I20 Bits a}?d Bilting. 



certainty as one that has been mismanaged and abused 

 in this respect. It is scarcely credible the amount of 

 terror with which some horses regard the bit, and the 

 blind fury with which they take it between their teeth, 

 throw up their heads, and bolt in consequence. 



Considering the great number of" unthinking " riders 

 and drivers that exist in all parts of the world, it seems 

 perfectly miraculous, when one looks at the frightful 

 instruments of torture placed, in the absurdest manner, 

 in their horses' mouths, and used in the most wonderful 

 ways, that so few accidents occur. It is only a proof 

 of the admirable tempers of our horses. The Irish ones 

 are frequently deficient in this respect, being still more 

 grossly abused. But still one sees every day, in broken- 

 kneed horses, lamentable evidence of the perversity and 

 ignorance with which horses are treated in this great 

 horse country. There is no use in mincing the matter : 

 this is, to a great extent, a consequence of ignorance 

 of the true principles of bitting, saddling and — riding ; 

 for a broken-kneed horse is an opprobrium to its 

 rider. 



As regards cavalry, few things are so important as 

 good and careful bitting. The steadiness of a troop or 

 squadron in its evolutions, and especially in skirmish- 

 ing, charging and rallying, depends mainly on it. The 

 writer of this has on more than one occasion converted, 

 in the course of a few days and at a very moderate 

 expense, a body of this kind that had become almost 

 unserviceable from bad bitting into a model of steadi- 

 ness, the bolters and restive horses all disappearing as 

 if by magic. No doubt, in order to effect this, every 

 single horse's mouth must be measured, and fitted in the 

 manner to be explained hereafter. Three or four sizes 

 or patterns will not sufiice for even i6o or i8o horses, 

 much less for a whole regiment, although our Cavalry 

 Regulations lay it down as a rule that each regiment 



