202 



HORSE AND MAN. 



work should be forced into the delicate mouth of the 

 horse, but I have seen and handled it repeatedly. 



Such a machine may, indeed, coerce the horse to 

 a certain extent, just as is the case with the terrible 

 Spanish bits, which are powerful enough to smash 

 the jaw of the animal. But the horse was never 

 meant to be coerced, but to be the willing servant 

 of man ; and there is, in every high- 

 spirited horse, a point at which 

 coercion loses its power, and the 

 horse, despite the pain inflicted up- 

 on it, becomes a rebel. How often 

 do we not hear the warning given, 

 * He goes quietly on the snaffle, but 

 if you touch the curb, look out 

 kemoved by mr. f or squalls.' The moral of which 



"FLOWER. 



ought to be, that the curb should 

 not be used at all. 



A year or two ago I was accompanying a lady 

 in her carriage, which, as the day was wet, was 

 a closed one. The movement of the carriage was 

 anything but smooth, and at last became so jerky 

 that the lady asked me what could be the matter. 

 Being thus appealed to, I said that I was sure that 

 the off horse was curbed up too tightly, and that the 

 irregularity would continue until the animal was re- 

 leased from the curb. 



THE BIT "WHICH WAS 



