THE NECK, THE HEAD, ETC. 147 



ter 1 Aud this we would call a naturally soft mouth, 

 so far as interior conformation goes. 



A hard mouth, on the contrary, will be one in which 

 we find a thick fleshy tongue, not only totally filling 

 up its channel, but protruding over it, and rising high 

 above the level of the bars, which makes the former 

 appear narrow and the latter low, whatever their real 

 dimensions may be ; and if to this be superadded a flat 

 surface to the bars and thick fleshy lips, we may forth- 

 with set this down as a case in which an ordinary 

 mouthpiece will exert its pressure mainly on the tongue 

 and lips, conveying to the rider's hand the dull feeling 

 of pulling against lead. 



As a general rule, well-bred horses have the first- 

 named conformation of mouth, and common brutes 

 the contrary one ; but it by no means follows from 

 this that the former are all light and the latter all 

 heavy in the hand : for the most aristocratic animal 

 of all, the English race-horse, has generally a good 

 tough mouth of its own, because it is taught from 

 earliest infancy to lean on the bridle, and seek a fifth 

 foot in the rider's hand; whereas, on the contrary, 

 we often find a perfectly plebeian brute, with a tongue 

 that overfills its mouth, and everything else in pro- 

 portion, not only extremely sensitive to the action of 

 the bit, but in fact totally averse to its contact — 

 that is to say, " behind the hand," because it has 

 miserable flabby muscles, unstrung tendons, and weak 

 hind quarters.* 



* A dishonest horse-dealer that really possesses talent will 

 always avoid showing you a horse with an incipient spavin or 

 other defect of the hind legs otherwise than on the hghtest pos. 

 sible bridle : three-fourths of these arising from "savage bitting." 



L 2 



