58 BITS AND BRIDLE GEAR. 



THROAT-LATCHES. 



As a rule, the throat-latch is a part of the crown-piece 

 (Fig. 67), which in that case is liable to become damaged by 

 a rent in its substance, if, when one happens to be holding the 

 throat-latch, the horse makes a sudden movement to escape. 

 Therefore, for work with unsteady animals, as in breaking, the 

 arrangement for a throat-latch, shown in Fig. 71, is specially 

 applicable. 



Mr. Langham-Reed points out to me that a valid objection 

 to the throat-latch being a part of the crown-piece is that, in 

 such a case, the width of the crown-piece has to be incon- 

 veniently broad, so as to give sufficient strength to the strap. 

 If we examine the part of the horse's poll over which the crown- 

 piece passes, we shall find on that place a slight depression 

 which is about an inch broad. If the crown-piece is not more 

 than that width, it will remain in this depression as long as the 

 bridle is on the animal's head. But if it is broader, it will have 

 a tendency to work forward on the cartilage at the base of the 

 ears, and consequently to irritate those parts. The base of the 

 trumpet-shaped concha (shell) of the ears is much more 

 developed in some horses than in others. Mr. Langham-Reed 

 therefore uses an arrangement by which the throat-latch is 

 connected to the brow-band, and is entirely separate from 

 the crown-piece (Fig. 72). 



REINS. 



I like reins to be fairly broad, say, ^jth inch, and compara- 

 tively thin, as already indicated (p. 52). With a double 

 bridle, I prefer to have both reins of equal width, instead of 

 having the curb reins narrower than the snaffle reins, as is 

 sometimes the practice. The snaffle reins have almost always 

 a buckle in the centte, so as to allow a running martingale to 

 be used. As that kind of gear is rarely employed with a curb, 

 the curb reins as a great rule are unprovided with a buckle at 

 the centre. With an ordinary double bridle, the presence of 



