The Neck, the Head, etc, 137 



more sensitive — all this exercising an immense influ- 

 ence on the bitting. 



The width of the channel for the tongue, or lingual 

 canal, as the anatomists would say, is pretty nearly 

 always three-fourths of the height of the bars ; and this 

 being very constantly 1.8 inches, the other will be found 

 to be about ij inches of our English measurement, 

 which gives us the dimension of the maximum zvidth 

 of the port of a bit, where there is one ; because, sup- 

 posing the mouthpiece to have exactly the proper width, 

 if the port be made w^ider than the lingual canal, its 

 corners will come on to the bars of the horse's mouth 

 and produce intolerable pain, wliich, once for all, is 

 wholly inconsistent with good bitting ; and this is pre- 

 cisel}' the reason why it is of so great importance that 

 the width of the bit should coincide so accuratel}'^ with 

 that of the horse's mouth ; as, if it be too wide, and a 

 port exists, every pull of the rein will be sure to bring 

 its angles into painful contact with the bars on the one 

 side or the other. 



The tongue itself is what we have next to direct our 

 attention to. This organ will be found to vary very 

 much both in thickness and in texture. It some horses 

 it just fills its own canal neatl}', rising toward its axis 

 in a gentle curve, whose summit is two-tenths or three- 

 tenths of an inch above the level of the bars ; in others 

 it seems much too thick and fleshy for the interior of 

 the mouth, and projects in all directions. Now the 

 volume of the tongue is a matter of very great import- 

 ance, because the action of the mouthpiece is divided 

 between this organ and the bars of the mouth ; and the 

 great nicety in bitting is practically to determine for 

 each individual horse how much of the lever action is 

 to fall on the tongue and how much on the bars. 



We started with the proposition that lightness or 

 heaviness in the rider's hand dependfe mainly on the 

 12* 



