THE LEVER, THE BIT AND CURB, ETC. 171 



• 



to 1 to the upper one, d h, there will be sufficient 

 lever action. 



It will be now easy to understand how it comes that 

 people, in order to prevent a bit with a very short 

 upper cheek falling through, are driven to using a very 

 tiglit curb, the result of Avhich is, that the whole action 

 is transplanted from the interior of the mouth to the 

 chin ; as also that, in order to prevent one with a 

 very long upper cheek standing stiff, they use a very 

 loose curb, which has the effect of making the bit fall 

 through ; and this — what is very common, nay, almost 

 invariable in this country — immensely long bit is 

 pulled up as high as it will go into the horse's mouth, 

 and then a loose curb attached, which great piece of 

 ironmongery of course not only falls through, but acts 

 nearly altogether on the exterior of the horse's jaw; 

 whereas a much smaller and lighter bit, if adapted to 

 the mouth, would be much more efficient. 



Some portion of the objection to the long upper cheek 

 referred to above — namely, its affording no lever action 

 — may be remedied by making the lower cheek propor- 

 tionably longer ; and this is jDrecisely what the iron- 

 mongers do, and, moreover, are encouraged to do by 

 ignorant buyers. As has been already shown above, 

 with reference to fig. 10, we are thereby driven to use 

 much severer, that is, more painful, bits than are really 

 necessary ; besides which, there is another reason why 

 we cannot go beyond a certain length with the lower 

 cheek. This is on account of the angle at which the 

 rein acts on the latter. 



We have already pointed out how much depends on 

 the angle at which the power is applied to a lever, and 

 that a right ano'le is the most favourable one for this 



