Another indispensable requisite is, that a horse have a good mouth, and as this does not depend half so much upon the mouth itself, as upon the neck, and its junction with the head and shoulder, I must repeat what I have said upon that subject, in order to explain how the mouth depends upon its form and position. First, it is requisite that the top of the neck, behind the ears, be rather arched, and the throat underneath hollow, and free from fleshy sub stance: the head then is placed in a situation to bend inwards; but if the top of the neck be straight, and without the curvature, there is no natural disposition to bend; and if at the same time it be stopped up at the throat, how can it be acted upon by the bridle? it must remain fixed; and all chance of stopping a horse with such a neck, is at the animal's discretion, not at the will of the rider.

It is no less necessary that the neck be muscular at its union with the shoulder; for here it should resist the action of the bridle. It is only required that the head rein well in to make a good mouth; and that is effected by the shape I have just described. But if the neck be weak at the shoulder, it gives way the moment you pull at the bridle, and up flies the head into the air, and the ears into the rider's mouth; and if he try to stop the horse in his gallop, particularly down hill, the head is pulled quite on one side, before he can make any impression on the animal. This sort of neck, weak at the shoulders, and without the curvature at the top, is what is termed an ewe-neck, and is equally objectionable in point of utility, as of appearance.

Horses with such shape are obliged to be ridden in martingals, in order artificially to produce the effect of dropping the head to a governable situation. They are particularly dangerous in the field, where good mouths are most essential; because when without martingals, they cannot see where they are going, and are liable to fall at every hedge, ditch, and furrow; and when ridden with them, they are always in danger of being pulled into their fences.

When the formation of the neck is such as I have described it ought to be, the head is so placed, that it is next to impossible the mouth should be bad; and though there are horses that do not answer the bridle on one side of the mouth, this is the effect of having been improperly bitted at first, and may, if the animal be young, be easily remedied by a judicious application of the breaking bits.

It is absurd to imagine, that by placing a sharp piece of steel in the mouth of a horse, you can bring his head into a situation different from that in which nature has placed it, and to which, from the muscular conformation of the neck, it refuses to submit; you may place it under temporary restraint by such means, in the same manner that your own body, or any part of it, may, by some circumstance or other, be subjected to an unnatural position; but as it is painful to you, so it is to the animal; and on that account we so frequently see the mouth bleeding under the influence of such severity.

I am not maintaining an opinion that different bridles are improper, or useless, for different horses; or that sharp bits are quite unnecessary; I am merely affirming the impossibility of making a mouth good by any bridle whatever, where the head is placed on to the neck, or the neck united to the shoulder, improperly.