MECHANICAL MOUTHING. 35 



to the pillar reins, in a fixed position for hours 

 at a time. Xo wonder that half the horses in 

 England have mouths like cast-iron. Colts 

 cannot be mouthed by machinery, but only by 

 proper handling in the saddle. It is of no use 

 going through all the elaborate process now in 

 vosue of stable mouthino\ india-rubber dumb 

 jockeys, reins, &c. It is the man's hands only 

 which can do so, but at the same time I must 

 confess it is a difficult thing to find a man with 

 good and light hands. Perhaps this system of 

 mechanical mouthing may have had something 

 to do with hardening men's hands as well as 

 horses' mouths. 



I may now describe the proper position 

 for the bit in the mouth. It should not be 

 drawn up tightly into the angle of the lips, 

 neither should it be so slack as to be among 

 the incisor teeth, but it should be exactly oppo- 

 site the groove in the chin where the curb-chain 

 ought to be when used. I think I need not 

 tell my readers how to put the roller on the 

 colt ; the only things required are to take time, 



d2 



