164 



BITS AND BITTING. 



acts depending altogether on the relative amount of 

 painful pressure exercised by the bit and the curb, the 

 horse's head will follow the rider's hand, even though 

 the curb lacerate his chin, if only a greater amount of 

 torture be applied to the bars of his mouth, the poor 

 animal being left to deduce from the balance of pain 

 what the rider's will may be. This is the system of 

 bitting employed by the Arabs and other Orientals at 

 the present day ; our Crusader forefathers borrowed it 

 from theirs, and, strange to say, it is still more or less 

 practised amongst us. 



It is, however, quite possible to economise for our- 

 selves all this surplus ingenuity in devising instruments 

 of torture, and to spare our horses the infliction of it, 

 merely by adjusting our bits altogether on the principle 

 of a lever of the second order that is to say, by 

 converting the curb into a simple prop or fulcrum for 

 the lever-action on the bars of the mouth, which may be 

 effected by rendering it perfectly painless, so that then 

 the small amount of pressure exercised on the bars acting 



Fig. 10. 



in the proper direction, and not being counteracted 

 elsewhere, is the sum total of pain it becomes necessary 

 to inflict, and even this may be reduced to a minimum. 

 The above (Fig. 10 shows that, supposing a power 



