324 BITS AND BITTING. 



No doubt it is scarcely possible to avoid some degree 

 of pack on the front part of the military saddle, but it 

 is precisely for this reason that it is so highly import- 

 ant to give the head of the troop-horse a proper posi- 

 tion, which can only be maintained by very careful 

 and accurate bitting, after that of the neck has been 

 attained by a judicious system of riding and breaking- 

 in ; and still one is astonished to see the pack of the 

 officer built up into the same absurd form as that of 

 the private, although there is no necessity whatever 

 for this being done. 



The reader perceives, by these frequent and unavoid- 

 able digressions, how intimately the question of bits 

 and bitting is interwoven with the whole system of 

 breaking-in and riding horses, especially for military 

 purposes ; and he will see farther on the great import- 

 ance of this point, particularly when we come to dis- 

 cuss the immediate action of the bit on the interior of 

 the horse's mouth. 



We have next to consider the animal's head in con- 

 nection with this question. Hitherto we have, for the 

 sake of greater convenience, always mentioned the neck 

 as the lever by which the rider controls the motion of 

 the whole animal; but a simple inspection shows that 

 the head is the lever by means of which we gain a 

 command over the neck, and its size, weight, the man- 

 ner in which it is set on to the latter, and other parti- 

 culars, have each of them its own share of importance. 

 It is scarcely necessary to say that a very large heavy 

 head renders it a matter of extreme difficulty to get 

 the horse into anything like equilibrium, and big- 

 headed horses will be therefore generally, although not 

 always, heavy in the hand ; but it by no means follows 



