Can you tell me about a huge twisted snaffle bit?

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B&J

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Picked up a bridle at a tack sale last night and it came with an enormous shire sized bit - not exaggerating; I've not seen a bit this big before! Its a snaffle but the bars are twisted if that makes sense, just wondered why and what they are used for? Obviously wont be using it so just wondered really
 
Twisted snaffles used to be fairly common and were used for both riding and driving. Pretty obviously they are nasty pieces of kit and are designed to inflict pain; they were used for horses which did not obey a normal snaffle, were "dead in the mouth" (not surprising!) or hard to stop. If it's very large it was for use on a big horse (obviously again), which could have been a draft horse or a big heavy hunter type.
 
Thanks for the replies, it does look rather harsh! I just wanted the lovely bridle it was attached to for my boy, think the bit will be sentenced to the bit box to gather dust!
 
I think it's one of those bits that used to be more common because horses' working lives were much busier in the past, and many were owned by folk by necessity, rather than by horsemen of any compassion or sympathy. The daily pulling about meant many ended up with totally dead mouths. Even leaners and pullers these days aren't often physically ruined in the mouth - it's hard to do on leisure mileage.

Hopefully you will never have to ride a horse that needs it.
 
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