358 The Book of the Horse. 



The bottom bar of a driving curb-bit is dangerous if used without a bearing rein, because 

 horses are apt, when their heads are free, to hook it on a shaft in single, and on the pole in 

 double harness. 



But when a horse cannot be driven in a snaffle, or controlled by a curb-bit of something 

 like the dimensions of the " Dwyer," the better plan is to adopt a Chifney bit, with Blackwell's 

 india-rubber reins. When the curb-chain is properly fitted it is perfectly easy. Unless the 

 coachman has firm and delicate hands, he must drive on the check or snaffle, and rely on the 

 india-rubber reins when a strong pull is required. 



It is an objection to this invaluable contrivance that the reins have rather a clumsy look, 

 but this is easily amended. Instead of buckling them on the flat leather reins, a neater and 

 more convenient plan is to buckle them to a billet (tongue strap) sewn on to round reins, the 

 india-rubber being also round. 



In dealing with horses that have an inclination to run away, it is necessary to take care 

 that they do not get hold of the cheek of the bit — a very common trick with runaways. This 

 is partly guarded against in riding-horses by the use of the lip-strap, and also by making the 

 cheeks of an S, or the shape of the Hanoverian bit. Messrs. Wimbush, the job-masters, have 

 for full fifty years broken all their harness-horses in with a bit with the cheeks bent back at 

 an acute angle (see woodcut), which makes it impossible to lay hold of them. This prevented 

 their young horses from ever acquiring the dangerous habit, a /mint viuch cultivated by the system 

 of having bits broader tlian the hoi-scs' mouths. 



A gentleman, an owner of racehorses, applied to the saddler whose name has just been 

 quoted for bits to stop a pair of thoroughbred horses that had more than once bolted with his 

 coachman and himself It was found that they had the trick of simultaneously laying hold 

 each of one check of the Chifney bits with which they were tried. Finally they were fitted 

 with bits of the Wimbush pattern, and to the astonishment of the owner, from the moment 

 they found they could not lay hold of the cheeks, they submitted, and became perfectly docile. 

 This was the moral as distinguished from a physical effect. 



It cannot be too often repeated that good bitting gives control without pain. A bit that 

 gives pain, or rather, that produces pain that the horse cannot cause to cease by dropping his 

 head to the right position and yielding, is inexcusable. 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. 



BLINKERS. 



Blinkers, or winkers, sometimes called blinds, are almost universally used on the bridles 

 of pleasure carriages in England, and generally on cart harness. In America, harness bridles 

 are generally without blinkers. 



Whether they are more useful or mischievous has been a subject of dispute for many 

 years, but up to the present time, the more expensive the horses and harness the more cer- 

 tain are blinkers to be attached. The horses of the job-masters of London — more than a 

 thousand pair — arc all driven in blinkers, and I do not think any state carriage has ever been 

 driven to Court without them. 



The objections urged against them are, that ii a horse can see behind he is less likely 

 to be alarmed, run away, or set to kicking if he can see what is the matter ; that blinkers 

 in summer weather heat the eyes in an injurious manner; and finally, that they hide the 

 nijst beauliiul features of a horse's head — the c)es. 



