ON BRIDLING 313 



bars, tongue, cavity of the mouth, jjalate, thickness 

 of the lips, it is necessaiy to take into account 

 the conformation of his body and neck, the strength 

 or the weakness of the fore part, the back and 

 the feet. He very judiciously remarked also that 

 the curb-bit alone is not sufficient to make hor- 

 ses go well but it is necessary to have them tho- 

 roughly trained in advance to go well and lightly 

 and that only then the head and the neck could 

 be drawn in the right position which their con- 

 formation allows. He might have added that the 

 rider must know how to apply the aids of the hand. 



Eegarding the question as to whether the upper 

 cheeks of the curb-bit are more adapted to raise 

 the head, when long or short, the Oavaliere d'A- 

 quino said that the upper cheeks if shorter gave 

 greater action to the curb-bit and therefore had 

 greater power to raise the head. It is understood 

 that to raise the head the curb-bit should be made 

 to act by the hand in a raising direction. 



The object of the curb-bit is to subject the 

 head, neck and body to the action of the hand in 

 order to control the horse better than with the 



