CHAPTER X. • 57 



when he seizes it, he may drop it from dis- 

 like of its roughness. Then, when he shall 

 have received the smooth bit in its turn, he 

 will like its smoothness and do everything 

 on the smooth bit which he has been trained 

 to do on the rough. He may, however, come 

 not to mind its smoothness and to bear hard 

 upon it; and this is why we put the large 

 discs on the smooth bit, to make him keep 

 his jaws apart and drop the bit. You can 

 make the rough bit anything you like by 

 holding it lightly or drawing it tight. 



No matter what the kind of bit, it must 

 always be flexible. When a horse seizes a 

 stiff bit, he holds the whole of it at once 

 against his bars ; he lifts it all, just as a man 

 does a spit, at whatever point he takes it up. 

 But the other kind acts like a chain ; only the 

 part that you are grasping remains unbend- 

 ing, and the rest hangs loose. So, as the 

 horse is always after the part that is getting 

 away from him in his mouth, he drops the 

 bit from his bars. For the same reason little 

 rings are hung from the joints of the bit in 

 the middle, so that the horse, in trying to 

 catch them with his tongue and teeth, may 



