106 THE BRIDLE BITS. 



accomplish this we must use and handle him with grace 

 and skill. 



We have no doubt but that a hard puller, if pressed to 

 his speed, will drive steadier with a bar bit in a steady 

 hand than with any other under the same circumstances, 

 if trained to it. But with or without rules, it is impos- 

 sible for a stranger to advise what to do with a spoiled 

 horse without trying him. Experiments wiih bits of 

 various powers and qualities, by an experienced person, 

 is the only course to pursue. But the mouth that is 

 trained to pull the buggy by the bit, is spoiled for a 

 woman's hand, and should not be entrusted to her skill 

 alone. Sometimes one runaway is enough for a life-time. 

 There is nothing more uncertain than the end of a good 

 runaway, 95 2:)er cent, of which accidents are the result of 

 ignorance or carelessness of the driver ; he is not likely to 

 have presence of mind to observe rules, or to know what 

 or how to do in the fright and excitement of a dynamite 

 dash for life. When a horse is before wheels nothing, if 

 possible, should be left to chance. It is bad enough to 

 risk the bit and reins, the strength of which is sometimes 

 the only barrier between a whole family and death. But 

 to risk women and children with a bad or inexperienced 

 driver, or an uncertain or strange horse, or a bit that 

 won't hold him, is placing too much reliance on luck. 

 We were once in a Long Island train of cars, when a 

 horse in a buggy, on a road at right angles with the rail- 

 road, ran away, and meeting the locomotive on the track 

 it cut the horse loose from the buggy and the whole train 

 ran between it and the horse, and while the former was 

 broken in pieces, the horse and the girl escaped. She 

 had the wrong bit. 



The use of the mouthing bit (fig. 1) is to gradually 

 teacb the horse submission to all ordinary bits, without 

 using force, for when we ride or drive out for pleasure, 

 we do not propose to contend with our horse in a trial of 



