sensitive than before the training began. The ignorant, therefore, whose number is legion, hearing the noise, think that the flexion of the mouth is complete. This is a mistake. The sound really comes from the mouthpiece of the Liverpool bit sliding on the shaft of the branches.
I object, therefore, to this sort of bit for the saddle horse. The effect on the bars is not sufficiently precise. The shaft, by allowing the mouthpiece to slide on the branches, makes it possible for the cannon to transmit the pressure from the hand from below upward along the bars, and in consequence to press the mucous membrane of the bars against the first molars. When the rider's hand is rigid, the mouthpiece stays pressed against these teeth. When the hand cedes, the mouthpiece drops. At the next effect of the hand, it again slides up. Thus it is the mouthpiece only which responds to the pressure of the hand, not the lower jaw, though this yielding of the lower jaw is the sine qua non of the flexions of the mouth and neck.
The horse, properly trained with snaffle and curb, raises its tongue very lightly as it opens its mouth, finds the snaffle with its tongue and lifts this. As the effect of the hand ceases, the tongue returns to its normal position, and the snaffle falls against the mouthpiece of the bit and makes the silvery note so precious to the rider. But with the Liverpool bit, it is the bit itself which gives the sound. The reasoned and the scientific equitation recognize flex-
