A place for horse related questions

[Toby Frost]

That's interesting. It seems to be a standard Wild West thing, along with shouting "Yah! Giddyup!" when the stagecoach is attacked. Given that I'm writing about fantasy Georgians somewhere in England, it doesn't seem very applicable. But I do need something for the driver to do in order to accelerate and to show that he's worried.

 

[AE35Unit]

Click of the tongue and something like Move on, or Hup. Depending on what the horse was trained to respond to.

 

[Vertigo]

That's interesting. It seems to be a standard Wild West thing, along with shouting "Yah! Giddyup!" when the stagecoach is attacked. Given that I'm writing about fantasy Georgians somewhere in England, it doesn't seem very applicable. But I do need something for the driver to do in order to accelerate and to show that he's worried.

I think if the driver is getting a little worried a gentle tap with the whip (is that what it's actually called?) might be in order. I think only a gentle tap is usually required; none of this cracking the whip over their ears.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

If it’s in a Georgian type universe, driving was a highly fashionable activity. The emphasis would have been on understated grace.
I suggest an emphasis on accuracy with the whip (a long affair that is rigid for part of its length and then tapering and very flexible with a knitted tip), eg touching the leader lightly to urge the team onwards, and then use of voice. You could also play with the driver’s clothing (many-caped driving cloak/coat) and gleaming top boots. There was much prestige to be had by driving accurately as well as fast, e.g tight corners, narrow gateways.

 

[Vertigo]

There was much prestige to be had by driving accurately as well as fast, e.g tight corners, narrow gateways.

That was something I thought very impressive in the videos I looked at - really tight cornering. The other thing I noticed was that in some teams the front (lead?) horses seemed smaller than the rear pair. Small and nimble for steering and big and powerful for pulling?

 

[Montero]

I did a chunk of research on wagon pulling a while back (including on here - thank you everyone again on difference in heavy horses and other such info), for a book that is part written and parked for now, and you also need to take into consideration going down hill and going down steep hills - the layout of roads have changed down the centuries. A foot path or pack horse trail up a steep hill was often straight up - shortest distance - but as soon as you put wheels into the equation, you are looking at a zig zag road with shallower gradient. Wagons often came with brakes and you have accounts of the wagon driver's second, sometimes the spouse being skilled with when to apply the brake, hauling on the handle, because the last thing you want is the wagon trying to smack the horses up the bottom, or even running them over.

I've also read a lot of Georgette Heyer Regency novels and she makes much play in some books of sporting gentleman and ladies and their driving skills and vehicles - including it was possible to drive at more than a walk on a brightly moonlit night. You might want to look at that for style and feel. Grand Sophy is definitely one with driving skills discussed. There was also a lot of keen-ness to match the colour of the horses so "a pair of matched bays" is a phrase that will pop up. The bigger horses next to the carriage were referred to as "wheelers" in those books, I seem to remember.

And to blow your mind just a little - here are the Royal Horse artillery at play. And riding a team like they are doing was also done with civilian carriages - I've seen "postilion's boots" in stately home displays - a really big, solid, rigid boot armoured with metal, to protect the leg on the inside between the horses from being crushed - though I'm not seeing that here.
Enjoy

I've seen a display at Earl's Court a lot of years back - and blinking heck those guns weigh a lot. You can feel the rumble and vibration up through your seat.

This one is an outdoor performance of the same - with more space. So they have the rest of the gun crew/gun guard mounted behind them and can go a bit faster.

 

[Ursa major]

A foot path or pack horse trail up a steep hill was often straight up - shortest distance - but as soon as you put wheels into the equation, you are looking at a zig zag road with shallower gradient.

About ten minutes walk from where I live is a steep section of main road, an incline possibly built as recently as the 1960s, by the look of the retaining walls. This bypasses what I thought was the original zig-zagging road. I only thought the latter was the original road because: 1) the current road uses retaining walls**, so its building involved serious earthworks; 2) I didn't think such a steep section would have been viable before more powerful*** road vehicles appeared.

However, on reading, in the local library, about the history of the village, I saw a mention of a by-pass being built to avoid the original steep road. (This possibly coincided with the building of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway through the area and, soon after, a station****, one that would have attracted more traffic onto the road (and which caused what would have been, at best, farmland, to mutate into a growing settlelment).


** - I'm now guessing that the new retaining walls were built in order to allow the new road to be wider than what was there a couple of centuries ago... and to allow the (safe) building of the houses now looking down on the road from both sides.

*** - I expect the delay in the building of the incline was more to do with planning issues and finance than, say, the power of vehicles in the 40s and 50s.

**** - The station was built to serve Poole, a few miles to the south. Being a port heavily engaged in the transport of goods along the English Channel coast, there was a lot of opposition to a railway entering the town. It was only later that the village station became a junction for a line to Poole and, eventually, Bournemouth (which was later connected to the network more directly from the east). Later still, it became a double junction, becoming the southern end of the Somerset and Dorset (S&D) line (aka the Slow and Dirty).

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

If it’s in a Georgian type universe, driving was a highly fashionable activity. The emphasis would have been on understated grace.
I suggest an emphasis on accuracy with the whip (a long affair that is rigid for part of its length and then tapering and very flexible with a knitted tip), eg touching the leader lightly to urge the team onwards, and then use of voice. You could also play with the driver’s clothing (many-caped driving cloak/coat) and gleaming top boots. There was much prestige to be had by driving accurately as well as fast, e.g tight corners, narrow gateways.

Skillful driving was probably needed, as a matter of life and death. I recall a discussion of the frequent road accidents in books by Jane Austen and her contemporaries. Turns out there really was a shockingly high rate of fatal crashes in those days. An increase in traffic due to the rising middle and merchantile classes; inadequate road surfaces; faster, lighter vehicles; and the tendency of horses to panic all made driving a dicey business.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

I've also read a lot of Georgette Heyer Regency novels and she makes much play in some books of sporting gentleman and ladies and their driving skills and vehicles - including it was possible to drive at more than a walk on a brightly moonlit night. You might want to look at that for style and feel. Grand Sophy is definitely one with driving skills discussed. There was also a lot of keen-ness to match the colour of the horses so "a pair of matched bays" is a phrase that will pop up. The bigger horses next to the carriage were referred to as "wheelers" in those books, I seem to remember.

Much as I love Georgette Heyer, and I really do love her books, she isn't always the most reliable for horsey details. She get some things right but others make me cringe, such as when she talks about a rider seizing the bridle or hauling on the bridle when she means the reins.

 

[Montero]

Much as I love Georgette Heyer, and I really do love her books, she isn't always the most reliable for horsey details. She get some things right but others make me cringe, such as when she talks about a rider seizing the bridle or hauling on the bridle when she means the reins.

Ah. Good to know.