RIDING AND DRIVING 79 



below the bar, which should be smooth and with 

 only a slight port. The bar that moves up and 

 down is best, as it gives a certain amount of play, 

 and the great object in bridling is not to allow^ the 

 bit to remain long in one place. 



You may have good hands, and your double- 

 reined bridle may be just as I have described, but 

 unless it is put on properly it will be a source of 

 irritation to the horse and consequently unsatis- 

 factory to the rider. I am sorry to say that a great 

 many people do not realise the importance of this, 

 and the first thing I do when mounting a strange 

 horse is to look if the bridle requires adjusting. 

 The curb should be high up in the mouth and the 

 snaffle low. If you go into the saddle-room and 

 look at the double-reined bridles hanging up, you 

 will generally see them as they ought to lie in a 

 horse's mouth, the snaffle falling loosely over the 

 curb. 



When the snafHe is too tight, and therefore high 

 in the mouth, it cannot touch the sensitive part, and 

 might just as well be fixed to the tail as be where it is. 

 I have already told you to depend on the snaffle for 

 playing on a horse's mouth, and to look upon the 

 curb only as an aid to the former. Many grooms 

 think it looks smarter to have the snaffle tight, and 

 the horses have to suffer in silence. 



Twenty or thirty years ago bits were much too 

 thin, and Whyte-Melville remarks on this in his 

 ^' Riding Recollections," which may perhaps have 

 had something to do with the change. Now we 



