76 THE MERRY GEE-GEE 



men should study more fully the adap- 

 tation of bridles to horses' mouths than 

 trying to force the mouth to any bridle. 

 Many older horses that have a season 

 or two's hunting experience in them, but 

 who, for all that, are of a hot and im- 

 petuous disposition, answer better in two 

 snaffles than a curb. The one makes a 

 dead pull, while the other you can draw 

 through his mouth a little, and thus stop 

 him. I have known horses that hardly 

 could be held in a curb-bridle, let it be of 

 the Mohawk pattern or what it might; 

 and there is a horse Frank rode jump- 

 ing a few times this summer who has 

 had the bone of his jaw fractured with 

 a big curb and long lever, and they say 

 no man can hold him in a curb, yet this 

 boy holds him comfortably in a crank 

 snaffle and a martingale. 



The initiatory jumping-lessons given 



