52 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



The Pelham bit enables a jockey to slow his horse up, 

 so as not to beat his competitor more than necessary, or 

 to right him should he bolt. Young, high-strung horses, 

 two or three years old, have not had time and experience 

 for sufficient mouthing and training to be steady enough 

 to take the curb, spurs, whip and a strange rider, all at 

 once, to insure a fair and certain start on a course where 

 all is excitement around them. When the horse becomes 

 restive at the starting post, it may be discovered that the 

 curb or both reins are being used at the same time, and 

 the horse, fretted and annoyed beyond endurance, is 

 timid and afraid to start and run against the curb, the 

 moral effect of which he has not had time to learn, while 

 the physical effect of it maddens him. If we add to this 

 the use of the whip and spurs at the start, while he is 

 being held back, it will not be surprising if, when he 

 does start, he should bolt before he reaches the quarter 

 pole and run wild to his death against a fence. 



There is no knowing what a colt or any horse may do 

 with a strange rider, with a strange smell he may detest, 

 strange voice he don't know or understand, strange knees, 

 strange hand and a strange motion-on his back, and per- 

 haps a strange bit in his mouth. Indeed, we are disposed 

 to offer any excuse for his actions, misbehavior or defeat, 

 for his cool intellisrence is confused and the '' vim" and 

 pluck that would serve him on the home-stretch are taken 

 out of him before he starts. If a man from anger and 

 excitement weakens and gets out of breath while sitting 

 in his chair, how much is it possible that the fretting 

 and annoyances attending several false starts may affect 

 a young horse when he is getting winded on the home- 

 stretch — a time when an extra respiration that he had 

 wasted in anger and excitement, and one second he had 

 lost before he started, would take him ten inches beyond 

 the head and girth, a victor at the winning post ? 



A boy but a few years older than the horse he rides has 



