116 BITS AND BITTING. 



the rider, or acquired an artificial equilibrium suited 

 to the altered circumstances, then it no longer seeks 

 his support, and the mouth is called soft. That such 

 is really the case can be very satisfactorily proved. A 

 horse can be brought into perfect equilibrium under 

 the rider without any bridle whatever merely by using 

 a cavesson instead ; and if a snaffle be then put into 

 its mouth, this will be found to be exceedingly sensitive, 

 and it will require some days' riding before it will 

 " take the bit," as the phrase is. 



From what has been just stated, it will be easy to 

 understand how the seat of the rider comes to exercise 

 so great an influence on the horse's mouth that the 

 same horse will go light with one and heavy with 

 another rider. First of all, it is a question of equilibrium. 

 One rider assumes a seat that favours, another one 

 that more or less seriously impedes, the efforts of the 

 horse to get into balance for horses always try to 

 do this. But, secondly, supposing the seat, so far as 

 the distribution of weight is concerned, to be identical, 

 the unsteady rider will seek a support for himself in 

 the reins, and the horse immediately bores against 

 this, and becomes a hard puller ; whilst the steady seat 

 makes a light hand and a soft mouth. 



It is, in like manner, easy to understand why not 

 only individuals, but whole breeds of horses, should be 

 found naturally light or heavy in the hand, which is 

 owing mainly to the general framework being more or 

 less favourable to equilibrium in motion mainly, but 

 not wholly, because the interior conformation of the 

 mouth has always a certain influence, and this is 

 scarcely identical in any two horses, even as merely 

 regards those points that have a direct bearing on the 



