FORM OF THE BIT. 57 



reins, and place in the horse's mouth a more or less mur- 

 derous instrument; he will remain insensible to our 

 efforts as long as we do not communicate suppleness to 

 him, which alone can enable him to yield. 



In the first place, then, I lay down as a fact, that there 

 is no difference of sensibility in the mouths of horses; 

 that all present the same lightness when in the position 

 called ramener, and the same resistances in proportion as 

 they recede from this position. There are horses hard 

 to the hand ; but this hardness proceeds from the length 

 or weakness of their loins, from a harrow croup, from 

 short haunches, thin thighs, straight hocks, or (a most 

 important point) from a croup too high or too low in 

 proportion to the withers ; such are the true causes of 

 resistances; the contractions of the neck, the closing of 

 the jaws are only the effects ; as to the bars, they are 

 only there to show the ignorance of self-styled eques- 

 trian theoricians. By suppling the neck and the jaw, 

 this hardness completely disappears. Experiments a 

 hundred times repeated givo me the right to advance this 

 principle boldly ; perpaps it may, at first, appear too 

 arbitrary, but it is none the less true. 



Consequentl}', I only allow one kind of bit, and this 

 is the form and the dimensions I give it, to make it as 

 simple as it is easy. 



The branches straio-ht and six inches Ions:, measurinsc 

 from the eye of the bit to the extremity of the branch; 

 circumference of the canon,* two inches and a half ; port, 

 about two inches wide at the bottom, and one inch at the 

 top. The only variation to be in the width of the bit, 

 according to the horse's mouth. 



• The mouth-piece of the bit consists of three parts : the port, to give free- 

 dom to the tongue, and the two canons, which are the parts that come in 

 contact with the bars.— Translator., 



