Bridles with Martingales. 313 



gives pain should never be used ; or rather, one that produces pain which the horse cannot 

 cause to cease by dropping his head to the right position and yielding. A tight curb-chain 

 and powerful bit make the horse poke out his chin ; and then an ignorant person pulls 

 harder, tightens the curb, and resorts to a bit still more severe. 



TO BRIDLE A HORbE. 



"To put a bridle on a new horse: — First, fit the head-stall to the horse's head, taking 

 care that neither the forehead-band nor throat-band is too tight ; then, by the buckles, fit the 

 snaffle-rein so that it falls a quarter of an inch below the angle of the mouth ; then fit the 

 curb-bit, so that the mouth-piece shall rest on the bars of the mouth, exactly opposite the 

 chin-groove ; if some irregular disposition of the tusks should render this impossible, it must 

 be moved only just so much higher up as is absolutely necessary to clear the obstacle. The 

 curb may then be hooked, first at the off side, leaving one reserve link, and then at the near 

 side, where it should be long enough to leave two links, taking care that it lies flat on the 

 chin-groove, without the slightest tendency to mount upwards when the reins are drawn. 



" There should always be room for the first and second fingers (of an average-sized hand) 

 to pass flat between the chain and the chin ; if, on gently pulling the reins with the left hand 

 whilst the two fingers are so placed, a pinching action takes place, the chain is too tight." 



NOSE-BANDS AND MARTINGALES. 



Nose-bands form part of bridles either for use or ornament; as to the latter they diminish 

 the apparent length of a horse's head. They should always be attached to separate cheeks and 

 not to the cheeks of the curb when used with a double bridle (see No. I, p. 307). If a horse 

 opens his mouth a snaffle has very little power over him. In such cases a nose-band buckled 

 just where the bone of the head ceases and the fleshy muzzle commences will have a consider- 

 able effect. 



A very ingenious nose-band, an improvement on the Bucephalus for stopping violent pullers, 

 has been perfected by Mr. Souter, saddler, of the Haymarket, on the suggestion of Mr. Edmund 

 Tattersall. Mr. Souter was a hard rider to hounds, and therefore a practical man. But as the 

 Bucephalus acts by compressing the nostrils, and therefore diminishing the breathing powers of 

 a galloping and perhaps half-mad horse, it is a very dangerous instrument except in the 

 hands of first-class horsemen. 



A nose-band is also required in order to use a cavesson or standing martingale. There 

 are a host of theoretical reasons against the use of a cavesson or martingale of any kind. 

 A well-shaped, well-broken horse of perfectly placid temper, never disturbed even by too 

 many beans and not enough exercise, needs no martingale. But how about those capital horses 

 that get " above themselves," after a very little idleness, or those capital movers and jumpers 

 with slack ewe necks and the head put on the wrong way.' 



Sir Tatton Sykes said once when he replaced a complicated bridle and martingale with a 

 simple snaffle on a horse he was about to ride in a race, " my hands are my martingale." But 

 then Sir Tatton was as a horseman one in a thousand, six feet high, all bone and muscle, and 

 always on horseback. 



But few horsemen are like Sir Tatton in either skill, experience, or training, and horses are 

 not all well shaped or perfectly broken, therefore I entirely agree with the maxim of a horseman, 

 o o 



