THE BIT-AND-BRIDOON FOR ' SADDLE HORSES. 59 



feel at home, as we do ourselves in old clothes. A 

 woman's arm is not strong enough to contend with a 

 hard mouth or jJuHing horse, in either riding or driving. 

 The power, therefore, should be in the bit, and besides 

 having her horse, in either service, well-mouthed, she 

 should have the strength in the bit in proportion to a 

 possible necessity, so that she could use it at her option 

 to lighten u]^ her horse's head and control him in any 

 emergency. Her horse must be so trained that the bit- 

 and-bridoon will be powerful enough to master him, for 

 this is essentially a woman's bridle, and everything 

 should be equal to it. 



If a woman's horse becomes restive from undue use of 

 the curb, or any other cause, and she be not au fait in 

 its management, a straight runaway on an o^Den field 

 or road might be less dangerous than contending with an 

 untrained or strange horse in a fit of capering, rearing 

 and plunging to get free from the curb, which should be 

 dropped when he shows any disposition to cut up capers, 

 as he is likely to do if he shies at anything — for, un- 

 fortunately, it is customary to chastise horses for this 

 habit, which arises from a naturally timid and cautious 

 disposition to keep out of danger. Of course the chas- 

 tising makes him worse, knowing that when he sees any- 

 thing to fear and shies at it, he will get whij^ped or 

 spurred. When a horse becomes restive and rears, it is 

 frequently from too much pressure of the curb, which he 

 may not like or understand, and thinking he is wanted 

 on his hind legs (for the curb has a tendency to cause 

 him to throw up his head to ease his under-jaw from the 

 chain) rears accordingly. As a saddle-horse may balk 

 from bad riding, and a harness-horse stop from bad driv- 

 ing, or both run away from bad handling, we must ex- 

 amine the bit and see where the fault is ; this the 

 experienced eye can see at a glance. 



