The general art of riding, sometimes called manège riding, to distinguish it from its modifications in road-riding, hunting, racing, &c., teaches us to place every part of the body so that it can act upon the horse in every emergency, shows the effect of all the aids or modes of guiding him, and enables us to render him obedient to the slightest touch. By never suffering the ascendancy to be transferred to the horse, by in general preventing him from making all his speed, and by exhausting him the sooner the more he exerts himself without permission, it bestows upon the rider perfect security. An intimate knowledge of this method is necessary even to our abandoning it when convenient, to our adopting the styles, afterwards to be described, for more extended and rapid paces, or for long continued riding, to our suffering the horse to take more or less of ascendancy, and to our, when necessary, easily recovering that superiority of the hand, of which those who are ignorant of this fundamental method are less capable. The recent practice has been to carry the foot rather more forward than is represented in our Plates, approaching in this respect, to the ancient position, as seen in the Elgin marbles, &c. A Parisian bit, which is attached to the mouth of the horse, without a headstall, has been lately used. It is, however, applicable only to _horses_, on account of its being retained in the mouth by means of the side tusks, which _mares_ do not possess. It is composed of a semicircular bar of iron, which goes under the chin, to which its concavity applies; while a short bar, firmly attached to one of its ends, passes nearly half-way through the mouth. Through the other end of the semicircle is a hole, into which, when the bit is on, must be screwed a bolt, similar to the one just described. These two bolts, it is easily understood, pass behind the tusks, and nearly meet in the centre of the mouth.[64] [64] THE SADDLE (_Fig. 1_).--_a_, pommel; _b_, cantle; _c_, panel; _d_, flaps; _e_, stirrup leather; _f_, girths. BRIDLES (_Fig. 2_)--_a_, _b_, headstall with the cheekstraps; _c_, do. of the curb; _d_, do. of the bridoon or snaffle passing through it over the poll; _e_, nosetrap (seldom found in any but military bridles), _f_, throatlash. _Fig. 3._ A twisted snaffle-bit. _Fig. 4._ A plain snaffle-bit. _Fig. 5._ A Weymouth curb, with chain and chainstrap (_a_) attached. _Fig. 6._ A common curb-bit, with the upset in the mouthpiece. THE HORSE AND EQUIPMENTS. Plates XXXIV., XXXV. f. 1 give better ideas of the horse and his equipments than the longest and most detailed description. The reader will therefore examine them in succession. We have here only to add those circumstances as to the equipment of the horse, which could not be communicated by that otherwise briefer and more impressive method.