324 THE HORSE 



1. The ordinary curl-bit does not differ from the general type already 

 described ; it need not, therefore, be alluded to further than to caution the 

 inexperienced horseman against leaning heavily upon it. The pain oc- 

 casioned in this way is at first excessive ; but in course of time the parts 

 pressed upon become callous, and the mouth is irretrievably spoiled. Thus 

 a rider with a heavy hand may begin with a mouth which is too light, and 

 in a month or two he may find it so dull as to be quite unpleasant, in spite 

 of a tight curb-chain and noseband, a high port, and a long lever. All 

 these should be as easy as will suffice to control the horse for which they 

 are adapted, and no more use should be made of them than is absolutely 

 necessary. 



2. The plain Pelham combines the snaffle and curb, and requires no 

 addition of the former to make it a double-reined bridle. The mouthpiece 

 is jointed in the middle, just like a snaffle ; and, like this, it maybe smooth 

 or twisted. There is a ring opposite this for the one rein, and the other is 

 attached to the end of the lever, as in the ordinary curb-bit. This is an 

 extremely useful bit for general purposes. 



3. The Hanoverian Pelham is similar in principle to the plain one ; but 

 it has two joints in the mouthpiece, united by a high port, and the sides 

 of the mouthpiece are covered with rollers, which prevent the horse from 

 grasping them with his teeth, and thus interfering with the action of the 

 port and curb chain. For hard-pulling horses this bit is very useful, but it 

 is a very severe one. 



4. The Chifney bit is provided with a joint at the junction of the lever 

 and mouthpiece, o that the action of the former is not confined by the 

 head of the bridle. But though in theory this is all very pretty, in practice 

 it is found to be of no service whatever. 



There are many other kinds of curb-bits, but those which I have described 

 comprehend all in general use. 



THE BUCEPHALUS NOSEBAND is a great addition to the curb-bridle in- 

 tended for a pulling horse. It is merely a stitched leather strap, long 

 enough to encircle the jaw and cross behind it to be attached to the hook 

 of the curb-chain. This noseband is not really more powerful than the 

 ordinary one when tightly buckled, the whole of its efficiency depending 

 upon its keeping the mouth closed, and thus allowing the port to have its 

 full power on the roof of the mouth. The advantage is, that when the 

 rein is not pulled, the noseband slackens, and the mouth may then be 

 relieved, which it cannot be with an ordinary tight noseband. (Since the 

 invention of the above, it has been found that nothing so well restrains a 

 puller as a nose-net, a simple appliance invented by a coachman who should 

 have derived some substantial benefit from his discovery.) 



MOUNTING AND DISMOUNTING 



UNTIL THE ADVENT of the celebrated Rarey, whose horse-taming feats 

 produced such a sensation in this country, the directions of Captain 

 Richardson, as given in his valuable work on Horsemanship, were generally 

 accepted, and despite a host of teachers who have since been eminent for 

 their horsemanship, his methods have not been materially improved 



