4 o LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



A martingale is fitted, often very promiscuously, without much 

 regard to whether the horse needs it or the rider understands 

 it. Of course, a horse, a bit of a star-gazer, which carries his 

 head high, will go better with a martingale, which tends to 

 keep it down. Also, no doubt, for a puller who pokes his nose 

 out, it is an advantage, because the martingale makes the pull 

 of the reins in a downward direction and the bit acts on the 

 " bars " of the horse's mouth and not on the angle of the 

 lips where a good deal of the power is lost. The bars of the 

 mouth are where all bits should rest. They are those gaps 

 between the incisor or picking up and biting off teeth in front 

 and the grinding teeth above. It is just a portion of gum 

 unprotected by anything, rather high and sharp and easily 

 hurt by the bit. In young horses it is so sensitive that they 

 have to be " mouthed " with a wooden roller or thick iron 

 tube, like a child with a teething ring, until the bars have 

 become hardened enough to bear a bit. When a horse is a 

 puller and borer it is usually caused by bad " hands " which 

 have " calloused " the mouth so that it has lost its fine 

 sensitiveness. If the horse is well " nagged " and good 

 mannered he wants no martingale, that is, if the rider has 

 good hands and keeps them in the right place. If you do have 

 a martingale, it must be sufficiently long to reach up to the 

 angle of the jaw when the horse's head is in the right 

 place. This will be fully 4ins. longer than the ordinary 

 groom fits it. If you have a martingale, see that the reins are 

 not buckled on to the bit ; if they are, the ring of the martin- 

 gale may get over the buckle on the rein and then the horse's 

 head is pinned sideways and anything may happen. 



Of all the exasperating things that can happen in our 

 stable are sore backs ; the horse is fit and well, but on account 

 of an injury to the back, always caused by the saddle, we are 

 not able to hunt him. Our friend the groom again. I may seem 

 hard on them, but, for a class which professes so much, their 

 ignorance is woeful. Of course, the good groom is a treasure ; 

 the man who gets his horses fit and keeps them going saves 

 us worry and money at every turn. It is no use talking 

 about saddles and their fit unless, from the outset, we have 

 some little knowledge of the structure of the bony and muscu- 

 lar frame which carries our weight. The horse's backbone is 



