THE LEVEK, THE BIT AND CUKB, ETC. 169 



could not answer the purpose intended. If the invent- 

 ors of these frightful bits had had any real knowledge 

 of the laws of mechanics, and the application of lever 

 power, they would have found that the same amount 

 of useful action would have been much more certainly 

 obtained by a much shorter lower bar, without incur- 

 ring the very serious disadvantage of lifting the bit, 

 as it were, in the mouth, which always must have the 

 effect of causing the curb to mount up out of the chin- 

 groove, and therefore produce conflicting impressions, 

 tending to neutralise one another and puzzle the horse. 

 Moreover, the longer the lower bar the greater will be 

 the space through which the rider's hand has to move 

 in order to produce a given amount of action. It will 

 be therefore slower, although more powerful, and con- 

 sequently more unequal, rendering it very difficult for 

 the majority of riders to hit off exactly the precise 

 amount of pull required. 



Having thus arrived at the conclusion that the ab- 

 solute length of the lower bar should be diminished as 

 much as possible, and also laid it down as a rule that a 

 length of 1 J inches is in all cases sufficient for that of the 

 upper one, it is not difficult to ascertain what the rela- 

 tive proportions of the two should be, which would, of 

 course, give us the absolute length of the former. And 

 here we encounter the only useful general rule that 

 bit-makers in general seem to be acquainted with; 

 namely, that the lower bar should be twice as long as 

 the upper one, which, increasing the lever action in the 

 proportion of three to one, should be under all circum- 

 stances ample. But the bit-makers, although adher- 

 ing to this proportion, but too frequently make the 

 lower bar inordinately long, because they have no 



