172 BITS AND BITTING. 



up into the angle of the lips if he be a civilian : he may 

 just happen to hit off the right place, and if so, even 

 an ill-shaped bit will work tolerably ; he is content 

 with his work, and thinks he has mastered the diffi- 

 culty. But in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the 

 mouthpiece lies higher than it should; and if, in addi- 

 tion to this, the upper bar of the bit be, as it so fre- 

 quently is, a quarter of an inch too long, then the curb 

 mounts up out of the chin-groove and causes so much 

 pain that the horse, to escape it, bores into the rider's 

 hand. He will then, perhaps, try a longer curb or a 

 shorter one ; the bit will either fall through or be stiff, 

 and he concludes that he must have a sharper one, and 

 has recourse to some instrument of torture ; and so it 

 goes on from bad to worse, till he gets rid of the poor 

 ill-used animal.* 



The best-fitting bit, even when placed in the proper 

 place, will not work well unless the curb be properly 

 constructed and exactly of the length required. Tak- 

 ing all in all, a double chain worked quite flat, without 

 prominent edges, and which, when tivisted up to its 

 full extent, does not overtwist, is the best kind of curb. 

 Leather would be in some respects better than a chain ; 



* This is no imaginary case : the author once saw a nice little 

 thorough-bred horse at Ostend, and a few months later at Dublin, 

 as second charger of a light cavalry officer of the garrison. It was 

 set down as an incurable bolter, and, passing through the hands of 

 the riding-master, adjutant, and several officers, was finally sold as 

 dangerous to ride, for 15 at a fifth-rate auction-mart. The pur- 

 chaser, a ladies' doctor, brought it to the author, who, after curing 

 its dreadfully lacerated inouth and jaws, bitted it properly with a 

 very light bit, which enabled the doctor to ride it within a week at 

 a review of the regiment in question, and for several years after- 

 wards, without ever bolting or being troublesome : never was there 

 a better-tempered creature. 



