GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 117 



abused in this respect. It is scarcely credible the 

 amount of terror with which some horses regard the 

 bit, and the blind fury with which they take it between 

 their teeth, throw up their heads, and bolt in conse- 

 quence. 



Considering the great number of "unthinking" 

 riders and drivers that exist in all parts of the world, 

 it seems perfectly miraculous, when one looks at the 

 frightful instruments of torture placed, in the absurdest 

 manner, in their horses' mouths, and used in the most 

 wonderful ways, that so few accidents occur. It is 

 only a proof of the admirable tempers of our horses. 

 The Irish ones are frequently deficient in this respect, 

 being still more grossly abused. But still one sees 

 every day, in broken-kneed horses, lamentable evidence 

 of the perversity and ignorance with which horses are 

 treated in this great horse country. There is no use in 

 mincing the matter : this is, to a great extent, a conse- 

 quence of ignorance of the true principles of bitting, 

 saddling, and riding ; for a broken-kneed horse is an 

 opprobrium to its rider. 



As regards cavalry, few things are so important as 

 good and careful bitting. The steadiness of a troop or 

 squadron in its evolutions, and especially in skirmish- 

 ing, charging, and rallying, depends mainly on it. The 

 writer of this has on more than one occasion converted, 

 in the course of a few days and at a very moderate 

 expense, a body of this kind that had become almost 

 unserviceable from bad bitting into a model of steadi- 

 ness, the bolters and restive horses all disappearing as if 

 by magic. No doubt, in order to effect this, every 

 single horse's mouth must be measured, and fitted in 

 the manner to be explained hereafter. Three or four 



