CH. XI 



BIT 



203 



The Liverpool bit, having straight branches, can be 

 used either with the fluted side or with the smooth 

 side of the mouth-piece against the horse's jaw, but 

 the elbow bit obviously cannot be so used unless the 

 shank is round, so that the branches can be turned. 

 For this reason, the Liverpool bit with the straight 

 branch is the most useful ' all-round' bit. 



The Buxton bit, D, is considered a ' dressy' bit and 

 is used on pair-horse harness : it is proper enough 

 on a drag team, but not quite so simple and work- 

 manlike as the Liverpool. The branch is curved to 

 prevent the horse from catching 

 it with his lip. 



A straight mouth-piece is not 

 always suited to a pulling horse, 

 since it rests upon the compara- 

 tively insensitive tongue, and 

 does not press much upon the 

 bars of the mouth. Such a horse 

 requires a mouth-piece with a port, or, as the French 

 call it, liberty of the tongue, which is an arch, as at 

 P, Fig. 90, of greater or less height, permitting the 

 toneue to eo up into it, and the canons, C C, of the 

 mouth-piece to rest upon the bars. When consider- 

 ably exaggerated, the port serves another purpose : 

 it presses upon the roof of the mouth when the rein 

 is drawn, and, if the nose-band is buckled tight, it 

 presses very hard. This arrangement is one of great 

 severity, and should be used only by a person of 

 judgement, and with a very light hand. The action 



Fig. 90. 



