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Post by horseguy on Jan 1, 2016 17:30:42 GMT
How many times have you heard someone say, "My horse won't stop, I need to get a stronger bit"? These riders go to a tack shop or online and get a "stronger" bit, as you might go to an auto shop and buy larger disc brakes for a car that does not stop well. Bits are not brakes. The primary purpose of a bit is to create balance. From balance the ability to stop better might come, as might other improvements, but to think of a bit like the brakes on a car says a rider does not understand equine biomechanics. Halting or stopping a horse is about a balanced reach under the belly of the horse, and the more efficiently we can accomplish this reach, the better the stop.  In this picture we see an English rider centered in her riding position, neither leaning backward or forward, sitting deep in the saddle enabled by her back being somewhat relaxed and straight. Her shoulders are open and the combination of her seat and back, as well as her leg position maximizes the effect of her seat bones into her horse's back. It is her seat bones primarily that cause her horse to begin to reach deeply under himself for a correct and balanced halt. Additionally and secondarily, you see that she is applying contact in the range of 2 to 3 pounds of pressure through her reins to what looks like a snaffle bit. The horse is not complaining about the bit pressure as demonstrated by the flex at the poll, nor is he distracted by the pressure as evidenced by his composed position and his ears forward in an attentive look. It is obvious to me that this horse can execute a proper trot/halt in the next step as the right hind will reach easily and equally under the belly as the left hind has. This picture expresses the elements of a balanced correct halt or stop. It is not hectic, dramatic or overdone. Instead we see a methodical halt employing the horses biomechanics in an optimal way, due to a combined and coordinated use of the seat and hands.  Here we see the "bits are brakes" approach to stopping a horse. Please note that I have selected pictures that happen to be correct English and incorrect western, but if I spent a little more time searching internet images, I am confident I could find an equally awful English halt and an equaly correct western halt. Disciplines have nothing to do with the general correctness of the halt in any one discipline. You see good and bad everywhere. In this halt the horse is reaching under his belly, but how he arrived in this position is remarkably different than the top picture. We see very long leverage bit shanks that have leveraged and stiffened the entire horse, tilting his entire body in order to get the hind legs under his belly. The horse lifts his head to avoid the jaw breaking sensation these bits can create, and in lifting the head in this awkward way, he must get his hind legs under himself or fall down. There is no flexing at the poll and the whole image of the movement is dramatic, hectic and incredibly overdone and inefficient. It is in its totality a violation of the laws of biomechanics in order to stop the horse in the worst way. This is bits as brakes. It's awful, painful and, in poor footing, dangerous. If your horse does not stop well, learn to ride in a more effective balanced position, and learn to use, not oppose, your horse's biomechanics to accomplish a better halt. You can't purchase a better stop. |
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Post by horseguy on Jan 2, 2016 15:17:25 GMT
Usually a discussion of bits begins with the seven points that a bit can effect a horse. They are the bars (gums between front and back teeth), the tongue, the lips, the chin, the nose, the poll and the roof of mouth. While that information is important when selecting a bit, I think how a bit effects a horse's over all balance and what a rider is looking for when trying new bits is more important. What I am looking for is the specific feel of the footfalls when trying a new bit. It might be discouraging for some riders to realize you need to feel footfalls very specifically when you are making a bit selection, but if you do not have a good feel for a horse's footfalls you are pretty much making a bit decision in the dark.
A bit is not brakes is the motto, but a bit can set your horse up for a better or worse stop, as discussed above. so, we try different bits to help the set up. The specific elements of the footfalls we must feel in improving the halt, for example, with a new bit is how each foot initially touches the ground in the halt. We assume first that the rider has established the necessary effective seat to optimize the horse's footfalls, and once we have that we can ask, do we feel the front toes touching the ground first? Or do we feel a more flat footed feel in the forehand footfalls? Or do we feel the back of the hoof, the heels touch the ground first?
It is a little different feeling in the hind footfalls but we still want to feel the same feeling of the front toes, or the flat footed hoof feel, or the heels touching the ground first? If you have a good seat that can bring a nice reach under your horse's belly and only then should you try to tweak the footfalls by changing the bit. I want to feel more heel in the hind and a relaxed flatter feeling in the fore footfalls when I try for a better bit for a horse. I will experiment with different bits to see if I can get the footfalls I am looking for.
When you can feel these small footfall distinctions it is useful to know the seven points on which a bit can work. You can use the pressure point information to narrow your choices for you discovery. But you never know exactly how those individual or combinations of points will effect a particular horse. You have to put the bit on a bridle and ride with it to find out. After years of experimenting you can achieve some predictability as to what a bit will probably do, but there is always a horse that gives you and unexpected response. I find the unexpected most often with gag bits. Most horses will raise their poll as a result of the kind of poll pressure a big ring gag will provide, but once in a while a horse will duck down and away from that same type of poll pressure. It is that kind of response to a bit's pressure that gets transferred down to the footfalls in varied ways in different horses, in my experience. You can feel the effect of the different bit pressures in the horse, but the one place that counts for me is in the feet touching the ground. After that I like to feel how a bit effects the swing of the shoulders and in the hind. That's how I determine if a bit is helping, hurting or doing nothing in terms of changing or improving a horse's movement.
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Post by jimmy on Jan 2, 2016 16:15:05 GMT
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Post by horseguy on Jan 3, 2016 15:30:44 GMT
The video is very informative. My take is it's a little advanced for many riders. The reason I say that is he suggests lowering the snaffle bit in a horse's mouth so the horse can pick it up and place is comfortably. Good idea if the rider has the hands to permit the horse to do it. I have a very similar suggestion but one that might require less sophistication of the rider. Use a fatter diameter snaffle. The increased diameter of the mouth at the ring will lower the center of the bit in the mouth, but it will do it in a way that the rider can do it and have less rein feel.
The bit in the video is relatively small diameter mouth with loose rings, probably my favorite training bit. His mouth is sweet iron. I like copper mouth to start young horses, but either way, I like a loose ring so the horse can move it around more easily or the horse can move his head around and the bit is more apt to lay the same than a "D" ring, full cheek or fixed ring. I like the small mouth because I can give very precise bit cues and have them be felt with very little rein pressure, but many people are not that precise with their hands and can inadvertently abuse the mouth with a small diameter bit.
The trainer doing the video puts this video in the context of his other videos. I think that is what I am missing, context, and maybe that is why it strikes me as more advanced than is generally useful. |
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Post by horseguy on Jan 3, 2016 15:50:45 GMT
I went to see a horse with a student yesterday. The horse was very nice, remarkably under himself for a draft cross. Draft crosses can have a very straight shoulder that limits the swing of their fore legs and in doing so sometimes "puts a cork" in their hind reach under their belly. Because reach is the key to lightness, it is typically pretty easy to get lightness going in a horse like this that naturally reaches under as this horse does. With lightness transitions, upward and downward, can be executed with great subtlety. I compare this lightness to a spinning top. If you get a top spinning, it does not take much touch at all to alter its movement or direction.
The student rider rode this horse very well. She was patient in the warm up on a cold day and after a short while had this horse flexing laterally and longitudinally. As the horse was being ridden I stood with the owner and listened to the horse's history and details. The horse was being ridden in a snaffle as we watched. Since it is fox hunting season and the student has hunted for several seasons, I asked if the horse had hunted. The answer was no and I then heard about his experiences in cross country jumping. It was then that the subject of bits came up and how the horse was a bolter out in the open, and needed a gag bit and a noseband because he "has no brakes" when not confined to an fenced arena. .
A gag bit works on the tongue, the bars, some on the lips and mostly on the poll, depending on the design of the specific gag. The correct use of a gag is much more on-and-off contact than constantly on contact because the horse needs relief from the poll pressure. I have found that few people understand the optimum use of the gag by on-and-off contact. Nonetheless, gag bits are very trendy now. The horse owner even comment to me how they have become increasingly popular. Trends and fashion have no place in the bitting process. There I was looking at a very nice horse with natural reach and lightness and he, according to the owner, requires a very intense bit in order to "have brakes" in open ground.
Here is what I would have said had the owner asked for my opinion based in 63 years of riding ... When you are fortunate enough to have a horse that has natural lightness you need to use that lightness to accomplish every conceivable movement you wish to execute. In this case, the horse apparently gets excited when outside a fenced area and takes off. This is not uncommon. Horse that bolt become extended and lose their lightness. Once lost, we cannot use lightness to get a subtle downward transition (brakes). Therefore, the question is, how do we achieve the necessary lightness when the horse bolts?
The answer is in the foot falls. In an extended running horse we have a rapid 1-2-3 rhythm. At a slower canter the 3 beat is usually the easiest beat to feel. It's the longest of the three beats and the 1 beat always follows the 3 beat. This is all a rider must know to achieve a downward transition through balance. Step one is to feel the 3 beat in the blur of the fast 1-2-3 of the horse running. Once felt, it is in the 3 beat that we "touch the spinning top" or in other words, we intentionally disrupt the energy pattern of the horse running. The1-2-3 can be fast but until we can feel the 3 beat in that rapid sequence we cannot correctly disrupt the rabid tempo. Because we must begin to execute a half halt in the 3 beat, so that its impact (the touch on the spinning top) is felt in the 1 beat, we must feel the foot falls first. Once we feel the 3 beat accurately, we can time our half halt correctly to be felt at the beginning of the 1 beat and thus appropriately disrupt the initial push of the extended stride we whish to slow. Our precise disruption of the tempo will shorten the stride, making the 1-2-3- rhythm easier to feel in terms of footfalls, and thus easier to disrupt the fast rhythm again in the next or in a following 1 beat. It gets easier.
If we approach the solution to "no brakes" as a rhythm and balance issue in the hind as described, we get a more effective and safer half halt or halt. If, on the other hand, we use a painful bit experience in the front of the horse's movement, we risk the horse leaning into his rapid movement trying to escape the pain, and making it more difficult to engage the hind in a balanced way to halt. What we get if we use a very severe gag bit is like the picture above of the western rider lifting his horse's forehand so as to incorrectly force the hind legs under the belly for an ugly stop.
I like gag bits and have used them for years in polo where we are off contact 80% of the time. Gags can be a very precise way of "touching the spinning top" that is a horse running fast. The fact is, few riders have the sensitivity to use a gag bit correctly. For that reason I prefer to see riders use a simple snaffle and footfalls feel to disrupt fast rhythm of a horse with "no brakes". It might be scary at first to approach a solution in this way, but once some success is experienced, it gets much easier. If you cannot do this, ask for help and get someone else to start the process of teaching your horse to "listen" for intentionally disrupted balance cues. One helpful way to begin this work is to bend your horse when he bolts and use disruption of the 1-2-3 in the bend. If you use a bend or circle in this way, be sure to do your half halts using inside leg and outside hand, while you control the bend with inside rein and outside leg. If you donlt and use both reins equally, you will tend to push the horses butt out of the circle or track of the bend.
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Post by jimmy on Jan 3, 2016 16:33:02 GMT
Here is the contribution that Ray Hunt brought to starting horse right, and avoiding the problems that lead to using the bigger bit.
Problem horse, bolting, hard mouth, are addressed in mostly the same manner. Most of the horses started right will not develop these things. The answer is to go back and place these thing back in
The basic technique I am talking about, is taking the head around with one rein.I am NOT talking about a one rein stop, a term I wish would disappear.
I have "cured" many run off, hard mouthed horses that were ridden in gags, for one, as the solution, put them back in a simple snaffle, and taught them how to bring their heads around, and "kick them out of gear", with one rein, and by "disengaging" them.
Simply put, start by going forward at a walk and a loose rein, and take one rein and ask them to bring their entire head and neck around, and then release. Both sides. As they get better at this, you can do it a trot.
What has to change is the paradigm of "putting the horse on the bit". You do this from a loose rein. You are not going back to a pull on both reins, which leads a person to want a stronger bit. This is also effective for rearing horses. It isn't applying force, it teaching them they are pulling on themselves, for one, if they do pull. One rein, the head comes in, the hips go out. The bolter or reared may violently resist at first, so you have to be careful and TEACH them this, and don't get hurt. I have rarely seen it fail, and only when there were other issues like pain or physical problems.
In Rays clinics he would flag the colt with the rider. Bring his head, move his hips, hind end, then front end, release. He would ride up to each rider with the flag and do this, until the horse released to it pretty good. This lesson was carried through in the snaffle. Using both hands was avoided for awhile. Down the road, this was no longer necessary. But I never knew a horse started this way that ever learned to bolt or rear, and could go on to jumping or dressage.
This technique was probably the biggest departure from the norm of starting young horses, and working with spoiled ones. I it avoided force and mechanics, and if necessary, simply taught the horse is was pulling on himself. I find I can stay so neutral and relaxed. If the horse with a lot of resistance has to spin around until his feet stops, the worst thing going to happen is he is going to get dizzy. You might too.
It ties right in with the idea that you don't make any thing happen, you set it up, and let them find it.
It was and is a particular form of genius and invention that came out of Tom and Ray.
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Post by jimmy on Jan 3, 2016 16:45:31 GMT
I would like to add that this ties in with traditional hackamore training of the California stock horse. I am talking about the bosal/hackamore of course.
It is called the "double". A slightly confusing term. But similar to taking their heads around.
The old timers used it in more of a shock and awe type of thing, but it can be done incrementally as well.
The hackamore has very little to no mechanical advantage. Sot it is very important from the get go that the horse never learns he can overpower it, or brace against the pull. So that is where the double comes in. Once they are "believers" it is used infrequently as needed as a reminder. But in the horses mind, you can pick him up and bring him around at a moments notice, and he believes this whole- heartedly. This is leading to the light touch and signal of the pick of the rein. One touch and pick the slow or stop, release. One touch they turn. This is the hall mark of the trigger reined stock horse of California. You cannot "put a horse on the bit" in a hackamore. They will learn to pull through it. So it becomes more about them responding to the balance of it. Which in time relates to the balance of the spade. These horse trained correctly, are the lightest, feely- est horses you will ever ride.
I have tried to take these ideas in my work and apply it to other disciplines, dressage, jumping, etc. in variations. You get a much lighter,more responsive, less complicated horse. In my opinion.
I hope this explanation makes sense.
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Post by horseguy on Jan 4, 2016 18:03:41 GMT
Jimmy wrote about Ray Hunt saying, "... put them back in a simple snaffle, and taught them how to bring their heads around, and "kick them out of gear", with one rein, and by "disengaging" them."
I think this might be like what I was trying to say with the "touching the spinning top" idea. They learn that they are "pulling on themselves" when you make it about their energy, not about yours. I think you can do this most easily by subtlety and specifically disrupting their push off foot, which would be the outside hind 1st beat of the canter.
I liked the "... in the horses mind, you can pick him up and bring him around at a moments notice, and he believes this whole- heartedly". When they get to a kind of anticipation that you will "pick him up and bring him around at a moments notice" they start to focus on you and not pulling on the reins.
"I have tried to take these ideas in my work and apply it to other disciplines, dressage, jumping, etc." There are pictures of Etienne Beudant doing the most challenging dressage movements on a lose rein, but still many German and European dressage riders insist on "five loving pounds" in the hands.
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Post by rideanotherday on Jan 4, 2016 19:34:53 GMT
I have a favorite bit. It fits EVERY. SINGLE. horse I have ever met. It's a "bit" of training. I have yet to find a horse that doesn't respond appropriately. I do have some favorite pieces of hardware I use as well though. I find that multiple joints in the mouth produce more comfortable application and that horses seem more willing to pick them up and hold them where they belong.
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Post by jimmy on Jan 5, 2016 3:39:36 GMT
I have to take issue with one thing often said about the gag, or other similar bits, that claim to work off of poll pressure.
I seems to me that the force applied to the poll is minimal, considering that the poll is hard bone with very little flesh, where has the corners of the mouth, and the tongue, are soft, and therefore will give and receive and feel the full effect of the pressure applied, as well as the combined force of the chin strap, while the poll will remained fixed.
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Post by rideanotherday on Jan 5, 2016 11:23:23 GMT
I have to take issue with one thing often said about the gag, or other similar bits, that claim to work off of poll pressure. I seems to me that the force applied to the poll is minimal, considering that the poll is hard bone with very little flesh, where has the corners of the mouth, and the tongue, are soft, and therefore will give and receive and feel the full effect of the pressure applied, as well as the combined force of the chin strap, while the poll will remained fixed. Force applied has little to do with the hardness or softness of an area and relies entirely upon how much energy the rider uses to pull on the reins. The corners of the mouth, the tongue both have a relative amount of flexibility because of that softness, which makes it a bit easier to absorb the amount of energy input from the rein/bit aids. At the poll, the ability to absorb or evade the energy doesn't exist. Gag bits, or really any bit that works due to leverage to place pressure on the poll can put an incredible amount of force at play on a sensitive area. Leverage bits can be quite harsh to a horse and affect more areas of the horse's head (the palate, the bars, the poll and the chin) as compared to a snaffle which acts upon the bars, the corners of the mouth and sometimes the palate. Unless the bit works due to leverage, the chinstrap does not exert force upon the horse. |
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Post by horseguy on Jan 5, 2016 15:28:42 GMT
I have to take issue with one thing often said about the gag, or other similar bits, that claim to work off of poll pressure. I seems to me that the force applied to the poll is minimal ... I would agree on most contemporary gags that the poll pressure is not extreme. This is due to the small degree of leverage created by the size of the rotating ring that is used to leverage the pressure. I would say the most common gag design today is what I call and "elevator" bit like this.
The rings have a small diameter, which produces little poll pressure because the rings cannot twist very much. The attachment loops for the reins and the cheek pieces of the bridle also limit the range of the twist leverage that gags produce. So, while the poll pressure is minimal, some riders manage by hanging on these bits with their reins to drive their horse's nuts with constant pressure, which must feel like a low grade headache to a horse.
In polo we tend to use big ring gags like the one bellow. Because these have gag rounds instead of the attachment loops for the reins and the cheek pieces of the bridle, the ability to use the maximum leverage of the ring size differentiates these gag bits from the elevator type gags and that makes these very powerful in terms of poll pressure.
Being pretty powerful in terms of applying poll pressure, the big ring gags absolutely require off contact riding. If you hang on these bits, like many "water skiing" riders do, you can get a very undesirable result. The optimum action of these ring gags is to truly grab a hold of the horses head. And wait, there's more. A polo player will not only have the reins with near unlimited ability to hold the horse's head between the poll and the mouth, a polo player will also have draw reins (almost always off contact too) attached at the saddle billets running through the big ring back to his/her hands. What these lateral draw reins do is hold the horse's head from moving laterally, left to right. A horse therefore that has a big ring gag and lateral draw reins, cannot evade any poll pressure. You have their head in a virtual vice, which is why ironically that these bits are so precise.
A rider can be galloping down a 10 acre polo field flat out, an opponent can turn the ball 180 degrees toward his goal and you must respond with a quick stop and a roll back. The ring gag/lateral draw rein set up "freezes" the polo horse in order to accomplish this high speed 180. But that "freeze" cue is incredibly brief and it comes out of a state of complete off contact rein feel.
rideanotherday writes, "(gag) Force applied has little to do with the hardness or softness of an area and relies entirely upon how much energy the rider uses to pull on the reins". I agree but I would add that what matters a lot is the quality of the energy that the rider uses to pull on the reins. With the ring gag/lateral reins set up the quality of the gag pressure energy applied is multiplied by it's application from zero previous contact. It's a "spike" energy of sorts that the horse experiences. Once a polo horse gets and responds to the gag set up "freeze" cue, we put a smaller ring on them and maybe ultimately more of an elevator type gag with or without the lateral draw reins.
My overall point is gags can create a wide range of poll pressure, high to low, and also, and perhaps more importantly, they can create a range of experience of the poll pressure from a spike to a low grade headache. They are very versatile but the versatility is inaccessible to many riders, especially those who get tense and hang on the reins. I believe it is this large group of riders who hang on gag bit reins that have made so many horses into bolters. It takes experience, confidence and some courage to be on a bolting horse and feel the solution for a halt is to go completely off contact and then give a very brief, subtle "spike" cue with the reins. That is, however, what polo players do everyday. If you can't do this quickly (preferably on the stride's one beat) and dispassionately, then my advice is to stay away from gags.
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Post by jacki on Jan 6, 2016 20:18:12 GMT
Thank you so much for coming out in the cold to watch Laura ride. We sincerely appreciate your ongoing advice (and it was great to see you!)
"Bitting in my opinion is more an art than science. There are general principles but it comes down to how your hands work with a bit in your horse's mouth. I have found that as a horse gets older it is best not to change their bit very much unless the bit is just too much or plain wrong for a horse," -- As you saw, this horse moves beautifully, and he's very versatile. Someone has taught him well, and I can only assume it's his owner. Therefore it would be reasonable to believe she knows how to use the ring gag bit correctly, mostly off contact. But then she'll say something like "that's his brakes", and I don't know what to think! Your advice for giving him a job after a jump proved very useful earlier on and helped Laura decide that the ring gag and figure-eight noseband were not necessary. As you noticed, he bends nicely laterally and longitudinally without it and is very light and collected. She didn't jump him at all that day, but he does well there, too. She also routinely gallops him outside the arena without incident, and I feel confident in her ability to use the "half-halts on the 3-beat" method to stop him. I have also seen her do the "circling around" thing with Blaze (a very forward mare) when she got overly excited.
"Here is what I would have said had the owner asked for my opinion based in 63 years of riding ... When you are fortunate enough to have a horse that has natural lightness you need to use that lightness to accomplish every conceivable movement you wish to execute. In this case, the horse apparently gets excited when outside a fenced area and takes off. This is not uncommon. Horse that bolt become extended and lose their lightness. Once lost, we cannot use lightness to get a subtle downward transition (brakes). Therefore, the question is, how do we achieve the necessary lightness when the horse bolts?" -- I am totally baffled by people who don't take advantage of the chance to learn something from someone with a lifetime of knowledge and experience such as yours when freely given the opportunity! (sigh) I really like the idea of the loose ring snaffle bit, maybe even lowered in the mouth like in the video, so the horse can "place it where he wants it", particularly in view of the melanoma lumps in his cheeks which I didn't know he had until last week. However, as you saw, the owner is adamantly opposed to changing bits. So for now, Laura will use the D-ring snaffle she's allowing her to use.
Laura's next challenge will be straight-line lead changes. Wish her luck!
Jacki
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Post by jacki on Jan 6, 2016 20:24:20 GMT
I love the photo of Etienne Beaudant - what training! In Laura's last dressage lesson, her reins were loose at one point, and the instructor said the horse was "looking for the bit". He responded beautifully with increased contact on the mouth, but how impressive to do it so precisely with balance, seat and legs! I wonder if such precision is seen anywhere in eventing today or even if such a goal is possible today.
Jacki
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