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<< The problem, and it's a philosophical one, is that like Bob Morris pointed
out, a bit isn't supposed to be used for control, it's supposed to be used
for cueing. Putting a curb bit on a horse that has control problems just
makes for dominance by pain instead of partnership. >>
High-strung horses almost always do better in LESS bit, not more, if they are
ridden properly. I agree. A bit is a cueing device--and one of the things
it cues best for is the stop. But a cueing device IS a control
device--control does not neccessarily mean pain must be inflicted.
John Lyons has stated that he went through a stage where he rode his Appy
stallion Bright Zip almost exclucively WITHOUT a bit--his thinking at the
time being that Zip was perfectly safe being ridden without it, and he was
being kinder to his horse by leaving him bitless. He came to realize,
however, that he was not being kinder, just less clear in his cues. Whether
through a quirk of evolution or the guideing intervention of a Higher Power,
the remarkable animal we call the horse seems almost perfectly designed to be
ridden by humans--a large part of that design is the unique construction of
the horses jaw and bars. In the right hands, with the proper schooling,
communication of an unparallelled kind can be achieved between horse and
rider--but not unless the "phone"--the bit--is attatched. A simple snaffle,
no tie downs, no nosebands, is sufficient for most horses, if properly
schooled ( I am not even going to address the thousands of horses who are
going happily for their owners in other sorts of bits--just because someone
is riding with a curb, or a kimberwicke, does not mean they ought to have the
Humane Society called on them--now, the guy I saw on the trail a few weekends
ago who had his Morgan in a twisted wire broken curb, reins run through a
running martingale--him, i might call on--). No horse in only a rope halter
can "hear" his owner, and achieve the same kind of subtle conversation, as a
properly schooled horse with a bit (phone) in his mouth.
Even the hackamore reinsman of California graduated their mounts to spade
curbs--
Trish & "pretty David" (who says, no spade curb mom! Gimme my eggbutt--)
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