In driving four-in-hand, it is not every man who knows when a coach-horse is at work, as a horse may keep a tight trace, and yet be doing little. There is, however, an increased tension of the horse’s frame when taking weight with him, which is the surest test, and which never escapes a quick and experienced eye. As already observed, those called lobbing-goers take greater weight with them than horses of finer action, provided they are equally close workers. Heavy draught shortens the stride of horses, after they have been a few years at work. THE TIME. In short distances, to know precisely at what time it is necessary to start, to arrive at any place at a certain hour, the driver has only to ascertain the distance, and to regulate the pace by the following table:-- 4 miles an hour, 1 mile in 15 minutes. 5 ditto ditto 12 ditto 6 ditto ditto 10 ditto 7 ditto ditto 8½ ditto 8 ditto ditto 7½ ditto 9 ditto ditto 6½ ditto 10 ditto ditto 6 ditto In the streets of London, ten minutes at least, in every hour, must be allowed for stoppages. THE WHIP. “We are too apt,” said the late Lord Erskine, “to consider animals under the domination of man in no view but that of property. We should never forget that the animal over which we exercise our power has all the organs which render it susceptible of pleasure and pain. It sees, it hears, it smells, it tastes, it feels with acuteness. How mercifully, then, ought we to exercise the dominion intrusted to our care!” Speaking to coach-horses from the box is now considered slow, but it is not without its effect. Whipping, however, is sometimes indispensable. The manufacture of four-horse whips has arrived at great perfection, and affords employment to many hundred hands. Refined management of the whip is not of many years’ birth; and even now there are but few who execute this effectually and with grace. There are as many ways of whipping coach-horses, says a clever writer in the _Sporting Magazine_, as there are horses in the coach; and, as there is a right and a wrong way of doing most things, a young beginner may observe the following directions, beginning with the wheel-horses:-- Before a coachman hits a wheel-horse, he should twist his thong three times round the crop of his whip, holding the crop at that moment somewhat horizontally, by which means the thong will twist towards the thin end of the crop, when the thong, being doubled, will not exceed the length of a pair-horse thong, and in some measure resemble it. Being double renders it of course more severe, as it falls more heavily on the horse; and by the two ends of the thong not being spread, but close together at the time of the blow, it falls with increased force.