234 ARAB BITS 



muscles of the legs and hips used to the confined position, 

 and the Arab will stay in the saddle all but as long as the 

 cowboy or one of Uncle Sam's soldiers. 



All Arabs ride with a severe gag-bit, just as all bronco 

 riders are wont to do. The bit of the country is like one 

 style of Mexican bit to wit, a ring in the horse's mouth 

 held in place by the cheek-straps, and with a single branch 

 projecting down from the back of it ; and it is to this that 

 the reins are attached. Of course the horse guides by the 

 neck, as all but hyper-English horses do, and as all horses 

 should. The rein is held slack, but the least tightening of it 

 on the severe gag-bit compels the horse to jerk up his head. 

 The nice use of the curb as taught by the school is quite 

 unknown. Each nation has its own peculiar style. The 

 Englishman and his imitators like to ride a gentle, easy- 

 mouthed horse on a snaffle-bit, and to let him carry his 

 head in a natural way, without seeking by suppling to im- 

 prove on what nature has done for him. This method 

 acts well enough with the average good-mannered horse. 

 With any other he must resort to a harsh bit, and the 

 horse will take hold of it and worry himself while annoy- 

 ing his rider, because he has been taught no better. The 

 school-taught horse is an abomination to the Briton ; but 

 not so to him who knows his ways. He has a well-trained 

 mouth, and a neck whose muscles bend without effort ; he 

 brings his head in to either curb or snaffle with that de- 

 lightful give and take of the rein which is the height of 

 comfort to man and beast, and which is indicative of an 

 ability in each to understand the other that exists in no 

 other method. The cowboy et id genus omne, and the 

 Arab, use a severe bit that hurts the horse's mouth when- 

 ever the rein is in any degree tightened ; it throws up his 

 head with an uneasy motion which appears to interrupt 

 communication between hand and mouth. And yet the 



