174 Bits and Bitting, 



wide range, and the whole art of bitting consists, so far 

 as the mouthpiece goes, in determining how much of 

 the pressure shall fall on the tongue and how much on 

 the bars, and we are thus enabled, by means of an al- 

 most infinite system of gradations, to obtain exactly the 

 degree of action required in each particular instance by 

 the nature of the service we demand, whatever the rela- 

 tive thickness of the tongue and sensitiveness of the bars 

 may chance to be. 



But there is one essential to be attended to — namely, 

 that the portion of the mouthpiece destined to rest on 

 the tongue and the bars respectively should keep their 

 proper places, and this can be secured only by 7naking 

 the mouthpiece of precisely the same zvidth as the 

 horse's month. For it is very evident that if a mouth- 

 piece furnished with a port be too ivide^ a very slight 

 pull on one rein will suffice to displace it, so that the 

 bar at that side gets either altogether under the port, in 

 which case the whole pressure is thrown on the tongue, 

 or partially so, when the corner of the port will, by 

 being pressed into it, cause great pain — in fact, the ac- 

 tion of the mouthpiece, whether with or without a port, 

 becomes altogether irregular and cannot be depended 

 on. On the other hand, if the mouthpiece be too nar- 

 row, the lips are jammed in over the bars, the mouth- 

 piece rests more or less on them, and the whole action 

 is disturbed, besides which the horse is sure, sooner oi 

 later, to get ulcerated lips. 



The Jirst gra7id rule must be^ therefore^ in all cases^ 

 to ?nake the mouthpiece precisely so wide that^ when 

 placed in the mouthy it Jits close to the outer surface 

 of the lips without either pressing on these or being 

 subject to be displaced laterally. 



But it is also evident that the different parts of the 

 mouthpiece must be exactly fitted to the interior of the 

 mouth ; that is to say, that those portions destined to 



