THE LEVER, THE BIT AND CURB, ETC. 171 



of mechanics, and the application of lever-power, they 

 would have found that the same amount of useful 

 action would have been much more certainly obtained 

 by a much shorter lower cheek, without incurring the 

 very serious disadvantage of lifting the bit, as it 

 were, in the mouth, which always must have the 

 effect of causing the curb to mount up out of the chin- 

 groove, and therefore produce conflicting impressions, 

 tending to neutralise one another and puzzle the horse. 

 Moreover, the longer the lower cheek the greater will be 

 the space through which the rider's hand has to move 

 in order to produce a given amount of action. It will 

 be therefore slower, although more powerful, and con- 

 sequently more unequal, rendering it very difficult for 

 the majority of riders to hit off exactly the precise 

 amount of pull required. 



Having thus arrived at the conclusion that the abso- 

 lute length of the lower cheek should be diminished as 

 much as possible, and also laid it down as a rule that a 

 length of If inch is in all cases sufficient for that of the 

 upper one, it is not difficult to ascertain what the rela- 

 tive proportions of the two should be, which would, of 

 course, give us the absolute length of the former. And 

 here we encounter the only useful general rule that 

 bit-makers in general seem to be acquainted with ; 

 namely, that the lower cheek should be twice as long as 

 the upper one, which, increasing the lever-action in the 

 proportion of three to one, should be under all circum- 

 stances ample. But the bit-makers, although adhering 

 to this proportion, but too frequently make the lower 

 cheek inordinately long, because they have no standard 

 of length for the upper one ; whereas, if we adhere to 

 the rule laid down above of If inch for the latter 



