A horse's bridle should fit him nicely and with no loose ends hanging or sticking about his head. Nothing looks more slovenly than trace points or back-band points or bridle billet ends sticking out of, and beyond their loops.
PLATE XXIII.
The horse's eyes should come in the middle of the winkers, and the headstall should be so fitted as to keep them there. The winkers should not bulge out nor turn in, and thus almost touch the eye. Above all, they should not, as is often the case, drop so that the horse can see over, and behind them. Many horses under these circumstances will pay so much attention to the man and the whip, and perhaps the parasol, behind them, that they will see nothing else. The throat-latch should be loose enough to allow three fingers between it and the throat. It is intended to keep the whole bridle in place, but not to choke the horse. The nose-band is a survival. It was intended to keep the jaws of the horse together so that he could not relieve himself from the bit by opening his mouth. In the case of a bit with a high port it is still useful for that purpose; but even when used merely because it came as part of the harness, it should fit and not be a flopping ring of leather around the horse's nose. A nose-band properly adjusted should have the width of two fingers between it and the horse's jaws and should fit snugly and not too far up over his nose. The brow-band should so fit that it does not rub the ears. When the bridle is hung up as one piece, see that it is not hung on a hook, so that one side or the other is pulled out of shape, but on a proper bridle-rack.
Of bits, as of books, there is no end. Xenophon advises a flexible bit covered with leather. "No matter what the kind of bit, it must always be flexible," he maintains (Plate XXI.). William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, in probably the most sumptuous book on the horse ever published, writing in 1657, says, "But above all, this rule is chiefly to be observed, to put as little iron in your horse's mouth as possibly you can."
With bits as with shoes, the less and the lighter, the better, so long as they be strong enough to hold your horse. The plain snaffle, ring snaffle, double ring snaffle, Liverpool bit, Elbow bit, Buxton bit, Swales's patent, and (Plates XXIII. and XXIV.) innumerable modifications of these, offer opportunity to shift responsibility from your own hands to the tender bars of the horse's mouth. Outside of here and there a horse who, on account of bad early training or from ill-usage or from fracture, it is impossible to bit so that he will go comfortably, the matter of bits and bitting is a matter of patience and experiment.
Bits are often bought as though any size of bit would do for any size of horse. But a bit too large is as injurious as a bit too small. The mouthpiece should be exactly the width of the mouth, and if you have not a bit that fits exactly, it is a simple matter to insert around the mouthpiece and inside the branch of the bit, a disk of leather of the thickness required to make your bit fit snugly (Plates XXV. and XXVI.). This fitting of the bit alone makes a great difference to the comfort of the horse, as may be seen by looking closely at the way in which a bit with the mouthpiece too long works in the horse's mouth, when attached to two long reins and pulled this way and that. The bit should be placed neither too high nor too low in the mouth, but about an inch above the tusk.