THE LEVEE, THE BIT AND CURB, ETC. 167 



It will be now easy to understand how it comes that 

 people, in order to prevent a bit with a very short 

 upper bar falling through, are driven to using a very 

 tight curb, the result of which is, that the whole action 

 is transplanted from the interior of the mouth to the 

 chin ; as also that, in order to prevent one with a 

 very long upper bar standing stiff, they use a very 

 loose curb, which has the effect of making the bit fall 

 through ; and this what is very common, nay, almost 

 invariable in this country an immensely long bit, is 

 pulled up as high as it will go into the horse's mouth, 

 and then a loose curb attached, and this great piece of 

 ironmongery of course not only falls through, but acts 

 nearly altogether on the exterior of the horse's jaw ; 

 whereas a much smaller and lighter bit, if adapted to 

 the mouth, would be much more -efficient. 



Some portion of the objection to the long upper bar 

 referred to above namely, its affording no lever action 

 may be remedied by making the lower bar propor- 

 tionably longer ; and this is precisely what the iron - 

 mongers do, and, moreover, are encouraged to do by 

 ignorant buyers. As has been already shown above, 

 with reference to fig. 9, we are thereby driven to use 

 much severer, that is, more painful, bits than are really 

 necessary \ besides which, there is another reason why 

 we cannot go beyond a certain length with the lower 

 bar. This is on account of the angle at which the 

 rein acts on the latter. 



"We have already pointed out how much depends on 

 the angle at which the power is applied to a lever, and 

 that a right angle is the most favourable one for this 

 purpose, which may be shown in a manner perfectly 

 independent of theory. If the bit, fig. 12, were pulled 



