176 BITS AND BITTING. 



the width of the horse's mouth and the height of the 

 bars, the latter of these quantities being nearly constant, 

 whilst the former one is variable, as has been shown 

 above. We must here anticipate, to a certain extent, 

 the contents of the next paragraph. In order to render 

 the action of the curb as painless as possible, it is 

 absolutely necessary that it should press upon the 

 greatest extent of surface' that can be made available 

 for the purpose, for which reason, of course, we require 

 this instrument itself to be flat, and as broad as the 

 chin-groove will allow. If the mouth-piece have exactly 

 the same width as the mouth, the curb will wrap close 

 round the chin, pressing equally over a large surface ; 

 but if, on the contrary, it be too wide, the curb will 

 trend away right and left ; and if the excess of width 

 amount to half an inch or an inch, it will bear altogether 

 on one spot and get up a sore,* although it is really 

 longer than it should be. 



It will be found that the proper length for the curb 

 is about one-fourth more than the width of the mouth, 

 the curb-hooks not being included in this ; or, if we 

 take these into account, the total of the curb and the 

 two hooks will be once and a-half the same dimension. 



The curb -hooks form an important item in the 

 arrangement. It was formerly the custom to have one 

 hook attached permanently at the near side of the bit, 

 and another of a somewhat different form to the off 

 side of the curb, but it has now become usual to attach 

 a pair of hooks of exactly the same shape and dimen- 

 sions, which is a great improvement : the proper length 



* The author once found some thirty or forty horses in one 

 squadron each with a little round ulcer on the chin in consequence 

 of the bits being too wide. 



