The Neck, the Head, etc. 135 



gent to the cun-e formed by the groove. This latter 

 dimension — the height of the bars — is, perhaps, the most 

 important of all, because all the remaining dimensions 

 of the bit must be deduced from it. 



The width of the mouth is, as may be supposed, a 

 very variable quantity, depending on the breed and size 

 of the horse. Nevertheless, Lieutenant-Colonel von 

 Oeynhausen,* who has had occasion to measure the 

 mouths of a very great number and variety of horses, 

 says,t that with the great majority of horses of the smaller 

 medium size, 15. i to 15.3 hands high, their dimension 

 amounts to 4 inches. With very small and very light 

 horses one finds occasionally 3! inches ; the great ma- 

 jority of good-sized saddle-horses, 15.3 to 16.2 hands, 

 have 4^ inches, and some very large ones go to 4^ 

 inches ; while 5 inches is only to be found amongst very 

 heavy draught animals ; and on reducing these to Eng- 

 lish measures we have 4.148, 3.889, 4.407, 4.767 and 

 5.185 English inches. 



Our own experience, which has been considerable, 

 though not to be mentioned in comparison with Von 

 Oeynhausen's, confirms this very accurately ; and on 

 referring to old pocket-books devoted to notices of this 

 kind, we find that, out of some 400 horses belonging to 

 certain squadrons of light cavalry, measured some eight 

 or nine years ago, the width of the mouth was for the 

 smaller ones exactly 4 English inches, and for nearly 

 the whole of the remainder 4.2 inches, one or two only 

 reaching 4.3 inches. A great number of bits were put 

 down for alteration as being a half to one inch too wide, 

 and some thirty or forty went to the heap of old iron, 

 as being utterly useless from their immense size. Some 

 ofiicers will, perhaps, smile at this as a piece of pedan- 



* Of the Austrian army — perhaps the most learned man living in 

 the matter of horse-flesh, and the autiior of several admirable works, 

 t " Zaumungs Lehre," p. 19. 



