Bit/Brakes help- for occassional Hunt??

[huskydamage]

Can anyone suggest a bit that will help with brakes for the occasional hunting newb?

I went for the first time last season with the bloodhounds, I’d never hunted before, not sure if my horse had. But for the last 10years I pretty much have always hacked her solo, I’ve never ridden in a group. My Pony is always forward going and hyper, (I used to ride in French link snaffle, but switched to a hackamore last year). I knew she would probably be more nutty so on the day so I used a 3 ring gag with 2 reins (one on last hole, which worked Ok when I tried it on a hack)

I enjoyed my first hunting experience but my brakes where embarrassingly bad. She just hammered it around with her nose on the floor, until I’d circled about enough to stop. The gag was useless, should have just used my old snaffle! After that I decided to stay WAY at the back and do a super fast trot/sideways canter, if I let her go I would have overtaken everyone (I would die if I got told off!)
I’d love to go again soon, but be able to ride a bit closer with everyone and get more of the experience rather than my ‘way behind- pariah’ technique.

Some people have recommended a Waterford but I know nothing about it or how it works? Thankyou for any suggestions

 

[spacefaer]

I'm not a fan of 3 ring gags - they have a fairly imprecise action and I hate the lack of steering you get with them.

A waterford mouthpiece is a multi jointed mouthpeice which stops leaning - stops the horse grabbing the bit and leaning. It's a good mouthpiece - you just have to choose what bit to put the mouthpiece in!

If you want a bit that will raise her head, I would suggest a Cheltenham gag, possibly with a waterford mouthpiece - you can always soften your hand with a stronger bit, than haul on her with a milder bit.

The other bit of equipment we love is a Kineton noseband - it only comes into effect if she leans on you, and helps stop her putting her head on the floor.

Try going as often as you can, so it's less exciting for her, and make sure you've worked her hard and consistently the week prior, so that you take the edge off before you go.

Have fun and let us know how you get on!

 

[Kat]

I like a kimblewick for hunting, that and making sure they have a good blast early on to help settle them.

 

[Happy Hunter]

I usually prefer a Kimblewick.
A good friend has a pig (The nose ploughing through the ground) had remarkable results with a Cheltenham gag on two reins.

 

[spacefaer]

I like a kimblewick for hunting, that and making sure they have a good blast early on to help settle them.

Depends on how big and strong your horse is ! Our guys would canter through a Kimblewick

There's very limited leverage with one, so it wouldn't really help the OP get the horse's head up although the curb chain might have a limited effect to slow her down.

I love the challenge of finding the right bit - made even harder when you can only test the effectiveness out hunting!

 

[applecart14]

Have you considered a pelham. Poll pressure is really useful. I have a Neue Schule (recommend by my EDT). My horse is a dutch bred WB and he has a rather thick tongue so I have a tranz angled lozenge pelham with a thin mouthpiece and it works very well on him. I use roundings (not to everyones taste I know) and a curb chain held in the correct place with a lip strap.

I found it was much more effective than my old mullen mouth pelham (with port)

 

[huskydamage]

thanks for the suggestions. Lots of ideas to try! I have a friend who's going to bring a few over for me to try out, though I wont really know if they work till the day lol

 

[BellaContessa]

I had that problem when I first took my mare out, the only bit that I found that worked for her was an American Gag. They're very severe though so you do have to have quite soft hands to ride with one.

 

[Enfys]

I used to ride my arab hunter in a hackamore at home, out partying he was homicidal, his brain was simply not connected to his legs at all, a danger to everyone.

I tried loads of bits, pelhams (wouldn't go forwards at all) German hackamore (sat down) gags (just pulled and pulled) magenis, Waterford, Wilson - nope, kimblewick (haha - sat down again) in the end, one lovely friend suggested I try a LS myler combo on him. Perfect, he was used to the nose action and I liked that I could use double reins with it. It suited us well.

My other standby bit is a good old military reversible - many options for rein placing on that (and double sided mouthpiece) although if a horse does not like a straight mouth piece (ported or otherwise) then it won't work so well. I hope that the thieving swine that half-inched my original one (with the crowsfoot stamp on it) appreciates it

 

[Goldenstar]

If the horse was very unruly and put it's head down I would go for the Waterford gag ( the Cheltenham type ) with a big ring .
You might also consider a controller noseband I don't like using them but they do work on lots of really strong horses .

 

[ester]

rather old thread but ditto the cheltenham gag.

 

[Clever pony]

My pony is in a Waterford fulmer and I don't think she ever gets the chance to lean against me

 

[huskydamage]

Bit Success! (but still one problem ) I went with a kimblewick in the end. I was actually able to gallop in a group with everyone in the end, instead of staying far behind. Only one incident of 'tanking', but I had miles better control than before and would have happily used this on the next hunt, but ....

The downside- it cut her somewhere I could not find any marks/cuts on/in her mouth and she was munching away on grass immediately afterwards, but the bit had pink foam/a bit of blood on it after untacking, so it must have cut her somewhere inside her mouth.
Now I don't want to use it again, until I work out where it cut/rubbed her and how to prevent it.
But as I couldn't actually find the cuts from this, so I'm unsure how to prevent it happening again!

Would putting latex bandage on it or something help? Or will this bit have to go on the reject pile

 

[Goldenstar]

Bits using poll pressure tend to cut mouths .
However if you can't find a raw bit the horse may have bitten it's tongue which is not something you can really prevent your description of a bit of foamy pink sounds like that might be the case .

 

[BellaContessa]

With regards to the pink foam it sounds like she's just bitten her tongue, my mare did that the first few times I had her in a leverage bit just because she was trying to evade it. Once she realised she couldn't no more bitten tongues