332 UNASKED ADVICE. 



Bar shoeing, the management of horses is pretty well 

 understood in the present day. In bitting, however, 

 there is room for improvement ; and a very fair reform bill 

 has been brought forward by Major Dwyer concerning this 

 matter. With much of Major Dwyer's book I do not 

 agree. Although he talks a little of hunters, it is clear 

 that he knows but a very little of them, or he would 

 hardly recommend a snaffle for general use in the field. 

 His double bridle, however, is very good, and, light 

 though it looks, it is a very powerful instrument. 

 People, however, must read the book and judge for them- 

 selves. The bit is to be got at Messrs. Gibson' s, Coventry- 

 street, Leicester-square ; and I think it excellent for 

 most pullers, and also for star-gazers and ewe-necked 

 horses. Being rather severe, it requires "hands" to 

 make the most of it. A mutton-fisted yokel attempting 

 to control a violent horse with it will find himself in a 

 false position. It is far more reliable with a puller than 

 the advertised nosebands, most of which deaden the 

 mouth, while they enliven the temper. Griffith's snaffle 

 is on the principle of the Bucephalus noseband. I once 

 saw it fail altogether in the hands of a first-rate horse- 

 man -, but I have heard of its success elsewhere. If the 

 horse pulls with his head on one side it becomes useless, 

 and the horse will in most cases discover this little fact. 

 Out of pages on pages of advertisements, I have selected 

 the above as being the only new invention that even gives 

 fair promise of being worth trying. 



Every innovation is not a reform, and this remark 

 applies specially to stable practice ; but any real reform 

 in shoeing is reform indeed, and the greatest respect and 

 attention are due to it. But how few of these old dis- 

 coveries, which are from time to time re-invented, are 



