THE BEARING-REIN. 485 



mouth ; when the chain should be twisted over the forefin- 

 ger to the right until all the links lie flat. In hooking up 

 the end, the chain should be brought back of the canon of 

 the curb bit, but in front of the bridoon bit. The end link 

 of the loose end should be fastened first, and then the chain 

 shortened by hooking another link over the first one. The 

 links should be taken up equally on both sides. When the 

 chain is in place the links should lie perfectly flat, the pen- 

 dent link in the centre of chains for riding bits should be 

 on the side toward the chin. If the chain is fastened so 

 that two fingers can be placed between the chain and the 

 jaw, the chain will be found tight enough for the average 

 horse. The larger and closer the links the less severe will 

 be the action of the chain. The severity of curb-chains may 

 be further lessened by means of a leather covering, but 

 leather straps should never be substituted, as no dependence 

 can be placed on their strength, and they are consequently 

 very dangerous. A curb-chain may be made more severe 

 by untwisting six or more of the links. 



THE BEARING-REIN. 



In the use of the bearing-rein it must be understood that 

 the horse's action is largely determined by the angle at 

 which his head is carried. If the bearing-rein holds the 

 horse's head too high, the action will be higher and shorter 

 reaching than if carried naturally ; while on the other hand 

 if the animal is allowed to throw his head down and out, 

 greater weight is brought on the fore legs, with the result 

 that the action is low and uncollected. The cruelty of 

 drawing a horse's head unnaturally high, or higher than the 

 conformation of the neck comfortably allows, has resulted in 



