CH. XV 



BITTING 



J U J 



the mouth-piece to the ring to which the rein is 

 attached. The measures are not from the centre 

 of the mouth-piece, but from its under side, because 

 that is the point about which the bit rotates on the 

 bars of the horse's mouth. 



Major Dwyer's opinions are supported by such 

 good arguments and illustrations, unfortunately too 

 long to be quoted here, that they may be safely 

 adopted. 



It is not so easy to give dimensions in inches for 

 the width of the bit as for the length, since the 

 widths of horses' noses differ greatly, but a good fit 

 in width is even more important than the proper 

 length of the branches ; no horse will work really 

 well with a bit which is not of the proper width ; 

 a fact so rarely recognised that out of any twenty 

 harness-horses taken at random, ten will be found 

 to have bits too narrow or too wide, usually too 

 wide. The bit must be of such a width that when 

 the curb-chain is hooked properly and the rein 

 pulled back, the outside of the 

 lower lip will fill the space 

 between the branches without 

 being pinched by them. If it is 

 much wider than this, it may 

 be pulled sideways in the 

 mouth, and instead of the can- 

 ons of the mouth-piece (C C, 

 Fig. 157) resting fairly on the bars of the mouth, 

 which are narrow, the point of junction of the canon 



Fig. 157. 



