HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP. 71 



horse by them. Fortunately, the power of the rider is here 

 very limited, and the horse defends himself against it by 

 throwing his head upward and backward, and thus the rider 

 only breaks his horses' knees instead of his jaws. 



But an ordinary bit placed in the ordinary way, never 

 touches the horse's bars at all. It is usually placed higher 

 than as directed above, and as it pivots on the eye — that 

 part to which the head -stall is attached — when in use, it rises 

 in the horse's mouth — higher, in proportion to the looseness of 

 the curb-chain and the length of the check, or upper part of 

 the branch or side of the bit, — and inside the mouth, it has a 

 mixed action, on the fleshy part of the gums, above the bars, 

 on the lips, and, owing to the narrowness of the porte, on the 

 tongue, — and outside the mouth, it acts on the coarse part of 

 the two jaw-bones, above the fine part of the chin, where the 

 two jaw-bones meet, where the curb-chain was originally 

 placed, and where it should act ; and I consider this sort of 

 upward grating action as calculated to excite, rather than to 



