Re: going bitless

["Linda B. Merims" <lbm@ici.net>]

Pat <superpat@ccountry.net> said:

>This is an interesting observation I would like to share with you. I often
>see reference to "setting the head" and I wonder if I am understanding what
>the person's understanding is as to what they are trying to accomplish. In
>my limited experience, it is my understanding that one does not attempt to
>get a particular head set. If the horse is allowed to relax, is ridden
>forward into the bit, the head will drop and the back will round thus
>achieving what I think people are referring to when they use the term
>"proper head set". To try to achieve this with the use of a particular bit
>or rein aid is asking only for the horse to bend his neck into a particular
>position and will not achieve anything but the opposite of what a relaxed,
>rounded frame in actuality is. In fact the horse will often be resistant and
>appear to be "rushing" or in fact, "behind the bit". And this approach to
>riding forward into the bit is not sought only by dressage riders.  Read any
>training suggestions of trainers such as John Lyons or Pat Parelli and you
>will see that the goal is for a relaxed, forward moving horse and no mention
>is made of the bit or headstall being esssential to achieving this. I would
>only caution that the primary concern be with helping the horse to move
>freely, unimpeded by the rider or any mechanical "aids".
>Pat

I probably ought to have specifically mentioned that I am,
originally, a Saddleseat rider.  (If you already know about
Saddleseat, the reference to my horse being an "English Pleasure
Morgan...dead broke to a full bridle" would have tipped you off.)
Otherwise, I can see where this would seem completely wrong-headed.

I could get into a very, very, very long discussion of the
difference between Saddleseat and the rest of the known
world's styles of riding, but it isn't really endurance related.
(It's one of my favorite equine intellectual pasttimes.)
Trust to say, though, that "you guys only ride the front of
your horse and make him go hollow" is the No. 1 criticism of
Saddleseat by Dressage riders.  It's also pretty much true,
just not quite as true or true in the way that the Dressage
riders think.  It all has to do with Saddleseat originally being
a mid-19th century southern American interpretation of mid-19th
century German dressage styles (or, some say, French) that has
since spent 150 years diverging off into its own completely
self-referential, self-satisified world.

'...If the horse is allowed to relax, is ridden
forward into the bit, the head will drop and the back will round thus
achieving what I think people are referring to when they use the term
"proper head set"...'  would send any Saddleseat rider into
paroxysms of laughter, particularly the 'head will drop' part.


Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA
(Not being at all ironic, just laughing in amusement)