Consequently, I only allow one kind of bit, and this is the form and the dimensions I give it, to make it as simple as it is easy.
The branches straight and six inches long, measuring from the eye of the bit to the extremity of the branch; circumference of the canon,[H] two inches and a half; port, about two inches wide at the bottom, and one inch at the top. The only variation to be in the width of the bit, according to the horse's mouth.
I insist that such a bit is sufficient to render passively obedient all horses that have been prepared by supplings; and I need not add that, as I deny the utility of severe bits, I reject all means not coming directly from the rider, such as martingales, piliers, etc.
CHAPTER IV.
CONTINUATION OF SUPPLINGS.
The hind-parts.—In order to guide the horse, the rider acts directly on two of his parts: the fore-parts and the hind-parts. To effect this, he employs two motive powers: the legs, which give the impulse by the croup; and the hand, which directs and modifies this impulse by the head and neck. A perfect harmony of forces ought then to exist always between these two motive powers; but the same harmony is equally necessary between the parts of the animal they are intended particularly to impress. In vain would be our labor to render the head and neck flexible, light, obedient to the touch of the hand; incomplete would be the results, the equilibrium of the whole imperfect, as long as the croup remained dull, contracted and rebellious to the direct governing agent.
I have just explained the simple and easy means of giving to the fore-parts the qualities indispensable to a good management thereof: it remains to tell how we will fashion, in the same way, the hind-parts, in order to complete the suppling of the horse, and bring about a uniform harmony in the development of all his moving parts. The resistances of the neck and croup mutually aiding one another, our labor will be more easy, as we have already destroyed the former.
The flexions of the croup, and making it movable.—