HANDBOOK OF THE TUKF. 43 



variety with another, with the object of improving the breed. 

 Scientific breeding* consists in throwing the strength of all the 

 inherited tendencies into one channel, concentrating all the 

 ruling forces on one objective point, and thus reaching a 

 certain result. In breeding for the turf, we should couple a 

 sire and dam of trotting inheritance and that are trotters them- 

 selves ; or those combining purity of blood and the racing 

 lineage, with the true conformation for speed. These are the 

 requisite qualities, and we should be able to judge of the merits 

 of the prospective offspring, according to the trotting or racing 

 merits of the sire and dam, the grandsire and grandam, and 

 so on backward, the chances of success being in proportion to 

 the strength and unity of the inheritance. Offspring from 

 such unions will be colts that trot naturally, that can be 

 developed rapidly with little help from artificial aids ; and also 

 those that make the highest winners on the racing turf. 



Br. g". An abbreviation for " brown gelding," when 

 used before or after the name of a horse in a list of entries or 

 in the summary of a race. Also used with a c, m, or ^, to 

 denote a colt, mare or horse of the same color. 



Bridle. That part of the harness which is fitted to the 

 horse's head, and by which it is controlled. Its pieces are : 

 Crownpiece, which passes over the horse's poll; cheek-pieces, 

 which connect the crownpiece with the bit; throat-latch, a 

 part of the crownpiece which serves to prevent the bridle from 

 slipping over the horse's head, by passing under the throat; 

 forehead band, browband or front, which goes across the 

 horse's forehead; headstall, the name given to the foregoing 

 leather work, when in a collected form, and to which is 

 attached the snaffle, the bit and bridoon, the Chifney bit, (an 

 English bit very severe in its action,) or the Pelham ; lipstrap, 

 which serves to keep the curbchain in its place ; reins, con- 

 nected to the rings of the curb or snaffle ; billets, the ends of 

 the reins or of the cheek-pieces of the bridle, which buckle on 

 the bit ; loops or keepers, which serve, when buckles are used, 

 to retain the ends of the billets ; stops, used with reins which 

 have buckles, to prevent the martingale rings catching on the 

 buckles; bridoon head, the headstall of the snaffle or double 

 bridle — it has neither throat latch nor forehead band. 



Bridle Hand. The left hand is called the bridle hand 

 in contradistinction to the right hand, which is termed the 

 whip hand. 



Bridoon ; Bradoon. A light snaffle or bit ox a bridle 

 used in addition to the principal bit, and with a separate rein. 



