GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 119 



perfectly miraculous, when one looks at the frightful 

 instruments of torture placed in the absurdest manner 

 in their horses' mouths, and used in the most wonderful 

 ways, that so few accidents occur. It is only a proof of 

 the admirable tempers of our horses. The Irish ones 

 are frequently deficient in this respect, being still more 

 grossly abused. Indeed, one sees every day, in broken- 

 kneed horses, lamentable evidence of the perversity and 

 ignorance with which horses are treated in this great 

 horse country. There is no use in mincing the matter ; 

 this is, to a great extent, a consequence of ignorance of 

 the true principles of bitting, saddling, and riding ; for a 

 broken-kneed horse is an opprobrium to its rider. 



As regards cavalry, few things are so important as 

 good and careful bitting. The steadiness of a troop or 

 squadron in its evolutions, and especially in skirmishing, 

 charging, and rallying, depends mainly on it. The writer 

 of this has on more than one occasion converted, in the 

 course of a few days and at a very moderate expense, 

 a body of this kind that had become almost unservice- 

 able from bad bitting into a model of steadiness, the 

 bolters and restive horses all disappearing as if by magic. 

 No doubt, in order to effect this, every single horse's 

 mouth must be measured, and fitted in the manner to be 

 explained hereafter. Three or four sizes or patterns 

 will not suffice for even 160 or 180 horses, much less for 

 a whole regiment, although our Cavalry Regulations lay 

 it down as a rule that each regiment should have " a, few 

 bits with different and easy mouthpieces and curbs, &c." 



Draught horses are, on the whole, less absurdly bitted 

 than those used for the saddle in this country ; and the 

 huge bits one sees sometimes in the mouths of those 

 devoted to purposes of show and pleasure, although 



