THE BIT-AND-BKIDOOi^ FOR SADDLE HORSES. 55 



this is rather dangerous ; but to avoid it the liorse should 

 be ridden on the curb and care taken not to use the knees 

 or make any of tlie usual motions of the body known to 

 the horse in earnest riding, while tlie tarn on the road is 

 being made. We always ride w^ith a tight rein, and pre- 

 ferring a strong puller on the snaffle, we have had some 

 experience in these impromptu exercises of horses' pro- 

 pensities to take fancy leaps without leave or license. 



rj^ 



The bridoon rein on which the martingale hangs is less 

 than one inch wide, bat its strength corresponds with 

 the power used with it in holding the horse up while 

 riding in ordinary, lifting him at the leap or in bearing 

 the strain of the martingale, if necessarily short. No arm 

 can break it. 



The curb rein is narrow, not only because the strain 

 on it is slight and corresponds witli the strength of the 

 bit and the possible strain it is subject to, but because 

 both carb and bridoon reins are held in one hand and 

 their alternate use frequent. If the horse and rider be 

 mutually agreeable and they like each other, and in pass- 

 ing through a strange country, unknown to both, they 

 come to two roads branching off to the right and left, the 

 horse knows as well as the rider does w^hich road his rider 

 intends taking. Instinct is at play, and the knowledge 

 is communicated from the hand through the reins to the 

 bit, thence to the brain. If the rider don't know which 

 road to take, he had better give the horse his head and let 

 him take his choice. If the object is to go home he won't 

 go astray. Phrenology is not limited to the functions of 

 the haman brain ; it takes a wider sphere, and descends 

 to the lower animals. Amon^' our domestic animals it is 

 applicable and unmistakable in the dog and horse. Pecu- 

 liar formations of the skulls of these two friends of man 

 vary, and the intellectaal of both can be picked out by 

 feeling them in the dark. And, although we can see a 

 faithful and intelligent dog's soul in his eye as he looks 



