258 



"effects." Against the latter a vigilant officer may 

 provide ; the former can be remedied only by a 

 good setting-up, and the unsparing punishment of 

 every trooper who does not maintain it.^ 



§ 197. As to bits, although a horse may be taught 

 to check himseK under a severe bit, as he would 

 before a stone wall, its use can no more be called 

 riding than stopping the animal in such a manner 

 can be called halting him. A curb bit, with a high 

 port, may, in most horses, force up the upper jaw, 

 and thus prevent the head joint from closing as it 

 must for the inner bearing and the spring forward.f 

 It also, by the leverage of its branches, gives in- 

 creased power to the usual way of opening the 

 lower jaw, but it is deficient in lateral action, and 

 to some extent, by making the lower jaw the chief 

 " artificial ground" for motion, in place of the eyes, 

 it is subject to the same objection which that favor- 

 ite of the French army, the Duke of Orleans, made 

 to the — for preliminary breaking, wonderful — sys- 



* The relation of the knapsack to the foot soldier is the converse of 

 that of the rider to the horse ; if the man's shoulder-blades he flat, and 

 his step be even, a well packed knapsack will hardly worry him. 



t If in stopping a horse, a man on foot force the snalfle upwards into 

 the mouth, so as to open it by the upper jaw, this action will, we think, 

 be at once recognized; the direction to hold the hand high in "stand to 

 horse " would seem to depend on the same principle. 



