the use of a rather severe curb. This is a generally accepted fact which has been amply proved. We can find the best curb for a horse only by trial. But there are always certain general principles to help us in making our experiments, which we may sum up as follows :

The curb which is used at the beginning of the breaking should have a thick mouth-piece, low port, and short cheek-pieces, so that it may be easy to the mouth. Its width should be proportionate to that of the mouth of the horse. If it is too narrow, the lips will be compressed by the cheek-pieces. If it is too wide, the horse, either in play or to relieve the bars of his mouth from pressure, will bring it too much over on one side of his mouth, so that a part of the port will rest on one of the bars, and consequently the mouth-piece will exert an uneven pressure, which will almost always cause the horse to carry his head sideways.

In order that the curb may fit properly, it should be wide enough for the cheeks to keep clear of the lips on each side. The mouth-piece should have an even feeling on both sides of the mouth, and should be mid-way between the tushes and the corners of the lips, and consequently it will be lower in the mouth than the snaffle in the case of a double bridle. Later on I shall point out some exceptions to this rule. The lower ends of the cheek-pieces, yielding to the pull of the reins, cause the upper ends to revolve forward, and thus to produce pressure on the bars of the mouth. The curb-chain, which prevents the upper ends of the cheeks from revolving forward, increases the pressure on the bars proportionately to its shortness. Hence, the length of the curb-chain should be proportionate to the lightness of the horse's mouth, which we are unable to estimate in the case of a perfectly "green " horse. With such an animal, we should at first leave the curb-chain very loose, as there will always be time to take it up. It would not, on the contrary, be right to say that there