134 BITS AND BITTING. 



horse has been spavined by an angry drag at his nose 

 ■with this very powerful instrument — a good illustra- 

 tion, by the way, of the lever action of the horse's neck 

 on his hind legs. 



The interior of the horse's mouth is the object that 

 next demands our attention, but there is only a certain 

 portion of it with which we have here to do. It is 

 easy to perceive, on looking at a horse's mouth in and 

 outside, that the lower jaw consists of two flat irregu- 

 larly triangular cheek-bones, whose anterior branches 

 form a groove or channel in which the animal's tongue 

 lies, enclosed towards its root between the two rows of 

 molar or gi-inder teeth, further forward by those por- 

 tions of the jaw that lie between the point where the 

 molar teeth cease and the incisors or cutting teeth 

 commence, known generally as the bars, and on the 

 lower portion of which the tusks are to be found in 

 male animals ; the channel being closed in front by the 

 incisors, and the tonguo thus fenced from injury on all 

 sides. 



The bit, of whatever kind it may be, coming to be 

 laid somewhere on the bars, and across the tongue, these 

 are the most important parts of the mouth to be ac- 

 quainted with. With the snaffle the portion of the 

 bar exposed to pressure varies according to the pull on 

 the reins ; with a regular bit furnished with a curb, 

 this should not be the case ; in fact, rational bitting 

 demands that the action of the bit should be confined 

 exclusively to a certain point on each side, and it will 

 be shovm further on that the bit cannot act properly 

 on any other point than this one. 



"We have a rule of thumb in this country for de- 

 termining the place of the bit — namely, at a certain 



