CH. XV 



BITTING 



S6l 



is used on race horses and sometimes on hunters. 

 With horns, and with loose rings to be attached to 

 the cheek-pieces of the bridle (Fig. 92), it is an ad- 

 mirable hunting 1 bit. Without horns and as shown 

 in Fig. 91, it is used, in a riding-bridle, as the bridoon, 

 or accompanying bit to the curb, but it then has a 

 thinner mouth-piece. Secondly, the curb-bit, which 

 for saddle purposes has lighter branches than the 

 driving-bit, with one ring at the top, to fasten it to 

 the bridle, and one ring at 

 the bottom, for the rein. 

 The mouth-piece usually 

 has the form shown in 

 Fig. 88, B, with a port or 

 liberty of the tongue. The 

 best form of this bit is 

 shown in Fig. 156, in FlG is6 



which the canons of the 



mouth-piece are thick and the port somewhat thin- 

 ner, so as to give room for the tongue while not 

 bringing the port too near the roof of the mouth. 



In Fig. 156, the port is inclined forward, from the 

 line of the branches, so that when they take their 

 proper position under the pull of the reins, the 

 tongue will have really the most liberty, which will 

 not be the case if the port is in the same plane with 

 the branches.* 



* I am tempted to add an extract from a letter written to me in 

 June 1872 by Benjamin Latchford, the well-known bit and spur 



