Bridling the Uncomplicated Horse

I've heard all kinds of stories and seen it many times where horses give their owners and/or riders a hard time when it comes to bridling them and getting the bit in their mouth. I don't recall ever having a problem with it myself for any of the horses I've owned over the years. I would have to say they all handled the procedure with a polite indifference at best.

However, I've never had a horse who apparently LOVES to have the bit and bridle put on either.

I need to get video of this and post it. When you remove Joey's halter after putting the reins over his head, he starts licking and chewing and yawning. Then all I have to do is hold the bit out for him and he opens his mouth wide, scoops up the bit and drops his head for me to slip the bridle over his ears! I find it adorable to watch him do this every time. He will keep his head almost to the floor as you do up the throatlatch and noseband.

When I take the bridle off, as soon as he feels the throatlatch and noseband undone he will drop his head for me to slip the bridle off. And as I do he will lightly hold the bit in his teeth until I ask him to drop it. Then he keeps his head down for the halter to be slipped on.

Maybe he thinks he's a dog. Or maybe it's his way of saying that he just enjoys working with me. :)

The Updoc™ Bit - amazing bitting breakthrough!!

How did I miss this one!? Click the link below:

The Updoc™ Bit

Be sure to click on all the sizes and colors available! I NEED one of these!!

Micklem Multibridle - I'm Intrigued

I've been checking these out online for a while now and find them interesting. I found out very quickly that Rugby is not easy to fit to a bridle. Only one of Monty's bridles could be made to fit him and I've had to buy a new bridle in Oversize for a better fit. I now have an oversized flat leather hunt bridle and a black, raised leather flash nosed dressage bridle. I've been selling tack like crazy on Ebay to clean house. None of my bits fit either, Rugby wears a 6 inch mouth and all the bits I have are 5" or 5-1/4" mouth bits. I'm keeping a few of the "classic" styles of these smaller bits but most of the other stuff I've collected is also moving on Ebay.

Rugby has a very wide jowl, he has a warmblood to draft sized browband, warmblood crownpiece and needs a warmblood noseband. He has a smallish mouth and though he needs a 6" bit, I'm not convinced he's really comfortable with a bit. The only style bit that works well on him is the 3 piece mouth Sprenger type bits.

So, new horse has meant many changes in the tack room as well. Since I've got a little extra money from selling my smaller tack, I'm very tempted to buy one of these Micklem bridles. I'm intrugued by it's multiple features and that it can be bitless or bitted. The new "Competition" style is more streamlined but has less features, such as the noseband ring for lunging (which I don't think I'd be using much anyway).

I've been reading anything I can find about it by people who've used it. There seem to be discussions both for and against, as I expected, but it seems to be more in favor of the results from using it. I wish there was a tack shop nearby that had a "loaner" model that I could test first.

I've posted some links below for further reading about this new bridle and if anyone reading has used one I'd enjoy hearing your experience with it.

Micklem Multibridle

Bitless Forum - Micklem Bridles

Forum Discussion - Micklem Multibridle

Should Bitless Bridles be Allowed in USEF Competitions?

Video - Fitting the Micklem Bridle

And here's a "Friday Funny" for you that I just came across! "Yeah. He's the best horse in all of Europe." LOLL!!

Too Much Tack

Like the children's book series, "I Spy", you can look in my tack locker at the barn where I board and see how many hidden things you can find:

2 rolls of masking tape
A pair of white rubber bit guards
A baker plaid girth cover
My portable saddle rack

So, when I said I have way too much tack in my last "10 things about me" post, you can see I wasn't kidding! And this is only the stuff I can fit in my assigned locker at the barn! All boarders in my barn get a locker. The barn owner does not like tack trunks in the aisle, he feels they are a safety hazard, so this is what you have to work with. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. After 35+ years of owning/riding/showing/training horses I have my show trunk at home, a wall full of bits and bridles in the basement and 3 more trunks in the attic with blankets, coolers, wraps and God knows what else.

Some of my favorite horse stuff is my 5/A Baker saddle pad, my O'Halloran Co. black watch plaid saddle pad, Monty's Beval show bridle, the hand made beaded browband on my schooling bridle and that silly blue bit Monty just got from Santa. Ebay has only made it worse, I love hunting for bargains and I have found some sweet goodies on Ebay. I've sold stuff there too, but it never evens out. I always collect more than I sell.

And I know I'm not the only one. You know it too. So c'mon, lets share the details. How much stuff have you accumulated?

The Blue Bit!

LoL! I had a feeling Monty's blue bit would raise a few questions! In my shopping quest for riding gear for my boyz, I found a few web-based retailers that had cool stuff I hadn't seen before.

When I found Korsteel makes colored Flexi Mouth bits on HorseFroogle.com and they are PEPPERMINT (Monty's favorite treat) flavored, I bought one immediately for him for Christmas! The bits come in 4 colors, ivory, light blue, pink and lavender. I have found through trial and error that Monty prefers the Happy Mouth type bits in the frigid weather. I would agree with him, I wouldn't want an icy piece of steel in my mouth, either.

Here's the link if you want to do a little Horse Froogle shopping!
Korsteel Flexi Flavored Dee Bit

Changes in Horse Behavior in Colder Weather

As I read around the blogs and posts these days, it seems so many people seem to be lamenting that their usually calm and steady equine companion has been possessed by high spirits and nonsense. Welcome to late fall and winter.

The following are some thoughts and suggestions about working with horses in colder weather.

Change in the temperature, weather and season has a way of making old timers act like young fools and schoolmasters forget even the simplest of movements. There seems to be a heightened awareness and alertness to every sound, smell and sight and especially to what other horses are doing.

Some of this might be responses to instincts that are hard-wired into the essense of being a prey animal. In the wild, horses will migrate to warmer places and more plentiful food sources at this time of year. Wild horses would also seek out places where they are better protected from predators as prey animals have fewer available food sources when the weather turns colder, and they need to eat more to maintain body temp. So perhaps, there is a ancient survival mode that kicks in when the seasons change, increasing horses' sensitivity to sites and sounds as a means by which to protect themselves against predators. An increased flight drive so to speak. In addition is an urge to migrate, to move - a restlessness that we have rendered unnecessary by providing a stall and food but that still may exist and cause frustration for horse and handler.

Perhaps it's also the constant tingle of a chilly breeze riffling the longer fur. If the touch of a fly is an annoyance on the fur, imagine a cold breeze penetrating the coat to the skin. And a fully clipped horse will most certainly want to get moving to generate some heat to adapt to the disadvantage of being rendered naked! Unless a horse is working hard or showing during the colder weather, it's preferable to use one of the body clipping styles that allows maximum fur coverage with minimum cooling and drying efforts after working.

On a normally phlegmatic horse, a creative rider will use this newfound energy and alertness to find exercises to distract the horses' mind. A good example is to create a maze of poles on the ground and walk, then trot the horse through and over them. Patterns for such can be found in several training exercise books, such as Dr. Reiner Klimke's book, Cavaletti: The Schooling of Horse and Rider over Ground Poles". Many horses tend to have improved concentration when they have to focus about where they are putting their feet. This is good because a rider can move into the ground pole exercise at any time during their ride that they need to bring the horses' mind back from daydreaming.

Many people like to use lungeing before they ride to get the nonsense out and then mount up. This is useful but much has been made of the abuse of this practice by overdoing it in order to render a horse exhausted to compensate for the rider's shortcomings. Lungeing before riding is best done fully tacked, so the horse knows he will be asked to work. The person lungeing should ask for the horse to perform the basic gaits for perhaps 10-15 minutes as a warm-up. If the horse bucks and plays on the line, they should keep control but ignore it and ask calmly for the horse to settle down. The horse should never be forced into galloping and bucking around by excessive urging, thinking this will hurry getting the goofiness out of him. In fact, that may very well have the opposite effect. The horse might have been quite willing to lunge in a well behaved manner for a few minutes then proceed into under saddle work nicely warmed up but after being agitated by being chased around the line will be so rattled under tack that working productively will be difficult at best!

Sometimes , especially in an older horse, the colder weather can bring on increased stiffness and creakiness in the joints and body. That can be incentive enough to act up and hope you'll get off their aching back! There are now numerous supplements on the market to address joint issues. This might be a time to discuss dosage with a vet. A vet might tell you to change the dosage, sometimes what is the average dosage on the package is not enough for a particular horses' needs.

Some horses appreciate being rubbed in with a little liniment just before work, to bring the blood up to the surface and create a sensation of heat. The slight increase in blood flow to a commonly stiff exposed area, say the hocks, from a short massage and application of liniment can often improve their attitude and get them to work faster. This should never be done under boots, bandages or areas covered by tack, as the increased heat from working can produce irritation, blister the skin and create sores and other problems.

Another thought to consider is the increased sensitivity to the cold of the metal bit. Imagine putting a frigid bar of metal in your mouth, across your tongue and touching your teeth. No one would blame a horse for wanting to avoid that! If you can try a rubber or plastic (such as a Happy Mouth) covered version of your usual bit, it might make a difference since these bits are not such conductors of the cold. Otherwise, the simple act of warming the bit before bridling is a gesture of kindness sure to be appreciated. Even on the coldest of days, the bit will warm up reasonably quickly in your bare hands. It's far better to get your hands cold for a few minutes than to put a freezing cold bit in your horse's sensitive mouth. Your horse's well being is what's most important, don't you agree?

Horse Bitting, a favorite subject of mine

I have often wanted to post in depth about horses and the use of bits. I was browsing over on the Myler Bits website and liked this caption by Julie Goodnight on the home page so much that I decided to add an excerpt here:

"...There’s been a lot of discussion lately that all bits are bad and that if you really want to be kind to your horse, you’d go bitless. Have you been in on a similar discussion? While I agree that there are many horses that work just fine in a bitless situation, I think it is overly simplistic to say horses shouldn’t use bits.

To me, there’s one really important fact. Bits don’t hurt horses, people’s hands hurt horses. There’s a concept dating back thousands of years (about 3500 years ago) that’s attributed to Xenophon, who wrote the oldest complete book of horsemanship (there are older pieces but they are only partial documents). He said that the harshest bit in the world can be soft in a horse’s mouth when in the right hands and the mildest bit can be very harsh in the wrong hands.

Having said that, I think that there are many bad bits that shouldn’t be used at all. There are some bits that I wouldn’t use but could envision a use or a horse I might try it on. And then there are the bits that I love that horses work great in. Through the years I’ve learned that there are few people involved with horses that know much about bits or even how and why the horse responds (or not). Worse yet, there are people out there that are flat out wrong about what they think about bits.

The most common example I can think of is the Tom Thumb bit. It’s a classic Western bit that many people refer to as a snaffle—showing a level of ignorance about the difference between a snaffle and curb bit. There are only two types of bits—direct pressure (snaffle) and leverage (curb). People think because the Tom Thumb is single jointed that it is a snaffle and therefore mild—and they are incorrect on both accounts. There’s an article in my training library about the Tom Thumb misconceptions but the point is that when it comes to bits, most people are not only ignorant but often what they think they know or what they have been told—sometimes even by a trainer-- is flat bass-ackwards.

When a horse is struggling with the bit, there are two fundamental considerations to make, which are overlooked by most people. First, how does the bit fit the horse? Secondly, how are the rider’s hands contributing to this problem? The amazing thing about the Myler bit system is that it is born of decades of hands-on research and innovative design features (like shaping the bit to the horse’s mouth—what a concept!) which are all about making the horse comfortable with the bit. It is a passion and mission of the Myler brothers to help as many horses as possible be comfortable and relaxed in the mouth..."

Granted, she is endorsing Myler's bits, but I think most of her premise is right on point. I have ridden at various times on various horses with some very strong bits. Early in my riding career, these bits were never introduced without my trainer's supervision but now I am able to work with them on my own. No sensible rider without properly established independent and light hands should ever attempt to use one of the harsher bits without qualified instruction.

My own examples are that Monty rides at home quite happily in any of the Sprenger or KK bits with the lozenge in the center. If I were competing in dressage, these bits would move smoothly from training arena to dressage arena.

When jumping in the show ring, where the aids must be subtle and the ride must appear smooth, I may change to a Myler Dee with a twist and copper roller but without rein hooks. Monty can get forward over a course of fences and this bit enables me to get a quick response from him without exaggerated effort. By "exaggerated effort" I mean the difference between merely closing your fingers tighter on the rein vs. pulling on the bit with your entire arm.

For hunter pacing or riding in large groups of horses, I may use a 2 ring elevator bit with the same lozenge mouth with double reins, riding mostly from the snaffle rein will allow me to offer him relief from the gag effect of the bit but if we are galloping and I need to "rate" his speed, a stronger contact on the rein attached to the lower ring increases the leverage and helps control the pace.

And these choices are not set in stone. I have used a Happy Mouth Kimberwicke for trail rides and even schooled with a hackamore at home.

I have a large and ever-changing collection of bits. They fascinate me. How so many designs exist all with a fairly similar purpose in mind. I like to browse Ebay and have found some gems at great prices and have sold others there from my collection that I feel I don't need anymore. My favorite find was my most recent purchase, a KK "B" ring baucher bit at less than half of what it sells for new!

The Madness Continues...

First off, I want to thank grey horse and onthebit for their input and blogs! Keep the info coming from all!

The 1st show I would even attempt is the one coming up at the end of next month. The entry closing date for this one has passed. However, it will give me the opportunity to stop by and observe the tests being ridden to see where the movements occur and how they ride out. Then I will have the image in my mind when I attempt to practice the moves at home. I have to fake a dressage arena in the riding ring behind the barn. At least there I am quite certain my letters won't be disturbed. Hmm, now I have to make some letters...

Monty can ride in almost any bit. We showed hunters in a Dr. Bristol D or a myler twist D with copper roller at the center joint. He's hunter paced with either a happy mouth kimberwicke or a 2 ring sweet iron dutch gag but I use 2 reins like a pelham and tend to ride mostly from the snaffle rein. He tends to respond better with a 3-piece mouth, such as a French link or Bristol.

For schooling at home I use a French link type loose ring snaffle made from sweet iron with a copper lozenge in the center. That is my bit question, there are no rollers and all mouth parts are smooth, so that is good, I just want to be sure about the metals. I can't find anything in the rule books that state I can't use this kind of bit but I don't want any surprises. Monty has always had a dry mouth so I like to use metals that help him salivate a bit. I also am very generous with peppermints and sugar cubes to help this along. He's funny though, he hates to drool. As soon as foam and spit form around his mouth he tries to slurp it back in!

Happy Mother's Day... um, a day late!

Warmest Mother's Day wishes to all! I usually am not a big fan of Mother's Day. It's always been a big let-down for me. Yesterday wasn't starting out any better, kids were their usual selves, I had to break up the typical squabbles and clean up the messes. Then husband came home from early morning bike ride and banished me to the barn (smart man).

It would have been another nice day to head to the trails but I had no one available to ride with. I suppose I could try to ride it alone but I prefer a buddy because of the length of time spent riding on the road to get there. So we schooled at home in the large arena.

I board Monty at a very interesting place. It's owned by an equine veterinarian, who also has a boarding stable and hosts dirt polo matches in the large polo arena on his property. The polo arena is huge! The footing in it is quite good and before polo season starts, we have some jumps set up in there, too. Yes, I have watched some of the polo matches there and it's a wild game. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to try but I know my limits!

I decided to work Monty in a much stronger bit and work on his self carriage and response to the aids. He's a big horse and I don't have the upper body strength I used to. I can generally ride him in a 2-link D-snaffle with a copper bead join in the center but he can get heavy through his transitions and also when jumping. So I changed it up with a Myler full cheek with a twist mouth and copper roller in the center. (Monty has always been a horse with a somewhat dry mouth, I have been experimenting with copper, cypruim, Happy Mouth, etc. to find what he accepts well. I am a notorious bit buyer, especially from Ebay!) I have very good, sensitive hands and I prefer to only have to "suggest" what I want rather than having to "shout" and the stronger bit allows me that.

Monty was again on his best day-after-trail-ride behavior and we did a lot of cantering work and cantering over ground poles. He carried himself instead of me having to lighten his forehand and give as I usually do. After we did flat work and ground poles in the polo arena I rode him up to the smaller riding ring at the top of the hill behind the boarder's barn. I set up a cross rail there and tried a little jumping. Monty was good but after trotting the first one, his "motor got running" and I had to keep trotting the X-rail back and forth with a soft hand and contact release to get him quiet. (He hasn't jumped regularly since late last fall, so he anticipates the jumps when we start up again each spring) After about 6 or 7 times he settled and gave me a nice little jump and we ended with that. Always nice to end on a productive note! Thanks for the Mother's Day ride, Monty!

The evening was dinner at the local diner and husband, kids and I going to the movies to see Speed Racer. Fun movie, I always loved that cartoon as a kid! It was great to see the movie with my own boys! Go Speed Racer, Go!

Pretty in the Picture

I love "bling". Tasteful bling, like a the delicate design and ruby jewels on my english spurs and stirrups. Like the pretty, pretty beaded browbands seen in Dressage and on some of the flashy Jumper riders. I only wish there were more ways to subtly bring it into the Hunters. Just a touch here or there, not immediately noticeable but to set you apart in a small way. (I have ideas to do this, but no idea where to start.)

I received the new Smartpak Equine catalog the other day. I love horse equipment catalogs, especially finding what's new. I came across the bit pictured above. Wow, I thought, this JP Korsteel Shimmer Engraved Bit was such a pretty thing. I decided to treat myself and add it to my usual order of Smartpak supplements (which by the way, really are worth the convenience)!

When I received it though, I was disappointed in that it somehow seems prettier in the photo. Also, the way the engraving is done does not properly center the design on the sides of the eggbutt. So when it is on the bridle and in the horses' mouth, the design will be turned in such a way that it is always partially hidden from view. I took a second look at the position of the bit in the catalog photo to best show the full design and noticed the photography compensated for this problem, so I am guessing this is how all the bits are made, not just the one I received.

How disappointing. If it had been a gift from someone else, I might have kept it and used it anyway, but as an item to buy for myself, I'm returning it. It will bother me that the design is not nicely visible. Nice item, nice idea, hopefully they fix this problem.