ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: [endurance] Bit types

Re: [endurance] Bit types

Ssolis (ooswsejs@dfw-ix7.ix.netcom.com)
Tue, 23 Apr 1996 19:30:25 -0700

K S Swigart wrote:
>
> On Tue, 23 Apr 1996, Linda Flemmer wrote:
>
> > You wrote:
> >
> > > I would like to know more about
> > > different bits used for enduance. I use a jointed kimberwick and want to
> > > know which is more harsh, this or a ported one. Do some of you prefer a
> > > snaffle and why and are there snaffles that offer some control without being
> > > too harsh? And what about the vosels?
> >
> > I have no experience w/ vosals, but I can comment on the other bits.
> > Snaffles become more severe as they become thinner, then throw in
> > different types of joints, double joints, twisted wires, etc. The
> > amount of control that one has using a snaffle depends on the horse's
> > and rider's training. (Do you use seat & voice for control in
> > addition to the bit, or bit alone? Has the horse's mouth been abused
> > in the past so that he is less sensitive?) Straight bar snaffles
> > tend to be milder than jointed snaffles. The straight bars put
> > pressure on the lips and evenly on the bars of the mouth. The joint
> > allows a mild nut cracker action, thus slightly more severe.
>
> One of the things that I always try to explain to beginning riding
> students is that "You don't control a horse with the bridle. You control
> a horse with your weight and with your legs. The bridle is just an
> attention getter. You use the reins to tell the horse you are ABOUT to
> ask him to do something."
>
> My personal favorite is to use the half-halt. I generally will use
> just enough bit to be able to get the horse's attention. The thought of
> "controlling" a horse with a bit strikes me as a bit (no pun intended)
> ambitious. ANY horse can run through ANY bit.
>
> Because of the leverage associated with a curb bit, "by its sharper
> effects it enables the rider to guide his horse with very light aids"
> making it so that the horse's attention can be gotten by just the
> slightest twitch on the reins. I don't use curb bits until a horse is
> sufficiently responsive to a snaffle that I would never need to use more
> than the slightest twitch on a curb rein.
>
> To quote one of my favorites, "There are numerous varieties of curb bits and
> the inventiveness of man often tries to substitute them for his lack of
> knowledge and training. The many types of antique bits which, to a great
> extent, were instruments of torture, prove that men have always tried to
> make brutality triumph over knowledge."
>
> Can't make any comments about hackamores or bosals as I have never used one.
> In addition, even the mildest of bits can become an "instrument of
> torture" in the hands of some riders. So it isn't so much the choice of
> bit that matters as it is the hands that hold the reins.
>
> I have never used anything more than an egg-butt or baucher snaffle on an
> endurance horse, as I have always found them perfectly adequate for
> attention getting while going down the trail.
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.

I have an Arab that I can ride in the round pen with nothing in his mouth
or on his head.
On easy going trail rides with several freinds I usually use a tom thumb
snaffle but at times may switch between a fat hollow mouth snaffle and a
hackamore.

My question is this, when the herd takes off or passes I have a H#@$$ of
a time fighting the herd instinct in my gelding no matter what I have in
his mouth or on his head, How do you train a horse to obey only your
commands?

Any other time this horse is practically a gentleman although he is a
very aggressive gelding at pasture.