THE NECK, THE HEAD, ETC. 127 



of pack on the front part of the military saddle, but it is 

 precisely for this reason that it is so highly important 

 to give the head of the troop horse a proper position, 

 which can only be maintained by very careful and 

 accurate bitting, after that of the neck has been attained 

 by a judicious system of riding and breaking-in ; and 

 still one is astonished to see the pack of the officer built 

 up into the same absurd form as that of the private, 

 although there is no necessity whatever for this being 

 done. 



The reader perceives, by these frequent and unavoid- 

 able digressions, how intimately the question of bits and 

 bitting is interwoven with the whole system of breaking- 

 in and riding horses, especially for military purposes; 

 and he will see farther on the great importance of this 

 point, particularly when we come to discuss the im- 

 mediate action of the bit on the interior of the horse's 

 mouth. 



We have next to consider the animal's head in 

 connection with this question. Hitherto we have, for 

 the sake of greater convenience, always mentioned the 

 neck as the lever by which the rider controls the motion 

 of the whole animal ; but a simple inspection shows that 

 the head is the lever by means of which we gain a 

 command over the neck; and its size, weight, the manner 

 in which it is set on to the latter, and other particulars, 

 have each of them its own share of importance. It is 

 scarcely necessary to say that a very large heavy head 

 renders it a matter of extreme difficulty to get the horse 

 into anything like equilibrium, and big-headed horses 

 will be therefore generally, although not always, heavy 

 in the head. But it by no means follows from this that 

 small heads confer of themselves the opposite quality ; 



