22 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



are usually ridden by farm boys after the cows — and 

 when put in liarness, and are at all fast, are trained on 

 the road to pull the bno^o^y bv the bit, for which accom- 

 plishment they are recommended as ^^ smart" and 

 " likely critters." The young horse is thus brought to 

 the sale stable and sold to a new master, when he has to 

 undergo the torture of submitting to strange yoices, 

 hands, feed, place, smells, saddle, harness, work and bit. 

 But we have him fresh, perhaps, from the farm yard, 

 and the questions are : What is he ht for ? What bit has 

 he been broken with ? What bit will he bear and go best 

 with ? If he was handled on the farm it is likely he 

 never had a moutliing bit or cavesson on, and that the 

 man who bred or broke him never used or even saw a 

 mouthing bit, cavesson or lunge, or would know what 

 they were for if he did see them. 



These are some of the risks we have to run in selectins^ 

 a young horse for a special use. A young horse is like a 

 girl ; he must be tried in harness befoi'e we can tell what 

 his future will be A girl don't remain what she is. If 

 she is good, she gets better aft'^r marriage. If she is bad, 

 she gets worse. Bad dispositioned giiis seldom reform 

 with experience, and generally get worse and more hate- 

 ful under oppression or coercion, while many are beyond 

 the reach of kindness. If the colt has been pretty well 

 broken in, in the farmer's way, for general use, the work 

 he is to do, and the bit he is to wear for the future at that 

 work, should be judiciously selected and put on an 

 old and easv-fittins^ headstall, and if he takes to it and it 

 suits him it should never be changed, nor he from, his 

 adopted service. He will not make a saddle-horse to-day 

 and a harness-horse to-morrow. His' life is too short to 

 learn any two things perfecth^ as the means used to 

 train him for one occupation neutralizes his proficiency in 

 the other. If you select him for a saddle-horse, take care 

 that he is one. The saddle-horse is created, not made. 



