"Best kind of harness simple and light." The harness should be as simple and as light as possible, consistent with strength. The colour is a matter of taste and convenience, but perhaps for country work brown with brass mounts is the most suitable, whereas for driving in the Park black harness is almost de rigueur. Certainly for soldiers at home, and more especially abroad, brown is far the most useful, because it is a part of every mounted soldier’s training to clean this kind of leather.

"Wheel harness." The wheeler’s harness is an ordinary single set with one or two trifling additions, none of which are absolutely necessary. These are two brass rings or loops fixed under the trace buckles, into which are fastened the spring hooks of the leader’s traces, and terrets on the pad divided by a roller to separate the reins. For the former short pieces of leather can be substituted, which have holes punched in one end, through which the tongues of the trace buckles pass, while at the other end are sewn metal rings to take the hooks of the leader’s traces. "Lead harness." The leader should have a pad of rather lighter make than the wheeler, with two fixed leather loops, one at each side, for the traces to run through. There must also be a bearing-strap passing over the horse’s loins, and this should be just long enough to keep the traces level.

"Lead traces." The traces are usually made long enough to be fixed to the loops on the wheeler’s traces, as already described. This is the simplest and most economical plan, but another method consists in having two swingle bars, by means of which the leader’s traces can be reduced to the same length as those of the wheeler.

"Swingle bars." The first of these bars, which is about two feet six inches in length, has a large hook about five inches long fixed in its front, and a light chain about one foot long attached at the back. The chain is hooked to a ring in the bottom of the wheeler’s hames, and is intended to prevent the bar from falling down. At each end of the bar are two short traces about two feet long, which hook into the wheeler’s trace in the same way as previously described for the long ones.

"Advantages of swingle bars over long traces." The second bar is a light swingle-tree about two feet in length, having an eyelet to attach it to the hook of the other bar.

Advocates for this system claim that it is less dangerous than the other, because neither horse can get a leg over the trace, nor can a trace wrap round the leader’s quarter if he swings suddenly round to study the view in rear. The second method however entails more expense and trouble than the first, which with careful driving need rarely be the cause of accidents.

"Traces hooked to shafts dangerous." The leader’s traces are sometimes hooked to the points of the shafts, but as this is a most dangerous system it should never be employed.

I have seen tandem traces extemporized out of ordinary single-harness traces and pole chains, the latter bridging the gap between the wheeler’s traces and the leader’s. This arrangement looked very smart, but must make the lead traces too heavy.

"Breast harness." Although not so smart as a collar, breast harness can be used in tandem equally as well as in single harness, and as it can be adjusted to fit any horse its use avoids the necessity of spending money on numerous collars. It also comes in very useful when a horse’s shoulders have been wrung by a collar (see Chap. I.).

"Length of lead traces." The length of the leader’s traces should depend on the length of the horses and also on their action. They should be as short as possible, but not so short as to make the wheeler appear to be stepping on the leader. Three feet from nose to croup seems to be about the right distance when the leader is in draught.

"Hooking up lead traces." While on the subject of the leader’s traces it may be well to point out that the best way to hook them up, when putting to or taking out the leader, is to pass the end of the trace from outside under and over itself just in front of the bearing-strap, and then fasten the hook to the ring of the hames.

"How to fasten up lead reins." As regards the fastening up of the lead reins, it is usual to take a loop in the end of the rein and pass it through the terrets of both pad and hames, so adjusting it that no spare end hangs down by itself. The loop will be about the right length if the end of the rein is brought up to the terret on the pad, the end of the loop thus made being then put through the terrets as described above.

"Driving bits." The best bits for all-round work are either the Liverpool or the elbow-bits, "Wheeler’s bit." but the wheeler’s should be made with a light bar across the bottom of the cheek pieces. This prevents the wheeler from catching the lead rein under the end of the cheek piece, which constantly happens if he is inclined to shake his head about, and has the effect of pulling the leader sharply to one side. "Bit catching in rein." It is, moreover, very difficult to get the rein free when caught in this way without getting down. I think, as a rule, it is a good plan to pass the lead reins through the loops of the bearing-rein of the wheeler, instead of through D’s fixed on his "Lead reins through bearing-rein loops." head-collar or throat-lash. The loops should hang down about four inches, and be quite loose, so that the wheeler can toss his head to a considerable extent without violently jerking the leader in the mouth. It is unnecessary to pass the reins through the terrets on the hames, as bringing them straight back to those on the pad gives a better lead.

Of course, if the wheeler habitually shakes his head about very much, either up or down, or both, then a martingale and a bearing-rein must be put on, which will effectually stop his little game.

"Lead reins never to be buckled." Never drive with the lead reins buckled, as, if the leader breaks either the traces, or the bar (if he has one), by kicking or falling, the reins will run through the terrets, and the horse can then get clear away, and a worse accident be avoided. "Leader’s tail over rein." Should the leader get his tail over a rein, a good way of getting it clear is to pull the wheeler well across to the side on which the rein is fast, and the leader rather over to the opposite side, slacking at the same time the fixed rein as much as possible. By this manoeuvre the rein will often come loose. If it does not, try hitting the leader on the quarter with the whip, when he will probably swish his tail and allow the rein to drop.

"Tandem whip." The whip is generally a rather lighter and shorter one than that used for four horses, though the same can perfectly well be used. The usual lengths of stick and lash are about five and ten feet respectively. As to the correct method of holding and handling it the reader must kindly refer to a former chapter, where it is fully discussed. The principles are obviously exactly the same.