WON THE FIRST ROUND. 105 



more than half its proper sweating-distance he would 

 begin shaking his head, throwing it as high as the 

 martingal would let him, then throw it nearly to 

 the ground, and away he would bolt any where, in 

 spite of fate, or at least of any lad. I got one of these 

 bits for him, put it on moderately tight, and sent him 

 up the gallop: he began his old tricks, but found 

 himself hampered ; had a short fight, was beat, and 

 never attempted the least resistance afterwards. I 

 must, however, remark, that this bit, or martingal 

 whichever we may term it, is by far too severe to be 

 trusted in the hands of any common groom, who it 

 generally happens has no riding hands at all ; but 

 with the management of a man who has, it is in 

 extreme cases a very useful and efficacious assistant. 

 No. 5. and last, comes the nose-martingal. This 

 is a very mild counterpart of the last ; and its being 

 in any degree a counterpart is the very reason why I 

 reprobate its use for general purposes, for which, as 

 I before said, no bit or martingal can be proper 

 where we are, as with both these, unable to relieve 

 our horse of its restraint by our hands. This mar- 

 tingal, like the rearing one, fastens to the girths ; no 

 elasticity or yielding exists here ; but the reason why 

 this does not possess the severity of the former is, 

 the one acts on the horse's mouth, this only on his 

 nose ; but even this is often made a mode of punish- 

 ment, or, to say the least, of great annoyance to the 

 horse if he is ridden by a man with bad hands. A 

 rider of this sort never keeps them down ; conse- 

 quently he is constantly pulling his horse's head up : 

 the poor brute naturally gets into the habit of poking 

 out is nose and carrying his head too high, and, in 

 order to get some relief for his mouth, keeps con- 



