68 ILLUSTRATED HORSE-BREAKING. 



against the greatly superior power of the horse's 

 neck. The rider with good hands, on the contrary, 

 uses a pull on the reins, merely as a means of letting 

 the animal know, that^ if it will obey his wishes, it 

 will ''save " its own mouth ; a hint which, as a rule, 

 is readily taken. I need hardly say that the severer 

 the bit, the better should be the hands of the man 

 who employs it. A really fine horseman can ride 

 with success in almost any kind of bit. 



Snaffles and curds. — The only advantage pos- 

 sessed by the curb over the snaffle is, as a rule, its 

 greater power of control. This superiority is at- 

 tended with the serious objections that : (i) the use 

 of the curb is, often, irritating to the horse, who, if 

 roused, can always successfully resist its control ; 

 and (2) that it is, more or less, detrimental to the 

 action of the horse, by tending to make him averse 

 from " going up to his bridle," and by obliging him, 

 so as to *' save " his mouth, to carry his head in a 

 more or less constrained manner. As we can easily 



