202 BITS AND BITTING. 



then read off the height of the bar on the lower limb of 

 ef, and have all the necessary dimensions. 



It would be quite possible to take another measure- 

 ment namely, that of the thickness of the tongue by 

 placing the bar a b over that organ ; but it has been 

 already shown that it is its relative and not absolute 

 thickness we want to know 7 ; and that, moreover, we 

 must take into account the temperament and " build "" 

 of the whole animal when we set about determining 

 what degree of relative pressure should be borne by the 

 bars of the mouth and the tongue respectively ; so that 

 this proceeding would lead to no useful result. 



Even those who have had most experience will 

 sometimes find themselves at fault if they rely merely 

 on measurement ; and Lieutenant Klatte, a Prussian 

 instructor in equitation at Berlin, many years ago 

 invented for this very reason what is known as the 

 "trial-bit" (Fig. 16, B). This affords us at once the 

 means of ascertaining the proper bit for every horse 

 practically. There are a certain number of spare 

 mouth-pieces which may be fixed in succession into the 

 side-pieces of the bit, their width being easily adjusted 

 by means of a number of small plates, p p, of one-tenth 

 of an inch thickness, removable at pleasure from the 

 inside to the outside of the side-piece ; and having once 

 ascertained the width of the mouth, we may then,, 

 having also ascertained the height of the bars of the 

 mouth with the gauge described in a preceding para- 

 graph, proceed to shift the sliding ring-pieces r r till 

 the upper cheek has attained the prescribed length, 

 after which the curb with its hooks are fitted, and 

 then there only remains to slide the rein-rings s s up or 

 down till the proper proportional length of the lower 



