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FIG. 6.—DOG-CART.
Body of cart should be wide and low.
The body should be as wide as possible, because nothing is more uncomfortable than being cramped on a narrow seat. It also ought to be low on the axle, thus rendering the cart far more safe and also more comfortable.
A fixed body is better than one that moves backwards and forwards on the shafts, because it always remains the same distance from the horse, and enables the cart to be built lighter.
Seat of cart.
Heath’s patent seat the best.
The seat should be low enough to prevent the driver from feeling he is in want of a footstool or that he is half standing, and should slide in a groove out of which it cannot come if the horse falls down. Many men have been thrown out and had bad accidents simply because of the seat coming away. It is moreover more comfortable if slightly below the top of the sides of the cart. The back and front seats should be so arranged that the cart will balance equally well with one person or four—a result which can be arrived at by having the seats to slide backwards and forwards when more than two people are in the cart. I consider Heath’s patent the best for this purpose; it is very light and effective.
Adjustable foot-rest necessary.
Bar foot-rest dangerous.
Position of lamps.
If the seat is a sliding one, the driver must have an adjustable foot-rest, and this can easily be managed by having about half-a-dozen pairs of holes in the floor of the cart for the foot-rest to fit into. It should be a plain board covered with indiarubber to prevent the feet slipping, and tilted at an incline which will keep the feet at right angles to the legs. A bar foot-rest is most dangerous, as the feet may be easily caught under it in getting out of the cart. The lamps should be fixed between the wheels and the sides of the cart, care being taken that there is plenty of room for them, so that should they get bent by any accident they will not interfere with the wheels. This position is much the best for tandem driving; in any other position they are continually catching the lash of the whip, and are consequently a perpetual source of annoyance.
Best trace attachment.
The best system of draught for a dog-cart is that in which the traces are attached to a swingle-tree, from the centre of which two chains pass down to loops fixed to the axle close to the inside of the wheels.
Swingle-tree.
The swingle-tree is held up by two straps which pass through metal loops in the front part of the cart. These straps should be pretty strong; were they to break, the bar would fall on the horse’s hocks and cause an accident.
Chains on swingle-tree not to be too long.
Be careful that the chains are not too long, and that the pull is really on them, and not as is frequently the case entirely on the straps. In the latter case of course the swingle-tree ceases to be of any use.
Advantages of swingle-tree attachment.
The swingle-tree attachment enables the horse to pull directly from the axle-tree by means of the chains, and in this way the best line of draught is obtained; moreover a certain amount of play is given to the horses’ shoulders and the chance of their galling is less than with the ordinary method.
FIG. 7.—DOUBLE HARNESS ON HORSE.
CHAPTER III.
DRIVING—DOUBLE HARNESS.
TO drive a pair well, that is, to be able to put-to and drive any two horses, is not such an easy thing as at first sight it may appear to the uninitiated. To drive a pair of good goers thoroughly accustomed to their work, and harnessed up in the right manner, is such a very simple matter that the merest tyro ought to be able to compete with it, with fair success. But when he has two entirely different and unknown animals to take in hand, it is quite another question.
Belly-bands.
Double harness is fitted exactly the same way as single, except that the belly-bands should be slightly looser, so as to admit two or three fingers between them and the girths.
We will suppose that the harness has been put on the horses and correctly fitted to them, and that they are standing in the stable ready to be put-to; then the correct way of bringing them out would be as follows:—
How to lead horse out of stable.
The traces having been placed across his back, the horse should be led out by the noseband, not by the rein or the bar of the bit, otherwise the groom is very apt to job him in the mouth without intending to do so, a performance to which he may object and run violently back, or rear up and fall over. Great care should be exercised when leading out of the stable. It not infrequently happens that horses hit their hips against the walls, which is liable to chip them, and cause lameness, besides teaching them the extremely bad habit of rushing out of the stable-door.
Hooking in alongside of pole.
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