Snaffle Snaffoo

[Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com]

Jasmine Cave <toppere@siu.edu>  said:


> I ride [saddleseat] in a port pelham
> because it is what my horse is comfortable in. I started him in my dressage
> double bridle but he tries to move like a dressage horse, he does not get
> the fold in his knees like I want. A bit does not do this I know, my hose
> does it and he gets confused when using the same bridle for different
> events that ask such a similar question to the horse. As to how legal it
> is, I believe it is fine. I am not showing in saddleseat shows, but at
> Apaloosa shows in which there may be only 2-10 competitors in the one
> english pleasure class ofered.

That makes sense.  I have a similar situation where I don't
want to confuse my horse by mixing bits.  We went to a
J.P. Giacomini dressage clinic.  JP knew my horse was
an old English Pleasure saddleseat horse and had me
buy a D-ring Waterford for his first all-snaffle experience.
He went well in the Waterford, learning all sorts of back-rounding
and jaw yielding cues from it.  I've been toying with the idea
of trying to ditch my trail riding Mullen-mouth pelham for
the Waterford as we go for longer distances where equipment
simplification becomes more of a virtue.  But I worry about
screwing up all those on-the-bit dressage responses he's
learned when I use the more long-rein, relaxed, pick-your-own-way
riding style we use on the trail.

[For those who don't know, a "Waterford" is one of the newer
variations on a snaffle that have shown up.  It looks like,
frankly, a really fat chain bit.  It is made up of big,
round, smooth ball-type links.]

I was curious as to just what the current state of the AHSA
rules is with respect to pelhams in the various saddleseat
disciplines, so I went through the last rule book this
morning.  The actual rules depend on which breed you're
riding and which division you are riding in, but in a hefty
number of the divisions the pelham *is* still allowed.
(Morgans are one of the few that 100% ban it unless you
are riding in a forward seat or "hacking" saddle.  Boy,
that must be an old rule!)  This is a case of where
style and common practise no longer match up with the
actual rules.  Although a pelham *is* legal, you almost
never see them except in smaller shows.  Entering a
ring at a class A show in a pelham is a sure way to
get yourself immediately labelled "hick".  Not fair,
really, it is just that the pelham has gone the same
way as the true "English *pleasure*" horse.  In the
40's and 50's when pleasure was pleasure, pelhams were
often seen in the ring.


> I must still say that the snaffle has always
> been used in the western set. I have the destinction
> of being the only person in town that has ever ridden
> english, I mean this literaly, and all of the old cowboys
> have either started a horse in a bosal or snaffle. This
> was to teach the horse lightness, then to a curb, than
> to a spade. It is just that to show an unfinished
> horse(snaffle or bosal) was unheard of until recently
> when classes for young horses in snaffles and bosals began.

Well, I'm going to reserve final judgement until I've
done more research.  I might buy it.

> Also I still say that the pelham, gag, elevator came from
> western or rather spanish design. During the period BC in
> assyria and babylonia the rind snaffle and full cheek
> snaffles were invented. The greeks and romans then
> took this same bit, and for war horses, added spikes to
> the mouthpiece.
>
> Later the "barbarians"(gauls and celts) invented the curb
> bit. As time went on the medieval period began and the snaffle
> was basicaly forgoten in europe except in the mediteranian
> areas where the curb never came into favor except with nights
> and nobles. As time continued on knights and tounaments became
> spectator sports instead of war and so the use of the
> huge draft horse came into being and with it bits that had up
> to foot long shanks, two and three mouthpieces and togels or
> spikes. Considering the knight had the sword in his free hand
> and reins and shield in the other he could move his hand only
> a few inches up to stop these huge animals. The same knights when
> riding out had milder curb(smooth mouth) for that same horse.
>
> In denmark and part of germany this "fad" never caught on.
> The continued to use the friesian. In spain it was still the
> andalusian. Soon the use of light calvery was popular again
> and so horses like the friesian, andalusian, the new TB,
> arabs, and the new german invention- the warmblood were
> all popular and riden with a light curb.
>
> The spanish spade was used in spain and portugal and with
> enlightenment the snaffle reapeared in force.  The military
> still used the curb and the english saddle, but others used
> the snaffle. In america the cowboys began to start a type of
> riding all their own. They used the spanish style left over
> in mexico and south america from the spanish settlers there.
> The horses were started in the bosal or snaffle and quickly
> went to the curb and the spade was its most
>
> At the same time the pelham was being used, it came
> from the spanish as a transition bit. It came into favor with
> fox hunters and calvery units.
>

I didn't realize that when you said "western" you meant
"western civilization."  Yes, I would grant that the English
definitely picked up the snaffle and pelham from western
civilization.

But putting my facetiousness aside...

I did some word searches on an online version of the Oxford
English Dictionary.  (http://www.princeton.edu/~wds/oed.html)

You say that "snaffle" dates from the Enlightenment. (Generally,
from the late 1600's to the late 1700's.)  The OED has
this for "snaffle":

snaffle

snaffle sn

æ;f'l, sb.1 Also 6-7 snafle, snaffel (6 -ell, -ul).
Of doubtful origin: connexion with (M)Dutch and (M)LG. snavel
(late OFris. snavel, snaul, WFris. snaffel mouth), OHG. snapal
(MHG. snabel, G. schnabel), beak, bill, mouth, is not clear;
but cf. the use of G. schnabel for a forked instrument used
in training hunting-dogs to keep the head up.

  1.

  a. A simple form of bridle-bit, having less restraining power
     than one provided with a curb.

    1533 Frith Another Bk. agst. Rastell A vj b, I verye well
    lyken yow to him that hath a wilde horse to tame,..when he
    perceueth that he can not holde him with a scottyshe snafle...

    1542 Brinklow Compl. xii. (1874) 28 This were a good
    snafful for the tyrannes and oppressers....

    1577 Holinshed Chron., Hist. Scotl. I. 249, I perceyue this
    man will neuer obey my commaundements, till he be rydden
    with a snaffle.

So, clearly, the snaffle was invented in Scotland.

;-)

But anyway, it is evident that the term, and in proper
meaning, was in use fairly early, about the time of Henry VIII.

And a couple of my favorites:

    1814 Earl Dudley Lett. 7 May (1840) 35 There is no
    riding the French in a snaffle-bridle.

    1833 T. Hook Parson's Dau. ii. vii, Give your own
    passions the curb, and allow mine the snaffle.

It is interesting that "snaffle" actually appears to be the
WFries (West Friesien?) word for "mouth".

Curb is even older:

curb

curb kArb, sb. Forms: 5-7 corbe, curbe, 6-7 courbe, 7 courb,
corb, kurbe, 7- curb (dial. 6-7 crubb(e, 9 crub); also
<beta>; (chiefly in senses 8-13) 7 kerbe, 7-9 kirb, 9 kerb.
See also crub. The senses here placed all derive ultimately
from Fr. courbe adj. (= Pr. corb, Sp., Pg., Ital. curvo):-
L. curvus bent, crooked, or from Fr. courber:-L.curvare: see
curb v.1 But their immediate etymological history presents
differences, and Branches I and II might be treated as distinct
words. Branch I appears only in Eng., and seems to be a
derivative from curb v.1, in the sense `that which curbs or
bends the horse's neck'; it seems to be the source of curb v.2,
under the influence of...[go see the online OED]...

I.

1. A chain or strap passing under the lower jaw of a horse,
  and fastened to the upper ends of the branches of the bit;
  used chiefly for checking an unruly horse.

  The reins being attached to the lower ends of the branches
  of the bit, leverage is obtained for forcing the chain
  against the jaw of the horse.

    1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 52 If he yeue him
    [a strong hors] not a strong bitte with a corbe, he shal
    neuer con gouerne him.

    1590 Spenser F.Q. i. i. 1 His angry steede did chide
    his foming bitt, As much disdayning to the curbe to yield.

    1782 Cowper Gilpin xxii, That trot became a gallop soon
    In spite of curb and rein.

I have these problems all the time.

Pelham, on the other hand, though an old English surname,
(and also the "P" in P.G. Wodehouse) appears to be a word
of much more recent usage (mid-1800's):

Pelham

Pelham pe.lam. From the surname Pelham. In full,

Pelham bit

Pelham bit, a form of bit combining the snaffle and
 the curb in one. So

Pelham bridle

Pelham bridle.

    1849 Youatt Horse 190 If the curb-bit is in fault, a
    snaffle or Pelham-bit should be used.

    1851 Cecil Stud Farm 139 The Pelham..is a species of
    hybrid between a curb and a snaffle.

    1875 Whyte Melville Riding Recoll. iii. (1879) 48 A
    light-mouthed horse steered by a good rider, will cross
    a country safely and satisfactorily in a Pelham bridle.

I do accept that this does not define where a pelham bit
came from, only that people in England started using the
term in writing at about this time.

And lastly, the OED substitutes "bradoon" as:

bridoon

bridoon bridu.n,

bradoon

bradoon bradu.n. a. Fr. bridon in same sense, deriv.
of bride a bridle.

1. `The snaffle and rein of a military bridle, which
acts independently of the bit, at the pleasure of the rider'.
Stocqueler.

    1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., A horse never goes
    so well nor sure with a bridoon, unless he have been
    first broke to the bit.

    1801 W. Felton Carriages II. 156 Harness is frequently
    made without breeching or bridoon.

    1803 Sporting Mag. XXI. 220/2 A Weymouth bridle,
    with bit, and bradoon, is in my opinion, preferable to
    any other sort for the road.

I didn't realize that "Weymouth" as a term for a double
bridle went back that far.

Interestingly, when I went to an English<-->Spanish
dictionary online, I discovered that snaffle translates
to bribon in Spanish! (yet bridoon was said to be of
French origin.)  Could have gone either way, I suppose.


> The gag and elevator bits are recent inventions by
> western trainers that quickly where bought by eventers and
> then to show jumpers.

As I said from the first, I grant that the elevator is
probably a western bit invention and that it has now caught on
with the jump crowd (and now, perhaps, the Walking horse
people) looking for more control.  But I'm gonna stick to
my guns on gags--I've got a late 19th century article on
Hackney driving horses that very clearly shows a gag rigging
in harness.  The difference is that it is not a pair of holes
in the ring of the snaffle through which one strings a round
rein or cord, but a figure-8 split in the rein that crosses
through the snaffle ring and continues on to become the cheek
piece that attaches to the headstall.  But the action is
exactly the same--you pull, it lifts--and it is called a "gag."
The first time I ever used one of these was when I was a kid
circa 1970--the old saddlebred lesson horse I was riding had
a gag rigged almost exactly like the one in this 19th century
article.

> As for hackamores, the assyrians used somthing very
> similar to the mechanical hack,...

I accept completely that the hackamore comes down to us,
in modern times, from the western (i.e., cowboys and
vacqueros and whatevertheycalltheminArgentinas) tradition.

Now what would be really interesting is if we could find
an "Oxford Spanish Dictionary."


Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com
Massachusetts, USA