Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1875 — Bits and Bearing-Reins. [ARTICLE]

Bits and Bearing-Reins.

“I never allow a bearing-rein to be used in my establishment, nor did my father before me; lam sure they are both useless and cruel;” so wrote Lord Portsmouth, a little time ago, and so, in effect, have written Sir Arthur Helps and other high authorities. We ourselves have more than once deprecated their use; and, if anything, are more convinced than ever that the only effect they have on horses is to pain and irritate them. Who can doubt that this is the case after reading Mr. E. F. Flower’s pamphlet on the subject? Mr. Flower has had a large experience with horses. As he says himself, he does not remember the time when he could not ride. He is well known as a cross-country rider. When he was just thirteen he drove a pair of horses in an American carriage all the way—3oo miles—from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. A veritable jehu, truly! Well, Mr. Flower declares that his greatest ambition is to have “He w T as one of those men who caused the bearing-rein to be abolished” written on his tombstone. He has ever found, he assures us, that “this barbarous custom” only made vicious horses more vicious, and restive horses more restive. “A few years ago,” writes he, “ I bought a fine horse with a bad character; he was a roarer, a jibber, a bolter —and the late coachman told me I should never be able to drive him; but I liked his looks, and the result confirmed my good opinion. The roaring soon ceased after the tight gag-bearing rein was taken away; an easy bit had been" put in his mouth instead of a severe one, which had caused him to be restless through sheer pain; he became perfectly tractable, and I have driven him for years both in double and single harness with great comfort and safety.” This is only one case in point; he adduces many others, and not a few of the best “whips” in England back him up. The fact is bearing-reins—-especially what are called gag-bearing reins—would never have come into such common use if it hadn’t been for ignorant grooms and coachmen. These, as is well known, take as a rule more pride in their masters’ and mistresses’ horses than the masters and mistresses themselves. They like them to paw and rear before startingand so,. for that matter, do the nursery maids. “Oh, la!” exclaim these latter, “isn’t that a beauty?” Above all they like them to keep their heads well in the air. Now, the Bedouin, or gag-bearing, rein is just the thing to make them do that. For the benefit of the uninitiated, let us describe how it effects this object: First, it is fastened to the head of the bridle against the horse’s ears, and then a small, round piece of leather comes down and passes through a ring in the horse’s bit; next it is passed over the collar to the saddle. The result is that, instead ot the groom, when he reins up the horse, exerting the power of a pound weight, he exerts, through the pulley nature of the apparatus, the power of two pounds, so that the horse’s mouth, if not actually cut and lacerated, suffers acutely—more especially as the bit is often ■’ not of the ordinary kind, but one fitted with a hoop, in which the tongue is held straight, the bar of the curb passing under the tongue. To sum up, there is not one argument in favor of the tight bearing-rein. It does not keep the horse from stumbling—rather does it cause him to stumble and prevent his recovering himself; then, again, as Mr. Flower remarks, a horse with its head stuck up in thJ air does not, after all, look half so graceful as “a well-fed, not overworked”horse in its free and natural attitudes.” Thanks mainly to that gentleman, this inhuman apparatus would seem to be doomed. The Royal for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has taken up the matter. There was a meeting last week at the rooms of that institution “to discountenance the use” of-these reins, when the Right Hon. Cowper Temple, M. P., presided, and when many influential gentlemen, as well as some coachmen, showed the cruelty that their use entails. In the name of humanity, let us do away with them.— Rural New Yorker. —A writer relates the following: “A gentleman from Staffordshire prevailed on Lord Dudley to present him at court. They got on very well as far as St. James street, where they were stopped nearly half an hour by the line of carriages. His Lorship then forgot himself and, after a long pause, began: ‘ Npw this tiresome country ’squire will be expecting me to ask him to dinner. Shall I ask him, or shall I not? No. I think he would be a bore.’ The individual so unexpectedly blackballed was at first confounded, but, recollecting- his companion’s infirmity, commenced, in turn, an audible soliloquy: ‘ Now this tiresome old peer will, of course, be asking me to dine with him todaw Shall I go, or shall I not go? No, I think it would be a bore.’ .This impromptu was well taken.and the invitation was given in earnest and accepted.” ♦ T • <0 —A correspondent says that when he was collecting his cows for the dairy an old dairyman said: “ There is a great deal of money made in this country by dairying, but it is all made from the good cows.” —Bathing; is more general at Cape May this year than ever before. Everybody “ goes in,” as the saying is, and everybody looks horrid when they come out —Sixteen Texas steers on a bender made things lively at Woonsocket, R. 1., the other day. All were shot before anyone was seriously injured.