THE LEVEE, THE BIT AND CURB, ETC. 173 



for the pm-pose of securing the action of the rein at a 

 right angle, or nearly so — which, however, did not and 

 could not answer the purpose intended. If the inven- 

 tors of these frightful bits had had any real knowledge 

 of the laws of mechanics, and the application of lever 

 power, thej would have found that the same amount 

 of useful action would have been much more certainly 

 obtained by a much shorter lower cheek, without incur- 

 ring the very serious disadvantage of lifting the bit_, 

 as it were, in the mouth, which always must have the 

 effect of causing the curb to mount up out of the chin- 

 groove, and therefore produce conflicting impressions, 

 tending to neutralise one another and puzzle the horse. 

 Moreover, the longer the lower cheek the greater will be 

 the space through which the rider's hand has to move 

 in order to produce a given amount of action. It will 

 be therefore slower, although more powerful, and con- 

 sequently more unequal, rendering it very difiicult for 

 the majority of riders to hit off exactly the precise 

 amount of pull required. 



Having thus arrived at the conclusion that the abso- 

 lute length of the lower cheek should be diminished as 

 much as possible, and also laid it down as a rule that a 

 length of If inches is in all cases sufiicient for that of the 

 upper one, it is not difiicult to ascertain what the rela- 

 tive proportions of the two should be, which would, of 

 course, give us the absolute length of the former. And 

 here w^e encounter the only useful general rule that 

 bit-makers in general seem to be acquainted with ; 

 namely, that the lower cheek should he twice as long as 

 the up2Jer one, which, increasing the lever action in the 

 proportion of three to one, should be under all circum- 

 stances ample. But the bit-makers, although adher- 



