No. 4.] THE HORSE FOR NEW ENGLAND. 127 



pound. No coacliinan can keep his proper position on the 

 box, have the team unck^r good control, and be able to drive 

 throuo-h a crowded thorouohfare, with a lu<ii>iii<2; horse, in 

 either a pair or four. 



With the curb bit goes the nose l)and, which is the most 

 important part of it, especially with the port bit ; most nose 

 bands are wrongly made, and only for looks. The proper 

 nose band is broad, and can be buckled up tight enough so 

 that the horse, instead of being able to open and close his 

 mouth at will and get away from the bit, finds his jaw held 

 Avhere it belongs. 



If I should give any trait which I would consider abso- 

 lutely necessary for horses of any type, I would say mouth. 

 To show you how necessary this is, I would state that " Sure 

 Pop," by Barrett, that I won the high jump at Boston with, 

 — six feet, six inches, — was almost unmanageable when I 

 first purchased her ; she had n§ver been taught to drop her 

 chin, but would throw her head up and boil away at her 

 jumps a thousand miles an hour ; there was absolutely no 

 way of settling her into her stride and keeping her back 

 without raising her temper to an ungovernable degree. 



Then, again, in driving she had that very pleasant habit 

 of starting out on her hind legs, and seemed to believe that 

 her front feet were made for looks only. I worked her with 

 the curb and broken snatlie, and finally put in a perfectly 

 plain snaffle, the same as the ordinary check bit, before I 

 fiumd out just what was needed. With this I was able to 

 control her absolutely : the broken snaffle pinched her and 

 irritated her ; the plain check bit gave her an easy bit when 

 she behaved nicely ; the curb bit with the tight nose band 

 when applied let her know immediately that she must turn 

 either to the right or left, or stop at once. After a few 

 days she began to acknowledge the bit, and it was only a 

 question of time before she was going over six and seven 

 feet as quietly as a lady. 



The picture of "St. Rudolph,"' the champion hunter of 

 America, shows the system of nose band, curb bitting and 

 well-carried head. The picture of " Pierrot" gives a slight 

 idea of the Haut-e-Cole method ; and in the hands of H. L. 



