My Soapbox for Equestrian Writings
Bitting up for hunting can mean the difference between a fun ride and a continuous tug of war. Whenever someone says you should be able to ride every horse in a snaffle, I chuckle and think, “you’ve never been foxhunting.” That’s not to say you can’t hunt a horse in a snaffle. My Trakehner was […]
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Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to jump downed trees in a single bound. Look! Running after the hounds! It’s Zelda! For sure, Zelda had the locomotive part down pat. Riding her was a bit like being on a runaway train. Without brakes that worked well. Zelda and I had […]
Read MoreThere’s been a lot of debate over whether a baucher bit exerts pressure on a horse’s poll. I’ve written about it before. But I still hear people claim that they like the bit because of the poll pressure. Now, the bit company Neue Schule had done a study that shows something surprising: Not only does […]
Read MoreWhat’s wrong with the picture on the left? The bit is attached backwards so that the orientation of the mouthpiece is wrong. With some bits, it can be difficult to tell the right way from the wrong way so it’s important to take a good look at it before putting it in your horse’s mouth. […]
Read MoreI finally had the time to watch the rest of this series. It’s good stuff! Evading the Bit Pressure Points
Read MoreFor years I heard “people” say that the bit didn’t matter, it was the rider’s hands that made the difference. Although there is some truth to that (poor riding can make even the mildest bit an instrument of torture), it’s not quite that simple. Okay, sometimes it is. I bought one bit for my horse, […]
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Many people choose a bit because It’s already in their tack box Everyone else at the barn rides in one The bit doesn’t matter — it’s the rider’s hands that matter, or The horse was ridden in the bit forever, so why change? Hey, those are the criteria I used for selecting bits for years. […]
Read MoreWhile most of us can walk into a tack store and find a plethora of bits for sale, in India, many working horses are subjected to bits that look like medieval torture devices — crude bits that are made locally. An organization called Friends of Marwari/Kathiawari Horse UK, which was formed in 2008 to promote […]
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