Bit (equestrian)

“ Bitting is, as a rule, not sufficiently considered. In the park, a light, double bridle, or what they call in Ireland a Ward bit, is the best, and no martingale should be required. People often wonder why a horse does not carry his head in the right place. Generally, unless the horse is unfortunately shaped, this is the fault of the bit, sometimes it is too severe, or too narrow, which frets and irritates the horse's mouth. ”

“ A horse should be well accustomed to the bit before you put on the bitting harness, and when you first bit him you should only rein his head up to that point where he naturally holds it, let that be high or low; he will soon learn that he cannot lower his head, and that raising it a little will loosen the bit in his mouth. This will give him the idea of raising his head to loosen the bit, and then you can draw the bitting a little tighter every time you put it on, and he will still raise his head to loosen it ”

“ But since the reasoned equitation follows a series of progressive exercises, in which the more advanced rest on those which precede, it is essential that the same rider use always the same horse, during the time necessary to complete its training.
A sound and well-conformed animal, energetic but good-tempered, will be the easiest to train. A full bridle should be employed, with a bit of medium power, a Baucher snaffle, curb chain, and lip strap. The work on foot requires a three-foot whip. Later in the training, when the horse is mounted, spurs will be needed. ”

“ Rearing will probably be caused by fingering in wrong tempo; the croupade by beginning too early the alternate effect of the legs, so that the signal to lift one biped comes before the other is back on the ground, and there is a brief interval when both are on the ground.
Do not expect to secure a perfect walk of manege until after you have trained two or three horses. Be satisfied at first with a few steps at the gait, and occasional changes of direction. The great point is to perfect your own equestrian tact. When that is done, all your difficulties are easily surmounted. ”

“ The afternoon was bright and fair and Pap Curtain was on the track early with a careful eye upon Doodlebug and upon all the other horses in Doodlebug’s race, the second. He made a special inspection of Nigger Blackie as the jockey, Little Bit, rode him up the track for a warming. The black was as clumsy as a cow, and the diminutive darky rode him awkwardly and fearfully.
None of the ordinary rules and regulations were in force upon this race-track. A jockey could ride with any sort of saddle, or without one. ”

“ When a man is seen mounted on a horse’s back, seated firmly in the saddle, with limbs astride in the stirrups, body erect, and hand holding the rein—in short, everything in air and attitude required of a rider; when, on closer scrutiny, it is observed: that there is something wanting to complete the idea of a perfect equestrian ”

“ You should use a large, smooth, snaffle bit, so as not to hurt his mouth, with a bar to each side, to prevent the bit from pulling through either way. This you should attach to the head-stall of your bridle, and put it on your colt without any reins to it, and let him run loose in a large stable or shed some time, until he becomes a little used to the bit, and will bear it without trying to get it out of his mouth. ”

“ The horse must never be allowed to bring its head straight after this bend has been demanded, but the trainer should quietly bring it back into the normal position by means of the reins. In a similar manner the head of the horse should be bent to the right, the trainer standing at the head of the horse on the left side. After the horse has been habituated to bend the head by means of the curb-bit to the right and to the left, its face perpendicular to the ground and its jaw pliant, it will be made to do the same by the snaffle, the reins of that bit held as were those of the curb-bit. ”

“ He then places his saddle upon its back, adjusts a murderous bit in its clammy mouth, and seats himself firmly in the saddle at the moment when the animal recovers strength enough to rise. The fearful plunges, the wild bounds, the vicious attempts at biting, which ensue, are all in vain; in a couple of days he subsides into a mere high-spirited trotter, whom one can ride with ease after once effecting a mount.
The pastime of "tailing" a bull is somewhat singular. Two or three horsemen single out an animal upon which to practise it, and secure a lasso about its horns. ”

“ Successive steps to accustom the young horse to the curb bit.—In the first lessons in the double bridle, work should be begun on the snaffle bit. When the horse has settled down and is well in hand he can be ridden on the curb. It is to be remarked, and the remark is important, that bending lessons are never to be given in the early stages of work on the curb. For these lessons you must wait until the horse fearlessly accepts contact with the bit and tightens the curb reins as he formerly did the snaffle reins. ”

“ The bridle should be so fitted that the snaffle lies snugly up in the corners of the horse's mouth without pressing against the lips. The curb-bit, lower in the mouth, should rest upon the bare bars just above the tusks of the horse or the place where they are usually found in the male. The curb-chain should not be fastened until the rider is about to mount, and a horse should never be led while the curb-chain is hooked on both sides. ”

“ Only one rule was positively enforced, and that was made for this event: the man who entered a horse for a race must own the horse.
Pap was at the stable when Little Bit rode back, and he greeted the little jockey in a tone which already thrilled with anticipated victory.
“Don’t bet no chink on dat sook-cow, Little Bit,” he snickered. “Ef you got any loose change, buy yo’se’f a bernaner—don’t waste it!”
Skeeter Butts overheard this remark and hastened forward.
“No jockey kin ride my hoss wid a bettin’-ticket in his hat, Pap,” he said positively. ”

“ Get the horse "light in hand" by the usual play of the bit, first the curb, then the snaffle, tapping him on the right side, just forward of the girth, if he fails to respond or offers to back.
Now press him just back of the girth with your left heel, at the same time relaxing the rein a little. If he steps forward, pat and praise him, but if not, press him more firmly, at the same time touching him as before with the whip. When he moves forward praise him, and after a few seconds stop him, leaning back a little and laying your whip by a turn of the wrist on his back just behind the saddle. ”

“ It was precipitous in many places, but Pierre kept almost at a gallop, making the mare take the slopes often crouched back on her haunches with forefeet braced forward, and sliding many yards at a time.
In between the boulders he darted, twisting here and there, and always erect and jaunty in the saddle, swaying easily with every movement of the mare. Not far behind him came the girl. Fine rider that she was, she could not hope to compete with such matchless horsemanship where man and horse were only one piece of strong brawn and muscle, one daring spirit. ”

“ Soon a colt enjoys the exercise, evidently thinking it play. If it be a driving horse that is being trained, harness should soon be added so that the colt will not be afraid of it, and also a light bridle with a snaffle-bit or, better still, a leather bit. If it be a saddle-horse that is being trained, the lunging and bitting should continue until the colt is passed two years old before he is saddled or mounted. ”

“ The near fore-leg being securely strapped, and the horse, if so inclined, secured from biting by a wooden bit, the next step is to make him hop about on three legs. This is comparatively easy if the animal has been taught to lead, but it is difficult with one which has not. The trainer must take care to keep behind his horse’s shoulder and walk in a circle, or he will be likely to be struck by the horse’s head or strapped-up leg. ”

“ The horse instinctively reared itself up on its hind legs, receiving the deadly fangs full in the chest, then whirling round, fell—fell right on to the writhing monster. And the rider?
With rare readiness of nerve and judgment the latter had slid from the saddle at exactly the right fraction of a moment, and now stood contemplating a furious convulsive intermingling of kicking hoofs and heaving coils. One deft slash of the raw-hide whip was capable of cutting the head off the terrible reptile, if only he could get it in. ”

“ Passing to the end of the down-grade, they reached a slight upward incline, and the mare, as if she had come to familiar ground, broke into a gallop, a matchless, swinging stride. Swerving to right and to left among the great boulders, like a football player running a broken field, she increased the gallop to a racing pace.
That twisting course would have shaken an ordinary horseman to the toes, but Pierre, swaying easily in the saddle, dropped the reins into the crook of his left arm and rolled a cigarette in spite of the motion and the wind. ”

“ The scene round Billie was one of strenuous activity, every effort bent toward whipping the remuda into shape for the calf round-up in the least possible space of time.
Every rider must have nine horses in his string. His five circle horses needed but little training, the only necessary qualifications being endurance and a sufficient amount of breaking to make it possible to saddle them; the two night mounts must be partially broken to work the herd, then switched to night guarding and thereafter used exclusively for that. ”

“ The trot is allowed, by professionals, to be the only just basis upon which equestrians can ever [38] attain a secure and graceful seat, combined with confidence and firmness. The rider has more control over the motions of his body in this pace than any other: in this the body is well brought down into the saddle by its own weight, and finds its true equilibrium. When the rider wishes to make his horse trot, let him ease his reins and press the calves of his legs gently; when his horse is at a trot, let him feel both his reins, raise his horse’s forehand, and keep his haunches well under him. ”

“ As soon as he found himself astride the warrigal, the yellow boy held fast with knees and hands, the stock whip over his shoulder trailing in a long line behind the flying pair. To stick on the racing horse was a comparatively easy thing to Billy, unless, indeed, some fiendish trick should unseat him. But to guide the scurrying brute, unbitted, unreined, were as impossible as to turn and check a Mont Blanc avalanche.
The first instinct of the horse upon escaping from the trap-yard was to dismount his rider by violent means, but there are eager pursuers on the track—so away! ”

“ For the young horse was of a fidgety habit, and, as though aware of his power, no sooner did his rider extend a hand to catch him than, with a loud snort, he swung wildly round, placing his tail where his head should be. Another attempt, more coaxing, only met with a like result. The exasperating brute would allow the hand to approach within halt a yard of the reim, then would slew round as before.
This trick is a common enough one in the ‘cussedness’ of equine economy. ”

“ THE BIT. Place of the bit in the mouth.—Principle of the bit.—Action of the common bit.—Action of the Chifney bit.—The loose eye.—The noseband.—The horse’s defence against the bit by the tongue.—Effect of the porte against this defence.—Defence by the lip.—Defence by the teeth.—Bar of the military and driving bit.—Martingale.—Danger does not result from power.
Place of bit in the mouth. To give the bit its most powerful action it should be placed so low as only just to clear the tusks in a horse’s mouth, and to be one inch above the corner teeth in a mare’s mouth. ”

“ The grotesque spectacle of a rider a mile in the rear, belabouring his horse with whip and spur, like a steam-engine, is exhibited only in France and Germany. If two horses reach the post exactly at the same moment, (which frequently happens,) they must run again. The judge is upon oath, and there is no appeal from his decision. The English jockeys (who are not, as foreigners think, little boys, but often dwarfish men of sixty,) form a perfectly distinct class, and are the best practical riders I know of. ”

“ Billy was in the saddle when the snorting animal was on his feet. The horse put up a game fight, bucking, kicking, biting, "swapping ends," and doing everything else that a thinking bronco can indulge in to get rid of his rider. But Billy enjoyed it. He banged the horse over the head with his big hat, smote him with the quirt, and used the spurs, till the mad animal raced in fury a mile or two, only to come back with froth down to the hooves. But Billy had him under thorough control, quiet enough to eat out of his hand. ”

“ If you put the bitting on very tight the first time, he cannot raise his head enough to loosen it, but will bear on it all the time, and paw, sweat, and throw himself. Many horses have been killed by falling backward with the bitting on; their heads being drawn up strike the ground with the whole weight of the body. Horses that have their heads drawn up tightly should not have the bitting on more than fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. ”

“ But the knee grip alone will not suffice for all occasions, despite our military or riding-school friends. A madly plunging horse or a big leap will instinctively call out a grip with all the legs a man can spare. Moreover, the closer you keep your legs to the horse without clasping him, the better. Go into the hunting-field or over a steeple-chase course, and you will find that the inside of your boot-tops—and not only yours, but every other jockey's as well—have been rubbed hard and constantly against the saddle. ”