146 BITS AND BITTING. 



avoid erroneous impressions on this very point that we 

 have thought it best to defer up to this moment all 

 mention of those peculiarities of the interior construction 

 of the horse's mouth which, taken together, constitute, 

 so far as this organ itself is concerned, what is called a 

 hard or a soft mouth. 



There are two ways of expressing what a soft mouth 

 is ; we may either say this horse goes well 011 a light 

 bit which may be mainly a consequence of good car- 

 riage, temper, &c. or we may say, a light bit will pro- 

 bably suit this horse best, because it has a thin tongue, 

 high and sharp bars, a wide tongue-channel, and fine 

 lips. But in truth, the relative thickness or thinness 

 of the tongue is the main point to .be considered, be- 

 cause, as has been already pointed out, the height of 

 the bars is very nearly the same in all horses, and the 

 width of the tongue-channel always bears a certain 

 proportion to it. No doubt the bars have in some in- 

 stances a flat and in others a sharp or convex upper 

 surface, which, together with the greater or. less fleshi- 

 ness of the lips, makes a great difference ; but in the 

 end it comes to this : Does the tongue fill up its channel 

 merely to the brim, projecting only a few lines over the 

 surface of the bars, and therefore permitting the mouth- 

 piece to exert a certain degree of pressure on the latter ? 

 And this we would call a naturally soft niouth, so far as 

 interior conformation goes. 



A hard mouth, on the contrary, will be one in which 

 we find a thick fleshy tongue, not only totally filling 

 up its channel, but protruding over it, and rising high 

 above the level of the bars, which makes the former 

 appear narrow and the latter low, whatever their real 

 dimensions may be ; and if to this be superadded a 



