THE .NECK, THE HEAD, ETC. 139 



painful contact with the bars on the one side or 

 the other. * 



The tongue itself is what we have next to direct our 

 attention to. This organ will be found to vary very 

 much both in thickness and texture. In some horses it 

 just fills its own canal neatly, rising towards its axis in 

 a gentle curve, whose summit is two-tenths or three- 

 tenths of an inch above the level of the bars ; in others 

 it seems much too thick and fleshy for the interior of 

 the mouth, and projects in all directions. Now the 

 volume of the tongue is a matter of very great import- 

 ance, because the action of the mouth-piece is divided 

 between this organ and the bars of the mouth ; and the 

 great nicety in bitting is practically to determine for 

 each individual horse how much of the lever-action is 

 to fall on the tongue, and how much on the bars. 



We started with the proposition that lightness or 

 heaviness in the rider's hand depends mainly on the 

 degree of equilibrium that the horse may have attained ; 

 but the reader will perceive that what is called softness 

 or hardness of mouth must depend, to a certain extent, 

 on the dimensions of the bit corresponding accurately 

 with the interior conformation of this organ. The most 

 perfectly adapted bit will not convert a raw remount at 

 once into a trained horse, or to give him a proper 

 carriage and feeling all this is done gradually with the 

 snaffle ; but when the horse has once acquired the 

 carriage and the degree of feeling that may be required, 

 then no pains should be spared in bitting him correctly, 

 otherwise all the previous labour is lost. 



* The Segunda mouth-piece, which we knew only under another 

 name till our attention was called to it by a correspondent, obviated 

 this inconvenience partly, but has been abandoned wherever men 

 take the trouble of fitting their horses' bits accurately. 



