THE BRIDLE BITS. 



*' Be ye not as the horse and mule, which have no un- 

 derstanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and 

 bridle." 



INTEODUCTION. 



Of all the instruments in general everyday use the most 

 indispensable and the most universally employed in all 

 the great operations of life, for both pleasure and profit 

 in every land, is the bridle bit. Apart from the farm, 

 truck, cart and car-horse bit, it is least understood and 

 most abused in all its secret and various practical ap- 

 plications of any instrument used. If mechanics must 

 serve their time to learn to handle the tools used in 

 their trades, why not the equestrian ? Yet there is 

 no implement in such general use of which the dic- 

 tionaries and enclyclopedias are so neglectful, and in 

 some respects silent, as this. While Webster's diction- 

 ary explains and illustrates nearly everything from a 

 needle to an anchor, from an elephant to a mouse, and 

 from a condor to a tomtit, it neglects to illustrate a 

 bridle bit, and one cyclopedia gives no explanation of 

 the terms : snaffle bit, bar bit, bridoon bit, Pelham bit, 

 martingale, bearing rein, rein, saddle, bridle, harness, 

 etc., etc., but ignores them altogether. 



It is therefore, no wonder that a general ignorance pre- 

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