146' BITS AND BITTING. 



efficiency, and therefore economy ; of course they can- 

 not insure judicious handhng of the arm, nor affect 

 the morale of the soldier beyond giving him a sense of 

 security and power, which is, however, very valuable. 



The reader will perceive, from the digression into 

 which we have been led here^ that the question of 

 bitting cannot be considered separately from those of 

 distribution of weight, carriage, and action ; and it 

 was in order to avoid erroneous impressions on this 

 very point that we have thought it best to defer up 

 to this moment all mention of those peculiarities of 

 the interior construction of the horse's mouth which, 

 taken together, constitute, so far as this organ itself is 

 concerned, what is called a hard or a soft mouth. 



There are two ways of expressing what a soft mouth 

 is ; we may either say this horse goes well on a light 

 bit — which may be mainly a consequence of good car- 

 riage, temper, &c. — or we may say, a light bit will pro- 

 bably suit this horse best, because it has a thin tongue, 

 high and sharp bars, a wide tongue-channel, and fine 

 lijjs. But in truth, the relative thickness or thinness 

 of the tongue is the main point to be considered, be- 

 cause, as has been already pointed out, the height of 

 the bars is very nearly the same in all horses, and the 

 width of the tongue-channel always bears a certain 

 proportion to it. No doubt the bars have in some in- 

 stances a flat and in others a sharp or convex upper 

 surface, which, together with the greater or less fleshi- 

 ness of the lips, makes a great difference ; but in the 

 end it comes to this. Does the tongue fill up its channel 

 merely to the brim, projecting only a few lines over the 

 surface^of the bars, and therefore permitting the mouth- 

 piece to exert a certain degree of pressure on the lat 



