View source for Four-in-hand (carriage)

{{Short description|Driving four horses together}}
{{Merge to |Driving (horse) |date=April 2025 |discuss=Talk:Four-in-hand (carriage)#Merge proposal}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
[[File:Boyd Exell, driving dressage 2014.jpg|thumb|[[Boyd Exell]] driving [[dressage]] at the [[2014 FEI World Equestrian Games]]]]
[[Image:LeFOUR-IN-HAND1905.jpg|right|thumb|A woman driving four-in-hand in Paris (1905)]]
A '''four-in-hand''' is a team of four horses pulling a [[carriage]], [[Coach (carriage)|coach]] or other [[horse-drawn vehicle]].<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'' online accessed 20 August 2020</ref> <!-- in a two-by-two arrangement (in contradistinction to a [[quadriga]]) requires citation (note Polish picture below)--> 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 [[Combined driving#FEI World Cup|FEI World Cup Driving series]]. 

[[File:HRH Lowther 2005 horse driving.jpg|thumb|[[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|Prince Philip]] during a [[combined driving]] event in 2005]]
In Europe, after [[mail coach]]es and [[Stagecoach|public post coaches]] were largely supplanted by railroad travel,{{Efn|In England, public coach travel was quickly replaced by rail travel in the 1830s and 1840s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stage-coach History and the Great North Road : Demise of the Stage-coach |url=https://greatnorthroad.co.uk/stage-coach-history#Demise |website=Great North Road |first=Rex |last=Gibson |date=2024-02-05}}</ref>}} driving large private coaches drawn by four horses became a popular sporting activity of the rich,{{r|FiH}} and [[driving club]]s were formed. England's [[Four-In-Hand Driving Club]] was formed in 1856. Membership was limited to thirty and they drove private coaches known as [[Drag (carriage)|drag]]s 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.<ref name=FiH/> [[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.{{r|americanheritage}}

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 (of New York)|Coaching Club]] was formed in 1875.<ref name=FiH/>

== See also ==
* {{Annotated link|Quadriga}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="americanheritage">{{Cite magazine |title=When The Coachman Was A Millionare |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/when-coachman-was-millionare |first=Frank |last=Kintrea |magazine=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] |date=October 1967 |volume=18 |issue=6}}</ref>

<ref name=FiH>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9nXWVLsdNp4C&dq=four-in-hand&pg=PA100 Alexander Mackay-Smith, Jean R. Druesedow, Thomas Ryder] ''Man and the Horse: An Illustrated History of Equestrian Apparel'' P 100, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Simon and Schuster, New York. 1984</ref>

}}

{{Horse-drawn carriages}}
{{Commonscat|Four-in-hand}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Four-In-Hand (Carriage)}}
[[Category:Carriages]]

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