A four-in-hand in the Bois-de-Boulogne, Paris, 1905
A four-in-hand is a team of four horses pulling a carriage, coach or other horse-drawn vehicle.[1] Today, four-in-hand driving is the top division of combined driving in equestrian sports; other divisions are for a single horse or a pair. One of the international events featuring only four-in-hand teams is the FEI World Cup Driving series.
In Europe, after public post coaches and mail coaches were largely supplanted by railroad travel, driving large private coaches drawn by four horses became a popular sporting activity of the rich,[2] and driving clubs were formed. England's Four-In-Hand Driving Club was formed in 1856. Membership was limited to thirty and they all drove private coaches known as park drags made on the pattern of the old Post Office mail coaches but luxuriously finished and outfitted. A new group called the Coaching Club was formed in 1870 for those unable to join the club of 30. Other enthusiasts revived old coaching routes and took paying passengers.[2]Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt championed coaching in America, and he and several other of his contemporaries engaged in public coaching for hire in America and England.[3]
T. Bigelow Lawrence of Boston owned America's first locally built park drag in 1860. Leonard Jerome took to driving coaches with six and eight horse teams to go to watch horse races. New York's Coaching Club was formed in 1875.[2]
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