The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-03 00:00:00

THE "GAG BEARING-REIN." ,

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In an article on this much discussed subject, the Daily
Telegraph remarks:—
When an expensive carriage horse, tightly gagged
and strapped up, falls, he very frequently breaks his
knees, and it is all over with him. The "simple
bearing-rein," is bad enough, consisting, as it does, in
a long strap attached to the ring of the driving bit,
passing through a loop or earring, and fastened to a
hook ou the pad. The crupper prevents the pad from
moving forward, and the head and tail of the horse are
thus strapped together. When the straps are tightly
buckled, the tension is more than any animal with an
ordinary temper can bear. The old.faahioned hearing.
rein was, for a season about forty years ago,
written literally out of fashion by the energetic
Sir Francis Head, who went a little too far, however,
when he advocated such harness as that used with the
German post-horses, whose heads were so much de-
pressed as to appear hooked to their collars. The old
rein was virtually a single or fixed pulley in which the
power, in the driver's hand, was equivalent to the
weight in the horses mouth. But the more formidable
and ferocious instrument now in fashion, and known
as the "Bedouin" or gag bearing-rein, is attached to the
top of the bridle, runs through a swivel attached to a
separate bearing-rein bit, quite unconnected with the
driving apparatus, passes upwards through a loop or drop-
ring, and is hooked to the pad. The effect of this is
just to double the power. The old bearing-rein could
be relaxed, and always was relaxed, when a horse
went uphill; but the new rein cannot be loosened by
the coachman, as, were he to do so, the gag-bit, being
separate from the driving gear, would fall out of the
animal's mouth. This "Bedouin gag is, in reality,
the old Moresco bit brought to Spain by the Moors.
It has well nigh been discarded even by the chronically
cruel Spaniards ; but it lingers, in a curiously
anomalous condition Of desuetude, in Mexico. The
Mexican bit is horribly cruel, but a Mexican
rider never uses it unless he wishes his horse to rear
and curvet. Ordinarily he rides with the simplest
of snaffles, and a couple of mere strings with knots on
them which touch lightly a vein on each side of the
steed's nose, and render him thoroughly and affec- '
tionately bridle-wise. Bearing reins are wholly un-
known in Russia, and from Russian drivers many of
outmost accomplished whips might take some extremely
valuable lessons.
To sum up, the consequences of a gag bearing-rein
are usually to inflict intense agony on the horse, to im-
pede the action of his muscles of locomotion, and, by
making him fractious and miserable, to spoil
,his
temper. His only chance of enjoying a little corn.,
fort is in being discarded from aristocratic service
and subsiding into the shafts of an omnibus or cab,
where, if he works hard, he is at least freed from
the " Bedouin " torture. The sole apology that '
can be advanced, • for-, th 4 persistent use of this ,
abonainalile device is that it gives a horse a proud I
and lofty appearance, and that it tends to what is
called high or "Park" action. Unthinking people I
like their carriage horses to prance, to "step out," and