26 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



fail, and he becomes discouraged after repeated trials. 

 Instead of the best kind of drawing pencil and paper, in- 

 ferior paper, and perhaps a slide case-pencil is given him 

 to draw with ; and when he tries his best, with his nose 

 on the paper and his tongue out, he fails to represent 

 anything. Then, when he tells his mother that he can- 

 not do it, she says, *^0h, go on ; try again." '^But I 

 can't mamma." '^ Well, then go to bed." This is sense 

 Ts. instinct. The time comes in after-life when we look 

 back at the useless things that were put into our hands 

 while children, struggling to learn that which with the 

 very best advantages was a strain upon the child's pa- 

 tience and faculties, and unproductive of any advantage. 



This is unfortunately often so with the young horse. 

 Anything in the shape of a bit or bridle is thought 

 good enough for a colt. So intelligent an animal as a 

 horse must, like the child, wonder why he can't do what 

 seems perfectly easy when done by others. The fact is 

 that with an inferior bit, a man fails to convey an idea to 

 the colt. We have a quasi equestrian monument in our 

 mind's eye, to be erected to the memory of and out of re- 

 spect for Mr. Bergh, for his having procured a laAv to 

 protect horses, and that makes '^assault and battery" in 

 the stable a penal offense. But his full measure of 

 charity for the horse will never be exhausted until he 

 regulates by law the width of the horse-stalls, which are 

 now so narrow that a poor, tired horse can't straighten 

 out his legs when he lies down. Mr. Bergh liimseK 

 knows, perhaps, how he suffers in a night's journey in a 

 train, when he can't straighten out his legs. 



There is a very prolific source of abuse in chucking at 

 the horse's mouth with the reins to make him go on or 

 stop. With a severe bit, this is torture; with any bit, it 

 is crueltv and Avroiis^ under anv circumstances, unless in 

 a necessary case. The horse throws his head up as if to 

 say, '^Stop ! I will ! I will !— don't ! don't !" But the 



