Coaching

"The stable wears out a horse more than the road does." - French Proverb The first photo we snapped on a recent trip to Missouri shows a father on the Sporting Road, driving his two sons to the grocery store, which is charming with their little straw hats.  And, the second photo really shows the juxtaposition of modern society with the society that the Plain People, or what we call the Amish, are striving to preserve.  We ordered some leather goods from our new friend, one of the Plain People, who we stumbled across on the dirt roads of the Ozark hills, where the wooden wheels left tracks that reminded you of a time gone by as we felt a bit odd about erasing three or four at a time with our big rubber tires.          

Private coaches, as opposed to public coaches, were first built for some members of the driving clubs that were formed in London in the early nineteenth century.  Only a small number of private coaches were built before the time of the “coaching revival” in the 1860s. The chosen design during this period was based on a larger version of the Royal mail coach of 1835, but seating was often reduced in favor of style in the private versions.  Coaches made by the leading makers differed usually only in the detailing. F & R Shanks was one of the two most successful builders of park drags (private coaches) and road coaches in Britain following the "Coaching Revival." Holland & Holland of North Row, Grosvenor Square, was the other.  The choice between coaches made by either of these two was said to be merely a matter of personal preference, but we believe the Holland & Holland to be the finest of the two.  Erik M. and Mary Jensen drive black Hackney-Clydesdale crossbreds and an 1890 Holland and Holland park drag on a regular basis, which is probably the only park drag regularly driven west of the Mississippi River.