ELEMENTS OF HIPPOLOGY. fiO, 



will receive the load and apply it to the poll. This tends to bring 

 the horse's head down. The curb-chain will lie in a plane nearly 

 parallel to the plane of the cheek-pieces of the bit, and but little 

 force will be applied to the bars or to the chin-groove. The bit 

 will slip up in the horse's mouth, and will be held either by,the 

 lips or by the molars. Such a bit is said to fall through, as in 

 Figure 50. 



The objection to having the curb-chain too loose is that the 

 power of the bit to restrain the horse, because of the pain it 

 inflicts, is lost to the rider. 



The power is always applied to the curb bit at the lower end 

 of the lower branch. Whether the bit is a lever of the first 

 or second order will depend on where the horse feels the 

 most pain when power is applied. 



If the chain is twisted so that it does not lie smoothly in the 

 chin-groove, if it slips up on the sharp edges of the jaw-bone, or 

 if it pinches the lips, the curb-chain will hurt the horse more than 

 the mouthpiece does, and the lever will be of the second class. 

 This is, of course, undesirable. The horse will try to get away 

 from the curb-chain by throwing his head forward, and a " hard- 

 mouthed' ' horse is the result. 



If the curb-chain fits smoothly in the chin- groove, if it is 

 not so tight as to pinch the lips at all times, or so loose as to let 

 the bit fall through, a pull on the reins will cause the mouthpiece 

 to hurt the bars more than the chain hurts the chin-groove. 

 The fulcrum will then be at the upper end of the cheek-piece,the 

 weight will be applied at the bars by the mouthpiece, and a lever 

 of the second class results. This is the proper adjustment of the 

 curb-chain, and is what should be sought for. 



When the bit falls through, the mouthpiece is slid up along 

 the bars to find a fulcrum at the corners of the horse's lips or 

 against the molars. It often happens that the lips, that have 

 wrinkled up by the sliding upward of the bit-, are caught between 

 the curb-chain and the mouthpiece. The result is that, in the 



