96 HORSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



that bore to one side a double-ringed snaffle is most 

 efficient, for it gives the pull more directly than an 

 ordinary one. I may mention, in passing, that the 

 Munipuri polo players all use it with their famous 

 ponies. It is a capital bit for harness work. 



The gag snaffle, as I have said before, is specially 

 applicable to buck-jumpers, and to those that bore with 

 their heads down. By using both reins, the pressure 

 may be regulated so as to keep the horse's head in a 

 proper position. Stonehenge remarks that " the gag 

 snaffle is particularly well adapted to the double-reined 

 bridle, intended for pulling horses carrying their heads 

 too low, which the curb has a tendency rather to 

 increase than diminish. The combined use of the two, 

 however, corrects this fault, and a pleasant, as well as a 

 safe carriage of the head, may be effected." 



For tender-mouthed horses, the chain snaffle, covered 

 with wash leather, or the Newmarket snaffle will gener- 

 ally be found to be the best. 



As far as my experience goes, I have never found 

 that a good rider will fail to hold the most determined 

 puller, with a properly made and correctly adjusted curb. 



But if the curb chain hurts the horse's jaw, and the 

 high port wounds his palate, while the greater part of 

 the pull on the reins is taken by the animal's poll, con- 

 trolling him will often be a matter of impossibility by 

 even the most powerful horseman. 



For a bad star-gazer that does not pull outrageously 

 hard, I know no such efficient arrangement as that 

 which may be obtained by connecting the reins of a 

 snaffle, respectively to the side pieces of a running mar- 



