IMPROVING ACTION 75 



bend his head upon his neck in response to the 

 pressure of the bit. All this may be overcome in 

 many instances by lowering the bit an inch or two 

 in the mouth, when pressure of the bit will cause 

 responsive giving of the jaw and thus relieve the 

 tongue of undue pressure. 



A horse should never be allowed to go with his 

 mouth open, as it becomes dried, which lessens 

 the sensitiveness and responsiveness of that or- 

 gan and encourages pulling. If a horse shows a 

 tendency to keep his mouth open, try to deter- 

 mine the cause, as it is sure to be due to some 

 discomfort in connection with the mouth. In ad- 

 dition to removing the cause, any tendency to this 

 fault should be checked by the use of a tight nose- 

 band. The mouth must be kept closed, as a horse 

 never goes nicely with it open. Although faulty 

 mouths are usually the result of careless, thought- 

 less, unskilful management, it must be acknowl- 

 edged that there is a decided predisposition in 

 some horses to what are called bad mouths. 

 When this tendency does exist, however, it can 

 usually be overcome by rational management and 

 a pleasant, valuable, useful horse kept from be- 

 coming an uncomfortable brute, much lessened 

 in value from the possession of a bad mouth. 



The horse with a small tongue and narrow, 

 sharp bars, is apt to be very sensitive to pres- 

 sure and easily made to develop irritability and 



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