TRAINING, AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 39 



colt to the pillar reins. I will state my reasons for 

 doing so: — 



In the first place, the bit is liable to make the colt's 

 mouth very sore, and the tighter it is tied the greater 

 will be the annoyance and suffering to the colt, and 

 the more irksome this portion of the training is made 

 to the animal. From the bit causing frequent sores and 

 the healing up of the same, the bars of the mouth 

 become thickened and less susceptible to the sense of 

 feeling, where you want it to be the most acute, so 

 that the colt shall be amenable and obedient to the 

 touch of the reins. In fact, the skin on the bars or 

 corners of the mouth sometimes become corns. One 

 side may become harder than the other, by the colt's 

 leaning harder on that side against the bit on the fixed 

 side rein, so you get a one-sided mouthed horse, which 

 is a most annoying animal, and sometimes even 

 dangerous to drive. 



I may explain the corns resulting frequently from 

 the old system of mouthing by the following illustration. 

 Let any person unused to digging, take a spade and 

 dig all day in the garden ; his hands, unused to the 

 friction of the handle of the shovel, will rapidly develop 

 sores; these sores, by a continuance of the labour, will 

 surely develop into corns ; the whole skin thickens, and 

 the sense of feeling becomes less and less acute, until 

 it almost ceases to exist. So it is with the colt's 

 mouth : you make it hard, and then you grumble, it pulls 



