SillyMare
Well-Known Member
I am looking for some advice on bitting Lexi. Apologies in advance for the long post.
Lex is a very sharp 6 year old TB currently working at BE PN level. She has a very sensitive mouth, tends to react in a very melodramatic fashion if she isn't happy!
She tends to spends a lot of time fussing with her head when she is tense (think she uses it as a bit of a displacement activity), if I am slightly too hard she comes up and back at me. I think she basically lacks confidence going forward into the contact and spends a lot of time looking for a problem or something to object to.
I started her in a loose ring french link - that was OK, but she tended to spend a lot of time fiddling with it. She also has very soft skin which was getting pinched in the loose rings.
I changed her to an ordinary egg-butt snaffle in the hope that she would take hold of it a bit more than the loose ring. The skin problem is fine with the egg-butt rings and she fiddles less than she does with the french link. However she still tends to be very over-sensitive in her mouth and backs off the contact.
I had a chat on Saturday with an ex-international show jumper. He gave me a loose ring ported snaffle to try. He told me that some horses hate it, but others are much happier as it moves the pressure to a different part of the mouth.
Jumped her on Saturday and she went beautifully! Much more confident in her mouth (even to the point when she was taking hold!!! I can definitely live with that). Didn't fiddle and didn't snatch back / up once.
Two problems:
My mum is convinced that anything ported is basically brutal (although I am absolutely sure Lexi would have told me about it if it was worrying her)
Ported snaffles are illegal for dressage (as are the rubber rings I would need to stop it eating her cheeks)
What else could I use to get the same sort of action? Would a straight bar snaffle be more or less the same? Do loose rings make much difference on a snaffle (her skin is much better with the egg-butt)?
Lex is a very sharp 6 year old TB currently working at BE PN level. She has a very sensitive mouth, tends to react in a very melodramatic fashion if she isn't happy!
She tends to spends a lot of time fussing with her head when she is tense (think she uses it as a bit of a displacement activity), if I am slightly too hard she comes up and back at me. I think she basically lacks confidence going forward into the contact and spends a lot of time looking for a problem or something to object to.
I started her in a loose ring french link - that was OK, but she tended to spend a lot of time fiddling with it. She also has very soft skin which was getting pinched in the loose rings.
I changed her to an ordinary egg-butt snaffle in the hope that she would take hold of it a bit more than the loose ring. The skin problem is fine with the egg-butt rings and she fiddles less than she does with the french link. However she still tends to be very over-sensitive in her mouth and backs off the contact.
I had a chat on Saturday with an ex-international show jumper. He gave me a loose ring ported snaffle to try. He told me that some horses hate it, but others are much happier as it moves the pressure to a different part of the mouth.
Jumped her on Saturday and she went beautifully! Much more confident in her mouth (even to the point when she was taking hold!!! I can definitely live with that). Didn't fiddle and didn't snatch back / up once.
Two problems:
My mum is convinced that anything ported is basically brutal (although I am absolutely sure Lexi would have told me about it if it was worrying her)
Ported snaffles are illegal for dressage (as are the rubber rings I would need to stop it eating her cheeks)
What else could I use to get the same sort of action? Would a straight bar snaffle be more or less the same? Do loose rings make much difference on a snaffle (her skin is much better with the egg-butt)?
