I've been working/thinking about this post for awhile now. It's fairly controversial, for lack of a better term, because EVERYONE has an opinion and thinks differently. You don't have to agree or think as I do. That's okay. But I am a pretty opinionated individual, especially when it comes to horses, and I like writing about the topics that mean something to me. This is sort-of a follow up to
, where I asked for other people's opinions out of curiosity. Based on the majority of responses that I got on that post, a lot of you probably won't agree with me. Again, that's okay and feel free to voice your opinion. Keep in mind this isn't an attack on those who feel differently, just my own personal thoughts, so no need to be defensive/get insulted. Fair enough? Cool. I'll begin then...
I guess my fundamental belief about biting really comes down to one thing: choosing a bit should not be about controlling the horse.
I think this is the part where most people start looking at me like I'm crazy. Let me explain.
With that being said, I'm a strong proponent of a soft connection, enough so that messages can be sent back and forth, enough that communication can happen in an effective manner, but not much more.
You might remember that my goal when working with horses comes down to
understanding for the horse. A lot of bit just gets in the way of this. I think over-bitting horses has come from the fact that humans, by nature, are not patient people. We want results when we want them. So when, for example, a horse braces or leans on the bit, we decide that said bit isn't strong enough and move on to something that we think is.
There's a couple problems with this.
The first huge problem with putting harsher and harsher bits in a horse's mouth is that you aren't addressing or getting to the root of the problem. A harsher bit is merely a stop-gap, that eventually will also become obsolete. If the horse is pulling and bracing against the bit, you MUST address the reasons for pulling/bracing. A harsher bit does not do this. After awhile, the horse begins to pull and brace against that bit too and suddenly you're back to square one, again seeking something more severe.
I'll give you an example that will FOREVER live in my mind because it still disgusts me to this day:
I knew this girl, younger than me, that is actually a pretty big-time barrel racer (she actually recently won a big world title). She had a lot of horses over the years, but her current horse had pretty much one mindset: run. And this girl didn't do much to help. She would gallop that horse all over the place, never really teaching her to do anything else. Maybe that's just the discipline, I really wouldn't know. Anyway, this horse would run through these crazy bits that they would put in her mouth, so they constantly switched them out. Eventually, the problem got so bad that they started using what is called a
draw gag. Basically, you connect the reins to the headstall that runs through the bit, so when you pull on the reins, it's huge amounts of poll pressure. Trust me, it gets worse. On this particular draw gag, the section that ran over the poll was this little thin piece of wire. Now being the naive person that I was, I would have never in a million years imagined that someone would invent something like this, let alone purchase one to use on their horse. I still remember seeing that contraption on that poor horse and that wire digging into her poll and literally feeling sick.
Ever since then, I'm been pretty obsessed with bits and understanding how they work. I also want other people to think about what they are putting in their horse's mouth/on their face.
The second major problem with this is that people who consistently feel the need to bit-up there horses are relying too much on the bit. It's the people who's first instinct is to grab a harsher bit that are most likely riding entirely too much with their hands, and not enough with their seat.
One of the major tenants of dressage (and most disciplines, really) is that we ride the horse from back to front. The magic is and always will be in the hind end. Why is it then that we are so convinced that the key to "control" lies in a horse's mouth? If I use my reins and pull Missy in the direction I want her to go, she might move her neck (because I have a hold her her face), but that does not mean that the rest of her body will follow. That is the reason we use our legs to support and push our horses in the correct direction. You can't pull your way around a ring.
Nor can you simply pull the horse into downward transitions as so many seem to be convinced is the case. If I pull to stop or pull when I'm transitioning from a canter to a trot, Missy flips her head, as if saying, "HELLO, rude much?!" Yet, at the same time, if I sit down and back and close my leg, she'd stop on a dime. Downward transitions are a combination of all the aids. So again I ask, why are people convinced that bitting up is the answer?
A horse that is truly balanced and in-tuned to the aids shouldn't need to be, of that I have absolutely no doubt.
Now let me be very clear about a couple things. I am not an expert. I don't have all the answers, nor would I ever pretend to. All I can do is speak from personal experience/reading/ in-depth discussions with professionals. Also, I DO NOT believe that there is a one-bit-for-all solution out there. The size and make-up of the horse's mouth as a ton to do with what is the best bit to use. Many, many people ride in a basic single-jointed snaffle bit, but Missy hates them. She has small mouth and a low pallet, and that single breakage point isn't comfortable for her. So we went through a lot of bits before we found one that truly worked for us.
Let me be clear about something else, the bit I ride in now is a FAR cry to where we started out. Missy's mouth was hard and she was used to being constantly clanked in the face by people didn't give two craps about whether that hurt her or not. Of course, the result was that she became very very defensive when it came to her mouth. She was expecting pain, so she would lock her jaw and brace. She had never been shown softness, so she sure as hell wasn't willing to give it. And who can blame her?
Therefore my bitting journey with her took many different turns. When I bought her, I was pretty much told she'd never be able to be ridden in anything other than a curb, therefore that's what I rode her in. When I switched to english, I bought a kimberwicke and rode her in that. A definite downgrade from the long-shanked curb, but still a leverage bit. I was too ignorant about bits at the time to really know how to ride her in anything else...she would pull and pull and pull on me, to the point that I'd have to have a death grip on her face just to stop her!
Eventually, I started down my own path. I read about riding theory and riding a horse forward and engaged and I started wanting that, and I knew that would never happen in the kimberwicke because I was clearly riding entirely too much with my hands.
So I bought a single-jointed D ring that had copper rollers. She hated that bit and I still needed the death grip on her face. Miss ran away with me many many times.
Yet I was determined.
Eventually, I figured out that The Mare had a pretty small mouth and a low palette, which probably made the single-jointed curb pretty uncomfortable.
So I bought a French Link.
It was like the sky opened up.
She was clearly more comfortable, and while it was by no means an instant fix, it started us down the right path.
I learned to rely less on my hands and more on my seat. We did more transitions than you could ever imagine and we worked hard. Then one day I noticed that I could shift my weight back and my horse would transition down. I hardly had to touch my reins at all. Huh.
I guess my point it that before you choose a bit or decide that you need up the ante on your bit selection, stop and think about your horse. Ask yourself why you think you need a harsher bit. Ask what this harsher bit is going to accomplish. Evaluate how you ride. Look at the make-up of your horse's mouth. Understand fully how the bit works and affects your horse. After truly doing the research and evaluating all these things, if you still think that going for that harsher bit is the answer, then go for it. But please, don't be the uneducated person who tears away at their horse's mouth simply because they don't take the time to learn.
