To Choose a Bit. 



309 



Riders of park hacks of perfect manners often use only a single curb-bit, called a " hard 

 and sharp;" others a Pelham in which one bit with checks and two sets of reins is supposed 

 to combine the advantages of a double bridle. 



The Pelham may either be in the shape of No. 6 or of No. 7, with curb-chain attached, and 

 although it is difficult to see how a mouthpiece witli a joint can press a horse's chin and act as 

 a curb, in practice it is found that light-mouthed horses do bend to the pulling of the curb-rein 

 after being ridden on the snaffle. As to the value 'of the Pelham, which I myself only use to 

 horses with good snaffle-bridle mouths, 



" Who shall decide when doctors disagree, 

 And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me." 



dwyer's bit. 



RIDING ORDINARY BIT [" a pompi"). 



MEASURING-Brr. 



Major Whyte-Melville recommends the Pelham, which is much used in Irish hunting fields; 

 Mr. George Nevile utterly condemns it. 



ON BITTING A HORSE. 



One of the most common expressions in speaking of horses is to say that such a one has a hard 

 mouth. It is true that the mouths of some horses are rendered callous on one or both sides 

 from the improper use of the halter, used as a bridle when colts, or the abuse of a bit while being 

 broken, or after being broken ; but what is called a hard mouth is as often as not the result of 

 an improper application of a bit that does not fit the horse, a difficulty which may be removed 

 by changing it. 



The whole question of mouths, bits, and bridles, has been the subject of serious scientific 

 investigation, accompanied by experiments on thousands of horses by several distinguished cavalry 

 officers of the Austrian army. The result of their investigations has been rendered into 



