THE LEVEB, THE BIT AND CUEB, ETC. 169 



people, in order to prevent a bit with a very short 

 upper cheek falling through, are driven to using a very 

 tight curb, the result of which is, that the whole action 

 is transplanted from the interior of the mouth to the 

 chin ; as also that, in order to prevent one with a very 

 long upper cheek standing stiff, they use a very loose 

 curb, which has the effect of making the bit fall 

 through ; and this what is very common, nay, almost 

 invariable in this country immensely long bit is pulled 

 up as high as it will go into the horse's mouth, and then 

 a loose curb attached, which great piece of ironmongery 

 of course not only falls through, but acts nearly altogether 

 on the exterior of the horse's jaw ; whereas a much 

 smaller and lighter bit, if adapted to the mouth, would 

 be much more efficient . 



Some portion of the objection to the long upper cheek 

 referred to above namely, its affording no lever-action 

 may be remedied by making the lower cheek propor- 

 tionably longer ; and this is precisely what the iron- 

 mongers do, and, moreover, are encouraged to do by 

 ignorant buyers. As has been already shown above, 

 with reference to Fig. 10, we are thereby driven to use 

 much severer that is, more painful bits than are really 

 necessary ; besides which, there is another reason why 

 we cannot go beyond a certain length with the lower 

 cheek. This is on account of the angle at which the 

 rein acts on the latter. 



We have already pointed out how much depends on the 

 angle at which the power is applied to a lever, and that a 

 right-angle is the most favourable one for this purpose, 

 which may be shown in a manner perfectly independent 

 of theory. If the bit, Fig 13 (see page 170), were pulled 

 in the direction of c, it would evidently have no other 



