MEXICAN RING BIT. 79 



patient training is necessary to get them to take to and 

 understand it. On the retreat of the Army of the 

 Potomac from before Richmond, in 1862, we put our 

 Mexican ring bit on a young, high-strung horse of fine 

 speed and action. He went perfectly wild. The first 

 thing he did was to run away with it, and in trying to 

 stop him the ring broke, when the horse, taking his 

 head, dashed into the ranks as if he expected relief from 

 the troop horses. He seemed maddened and acted like a 

 horse with a bee in his ear. On the same day, at the 

 battle of Savage Station, we went in search of a canteen 

 of water, and on returning the horse took fright again ; 

 and having no control of him with a broken bit, he 

 '^ swallowed " it and dashed through a quartermaster's tent 

 and stores on fire, near Savage Station, and again rushed 

 into the ranks. He certainlv declared war ao^ainst the 

 ring bit ; but as he was too good an animal to conquer 

 in such a way, and thus break his spirit and otherwise 

 trifle with his disposition, we humored him and never 

 put the bit in his mouth again. 



On another occasion — in a charge on cavalry at six 

 o'clock in the morning of June 5th, 1864, at the battle of 

 Piedmont, Va., — the curb of a regulation bit broke and 

 he dashed through the enemy's ranks like a shot, and, 

 bringing him round by degrees, he rejoined the regiment. 

 This horse was wholly unmanageable with any bit when 

 he took it into his head to run away. But after we be- 

 came better acquainted and he began to know our voice, 

 we had rings put on the guards of a regulation bit, and 

 henceforth always used the bridoon rein, except in action, 

 when necessity required the curb. If we must keep such 

 powerful regulation bits we must have horses' mouths 

 made to order, for the question is not what bit will suit 

 the horse, but what horse will suit the bit. We used the 

 altered regulation bit with this horse until he became 

 accustomed to it, and never used any other with him to 



