the whip, and perhaps the parasol, behind them, that they will see nothing else. The throat-latch should be loose enough to allow three fingers between it and the throat. It is intended to keep the whole bridle in place, but not to choke the horse. The nose-band is a survival. It was intended to keep the jaws of the horse together so that he could not relieve himself from the bit by opening his mouth. In the case of a bit with a high port it is still useful for that purpose; but even when used merely because it came as part of the harness, it should fit and not be a flopping ring of leather around the horse's nose. A nose-band properly adjusted should have the width of two fingers between it and the horse's jaws and should fit snugly and not too far up over his nose. The brow-band should so fit that it does not rub the ears. When the bridle is hung up as one piece, see that it is not hung on a hook, so that one side or the other is pulled out of shape, but on a proper bridle-rack.

Of bits, as of books, there is no end. Xenophon advises a flexible bit covered with leather. "No matter what the kind of bit, it must always be flexible," he maintains (Plate XXI.). William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, in probably the most sumptuous book on the horse ever published, writing in 1657, says, "But above all, this rule is chiefly to be observed, to put as little iron in your horse's mouth as possibly you can."

With bits as with shoes, the less and the lighter, the better, so long as they be strong enough to hold your horse. The plain snaffle, ring snaffle, double ring snaffle, Liverpool bit, Elbow bit, Buxton bit, Swales's patent, and (Plates XXIII. and XXIV.) innumerable modifications of these, offer opportunity to shift responsibility from your own hands to the tender bars of the horse's mouth. Outside of here and there a horse who, on account of bad early training or from ill-usage or from fracture, it is impossible to bit so that he will go comfortably, the matter of bits and bitting is a matter of patience and experiment.

Bits are often bought as though any size of bit would do for any size of horse. But a bit too large is as injurious as a bit too small. The mouthpiece should be exactly the width of the mouth, and if you have not a bit that fits exactly, it is a simple matter to insert around the mouthpiece and inside the branch of the bit, a disk of leather of the thickness required to make your bit fit snugly (Plates XXV. and XXVI.). This fitting of the bit alone makes a great difference to the comfort of the horse, as may be seen by looking closely at the way in which a bit with the mouthpiece too long works in the horse's mouth, when attached to two long reins and pulled this way and that. The bit should be placed neither too high nor too low in the mouth, but about an inch above the tusk.

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The curb-chain should allow of two fingers between it and the horse's jaw. This curb-chain is a part of the lever which works by the bit, through the reins, on the mouth, and should be handled with discrimination and soberly. The curb-chain may be made more severe, either by tightening it, or by turning the chain itself so that it will be with rough edges against the horse's jaw. It is doubtful whether this is more than a temporary solution of pulling. Its final effect is to deaden the horse's mouth. When you are tempted to tighten your curb-chain, tighten your nose-band and loosen your curb-chain instead; or lift the bit by a hole in the horse's mouth or lower it; or buckle your reins in the cheek instead of the bar, middle bar, or lower bar; or if there seems to be trouble on one side of the horse's mouth and not on the other,—if on the near side, put the off rein into the middle bar, leaving the near rein in the cheek, or vice versa; or look to see if your horse has his tongue over the bit; or if he is inclined to loll with his tongue, tie his tongue down with soft string; or loosen or tighten the bearing-rein;—in short, use every means in your power to make the horse comfortable before you resort to harsh measures—which last, by the way, are almost never permanently successful.

Above all things, don't lose your temper, and make matters absolutely impossible of remedy by doing just what the horse is doing—pulling! The horse may be merely nervous, or ignorant of what the bit means, or really suffering; and you have more intelligence than he has—the comparative weights of your brains and spinal cords prove it—and that being true, you should illustrate this physiological law by managing him, rather than to permit him to manage you. But, you reply, what if you have tried everything, and he still continues to pull your arms out and endanger the lives of yourself and others? Then get out of a bad fix as best you can. Telegraph him that you decline the nomination as candidate unless he reforms, and get him back to Nebraska as speedily and with as little danger as possible.

Anything that can be done to freshen or to keep fresh the animal's mouth, and to give him something rather to play with, than to pull against, is important. Hence the reason for changing the position of the bit, for movable mouthpieces, or for any other device to keep the horse from taking the bit too seriously.

There are innumerable experiments to be tried before a horse is to be set down as a "puller." Often when a horse finds he is not to be hurt, he goes well enough. Take out the heavy bit, and drive him in a snaffle. Cover his bit with rubber, or sew salt pork on his bit; or give him a bit that works up and down, or change from the straight bit to one with a slight port, so that it does not rest on his tongue, or go to your harness maker and have a Liverpool made with a jointed mouthpiece,—why not? What you want is something not unsightly to drive your horse in, and, as we have said before, though "form" and "correctness" are absolutely essential to persons and things without content, they are to be set aside always when there is a rational sanction for doing so. Dress parade at quarters if you please and without a speck or a spot or a stir of a muscle; but undershirts and bare feet for coaling ship and going into action. The man who is overawed by twaddle about "form" in the treatment of a live animal, whether man or beast, must have cur blood in him from some source, and is not a proper person to be put in authority over either.

There are many things about the harness which annoy the horse and make him restive and uncomfortable to drive. His brow-band may be chafing his ears; his winkers may be flapping or pushing against his eyes; his pad or saddle may not fit, and be rubbing his backbone; the crupper may be too short, catching him hard under the tail or pulling the saddle backward; the traces may be too long or too short, hampering him in his work; his shoes may have been on too long and become too small for his ever growing hoof; the bearing-rein may be too tight; the bit too wide, or hard on his tongue, or pressing against inflamed tissue caused by ragged teeth which ought to have been filed down.

All these matters, it ought to be the pride, as it is the duty, of a coachman to look out for. It is for this reason, if for no other, that the owner of a horse or horses should know the elements at least of the history, housing, harnessing, and handling of the horse. Ignorance not only means discomfort and danger, but it means cruelty as well.

A martingale is intended to prevent the horse from throwing up his head. It is looped through a buckle and attached to the belly-band at one end; the other end is a split strap with rings through which the reins pass, or it may be fastened to the bit itself, or to the nose-band if the horse is refractory or fussy about his mouth.

The question of bearing-reins is not a question of bearing-reins or no bearing-reins, but a question of the use and misuse of bearing-reins. No horse or pony of spirit should be driven by a woman or a child without a bearing-rein. It prevents the animal rubbing his head against shaft or pole, and catching and perhaps pulling his bridle off; it prevents him from getting his head down between his legs and becoming unholdable; and it makes kicking more difficult. A halter is enough for Dobbin when Dobbin goes his sleepy way, but there is no knowing what day in ten years Dobbin gets well, and devil a saint is he! The bearing-rein, properly adjusted, does not inconvenience the horse in the slightest and is a valuable safeguard in time of need. For a boring or heavy-headed or gross-necked horse, the bearing-rein takes weight off the coachman's hands and helps rather than impedes the horse.

On the other hand, the bearing-rein, like a certain feminine piece of harness, may be used for purposes of fashionable distortion. The horse's head is twisted up high in the air to make him lift his legs and to give him a lofty and proud appearance. This use of the bearing-rein is indeed an abomination. The gag bearing-rein is a rein passing from a point of the headstall on each side, through a swivel attached to the snaffle, thence through another ring, and fastened on to the hook of the pad or saddle. The sides of the horse's mouth are drawn up, and with a tight crupper to boot, the horse looks as though he were tied together at the teeth and the tail. One sees little of this nowadays. Only the very newest dollars, daubed with unusual ignorance, permit this turkey-cock style of harnessing.

The crupper, passing from the pad or saddle and ending in a padded loop under the tail, holds the saddle from slipping forward when the harness is without breeching, and also, as a horse always tucks his tail into his quarters when about to kick, prevents kicking to some extent. The crupper should be stuffed with linseed to keep it moist, and to prevent its hardening and becoming a worry to the horse.

In these days, when even light carriages have brakes, breeching is seldom used except with state or very dressy harness. In a hilly country or with two-wheeled traps, particularly those driven by women or children, it should be a part of the harness. In such cases, safety rather than appearance or lightness is the essential thing. The breeching should hang about twelve inches below the upper part of the dock, and have four to six inches' play when the horse is in his collar.

The kicking-strap in a single harness is fastened on one shaft and passes up and over the horse's quarters through a loop in the crupper and down on the other side to the other shaft. In double harness two straps are needed. They are fastened to the pad and run alongside the crupper to the splinter-bar and are connected by a strap across the quarters. No advice is necessary here. When a kicking-strap is needed, the necessity is obvious. Pains should be taken, however, to have the kicking-strap well back on the quarters, otherwise it is valueless, and also to have it loose enough not to be the cause itself of kicking.

Though the whip is not part of the harness, it is an important adjunct. The best stocks are made of holly or of our own white hickory. The stock should be five feet long, and the thong, for four horses, ten feet six inches—for one or two, four feet long. The balance of the whip to one who drives much is as important as the suitable balance of a fishing-rod, golf-club, or rapier. If badly balanced, it adds a surprising burden of weight on the hand, to one who has not experienced it. A good maker's whip will balance at its best, at the collar; that is to say, when grasped at the collar it is carried with the weight most evenly distributed for its holder. The thong should be kept pliable with mutton tallow or soap,—crown soap is the best,—and never pipe-clayed, which rots the thong. It should never be left standing, but, in order to keep its shape, it should hang, when not in use, on a spool. Even heavy poles will warp, if not properly cared for, by keeping them lengthwise on proper rests; much more true is this of the far lighter and more delicate whiphandles. The large or butt end of a good stock will be nine-tenths of an inch round, the small end six-tenths. For a heavy whip the handle should be covered with pigskin, and sewn down its length, or, even better, wound in a spiral, each fold overlapping, which makes the handle less slippery in wet weather; the chief value of pigskin here and elsewhere in saddlery and harness-making is that it is not made rough by friction. Imitation pigskin is made in quantity. In genuine pigskin, the bristles reach clear through the skin, so that there are holes on the flesh side. In the imitations the holes only reach part way through. The thong on every whip should be of the same material throughout, and not terminate in whipcord, or silk, or ribbons, or any other fussy material. The whip is for use—important use—to a good coachman, and should be made accordingly.

Of the care of harness, it would be difficult to say too much. The whole pleasure and safety of driving depend practically upon the watch that is kept to see that it is safe and strong. When there is question about wear, it is better to replace the worn part at once. Better throw an old harness aside, than run the risk of its being used by leaving it in the stable. It may be put on in muddy weather, or through carelessness, and disaster follows. As long as leather remains dry and clean, it needs little attention. Once it is wet, it should be carefully cleaned and well rubbed with oil. Neat's-foot oil is the best. Vegetable oils, with the single exception of castor-oil, which is disagreeable by reason of its odor, are apt to become hard. All brass or plate on harness tarnishes easily, and should be kept from the ammonia of the stable and from the fumes of gas, if it is burned; as well as from gas from the stove. A good mixture for black harness is one pint spirits of turpentine, four ounces of beeswax, one ounce prussian blue, half an ounce lampblack; after the application, plenty of hand polishing. It would seem almost unnecessary to warn against soaking any part of leather harness in water, if the writer had not seen on more than one occasion parts of harness literally left to soak in the water-bucket! In the case of the parts of the harness made of patent leather, no wax preparation should be used; vaseline and a soft rag will do the cleaning sufficiently well.

What has been said of the care of harness is equally, and for the same reason, of safety, true of the carriages in your stable. All carriages profit by an airing occasionally. If they are not often used, they should be run out and left for an hour or two in a dry, warm place. Carriages newly painted and varnished should be washed several times before they are used. This sets and hardens paint and varnish.

Carriages should not be merely dusted or wiped over, but washed when they come in, and thoroughly dried—a soft sponge on fine carriages, a hose on rougher vehicles, and a soft chamois to dry both, and patience—never hot water and never picking off of dried mud, lest paint and varnish come with it. Carriages with plain axles should have the axles seen to after every outing. Men who do much driving of heavy vehicles with Collinge or Mail axles, unless they have competent servants or are competent themselves, find it safer and better to have the carriage builder look after their axles at regular intervals. Collinge axles will go from one to two months; Mail axles a week without oiling, on a private coach. On public coaches it is the custom to examine the axles each day.

Washing and caring for carriages is not a difficult matter, except that the human qualities of patience and painstaking are more difficult to find even than mechanical ability. Time should be taken on the wash-stand, if nowhere else. Of the care of the cushions and stuffed parts of carriages, and the metal parts, common sense, and the well-known commercial pastes sold by all harness and carriage makers, will fit a man out to do his duty. With styles of carriages and appropriate vehicles for exhibiting and the like, this book does not deal. The most scientific treatise on the subject of the coach and carriage is "A Manual of Coaching," by Fairman Rogers. The author was of high attainments as an engineer, and of great practical experience as a coachman. A valuable book of reference, with complete and very good illustrations covering the ground of appropriateness and "good form," is "Driving for Pleasure," by Francis T. Underhill. A very useful compilation, very complete and clear as to all details of the stable is, "The Private Stable," by James A. Garland.

All parts of steel, bits, curb-chains, pole-chains, kidney-links, and the like, after washing, may be put into lime-water—dissolving as much common lime as the water will take; this does steel no harm and keeps off rust. To polish these parts, they should be shaken in a bag with fine sawdust and sand. Sand and emery paper scratch, and do not burnish satisfactorily; a steel burnisher is the only way in which the original polish can be regained or retained.

That harness should be appropriate to the horse, the vehicle, and the use to which it is to be put, goes without saying. The pony-cart, the runabout, the drag, the miniature Victoria, the station wagon, need harness to suit them. But this by no means entails different harness for every vehicle. On the contrary, a few changes, and a pair of leaders' reins, both for four and tandem, will fit you out for almost any kind of driving. Collars, bits, saddles, should fit their wearers; and of these, if there are many horsemen and horsewomen in the family, you must have an adequate supply. But the light pony-pair harness with long reins, and the heavier harness if a larger pair fitted with removable terrets, gives you a four-in-hand harness. A similar arrangement with two single harnesses will give you a tandem harness; and it is well to remember that the greater variety of driving you have, the more confidence you will gain and the better you will drive. It is hard on the men in the stable to have too little harness, and it is a burden to have a lot of harness that is never used. Leather up to a certain age improves with use and deteriorates when left to hang and become dry, so that it is almost as necessary not to have too much harness as to have enough. Let it be repeated that any question of worn parts of a harness should be investigated and attended to at once. This is not merely economy; it is gross extravagance not to do so, and a peril besides.

When men wore close armor and a beaver down, they could only be distinguished by emblems on their shields or harness. When reading was an almost unknown accomplishment, it was necessary that men should have over their tents in the field, or over their gates or doors at home, signs and symbols that could be easily seen and distinguished. Hence arms and heraldry. The more conspicuous the man or the family, the more necessary that he and they should be easily recognizable. Hence the inns of the local village, the servants, the carriages, and the like were distinguished by a particular badge.

The reason for this has passed. The overpowering instinct in man to prolong his existence, by having been, by being, and by affirming that he will be, as shown in genealogy, in ambition to be well known, and in the belief in immortality, is the explanation of heraldry. That the army, navy, or diplomatic officer should put a cockade in his servants' hats, is therefore not difficult to understand. That almost every man should wish to make the best of his ancestry,—to cut out the tailors, and hatters, and tinsmiths, and tanners, and make prominent the worthies,—is also not difficult to understand. To the American, however, the conspicuous use of insignia of this kind, unless the authenticity thereof be verifiable by proofs unquestionable, is rather childish. There is no doubt whatever but that we all have a strain of the right to bear arms blood; there is also no doubt that we have all more or less lived through days of small and tradesman-like things in this country, and perhaps your own initials on your harness are the safest badge. If you are a gentleman, it will probably show itself most conspicuously by the fact that you never remind others of it and never forget it yourself. If either technically or morally you are not a gentleman, no sign and motto will make you one. Indeed, some badges on harness only serve to make conspicuous the fact that the horses are better bred than the owners. This is a comparison that should be avoided. It is not fair to the horses.

Lastly, in writing of harness, it is proper to remind the horse owner that his harness like his horse improves by use and proper care after use. Therefore avoid having too much harness. Unless you are a constant exhibitor in the show ring, you can adapt your harnesses, if they are all made in the same general pattern as to pads, blinkers, terrets, brow-bands, and the like, to many uses.

A runabout harness of heavy make, with part of a double harness for your leader and a pair of long reins and a pair of traces and terrets that screw in and can be taken off, fit you out with a tandem harness. One heavy and one light set of double harness with similar arrangements as to reins and terrets will fit you out with a four-in-hand harness; and if you stick to about the same type of horse, with your saddlers in the lead and your harness horses in the wheel, you may have all the varieties of driving without undue expense and without an over-accumulation of harness.