The Cavcsson^ Snaffle,, etc. 151 



interfere seriously with the respiration, even at the 

 more moderate pace of a trot or walk — besides other 

 imperfections, to which allusion shall be made lower 

 down. This was long a stumbling-block in the way of 

 the rational treatment of colts and fillies, and was prob- 

 ably what led indirectly to the invention of various in- 

 struments of torture known by the name of " capital 

 mouthpieces ;" but this difficulty has been at length got 

 over, and we are in possession of a contrivance which 

 enables us to effect what the old-fashioned noseband 

 never could. 



This is the training-halter (Reithalfter), invented, we 

 believe, by Lieutenant-Colonel von Oeynhausen, of the 

 Austrian cavalry, or at least introduced by him into the 

 Central School of Equitation at Vienna several years 

 since. To understand perfectly the great value of this 

 halter, it is necessary to allude to one more disadvan- 

 tage of the old-fashioned noseband, in addition to those 

 already enumerated ; which was, that when the reins of 

 the snaffle came to be shortened, the cheekpieces of the 

 headstall bulged out to the right and left up to the point 

 at which they were held fast by the noseband, and 

 being stopped there, a certain proportion of the pull on 

 the reins was transferred from the mouthpiece to the 

 noseband, where it, of course, was wholly inoperative ; 

 so that this latter, instead of promoting the action of 

 the former, actually interfered with it, making the horse 

 lean still more on the hand than hitherto. 



It is as well to mention here that the method now 

 introduced of passing snaffles, used for draught-horses, 

 through rings at the lower end of the cheekpieces, in- 

 stead of buckling them on directly as heretofore, is 

 grounded on the same principle — that of making the 

 action of the mouthpiece altogether independent of the 

 noseband. 



But these ring-snaffles do not, of course, prevent the 



