Bit Shank - Historical Description

Historical Description

The Cyclopaedia of 1728 referred to shanks or cheeks as branches and described them as outlined in the paragraph below. Although the language is archaic, the underlying classicical principles are still applicable today:

The branches of a bridle, in the manage (i.e. a training arena-ed) of horses, are two crooked pieces of iron which support the mouth bit, the chain, and the curb, and which are fastened, on one side to the headstall, on the other to the reins, serving to keep the horse's head under command. Whichever way the branches of the bit incline, the horse's mouth always goes to the contrary.
The branch is always to be accommodated to the design, either of bringing in, or raising a horse's head, and to the degree. Accordingly, there are strong and hardy branches, gentle branches, rude branches, etc. With regard to their form and structure, branches are either straight, in the form of a pistol, for young horses, to form their mouth; or, after the constable of France's fashion, for horses that already carry their head well, others are in the form of a gigot or leg; others of a bent knee; others in the French fashion, etc.
Three laws traditionally used in the manage follow:
  1. That the farther the branch is from the horse's neck, the more effect it will have.
  2. That short branches, ceteris paribus, are ruder, and their effects more sudden than those of others.
  3. That the branch be proportioned to the length of the horse's neck.

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