Double Bridles

I use a double bridle on my thoroughbred mare. Tried a billion bits and she backed off all of them and either did a llama or went way overbent. She actually pulls the contact forward in the double and is far happier.
 
Oh just remembered! About the loose ring pinching the lips thing.... Bit butter!!! http://www.horsehealth.co.uk/essentials/first-aid/lotions-potions/bit-butter
I will swear by it from my first short lived use! Tyde's super sensitive skin actually bled a tiny bit from the pinching, this butter cleared it up in like 2 days, and I use it when I ride now and it hasn't pinched since :D
 
I use my double to refine aids when schooling. Horse is schooling around adv med at home, and about to move up to medium affilated.

At home I use a mixture of the double and snaffle bridle depending what work I want to focus on (eg. More collected and advanced work the double, general stretchy easy session/hacking/jump in the snaffle)

At competitions it depends, as at venues he is confident he'll happily accept the double. When nervous or unsure 'll drop being it so I use the snaffle :)
 
My new lad isn't up to the double yet, but my old lad I would ride in his snaffle except for when schooling trickier movements, and competing. Whilst he went much easier in a double than the snaffle, I always felt that all the slogging in the snaffle made him so much lighter and more responsive in the double - when I tried schooling continually in the double it seemed to lose the effect, and when transitioning back to the snaffle I could see all the holes in our training. Feeling light in front in the double didn't mean he was sitting on his hocks. If that makes sense.

So I schooled all but the tricky stuff in the snaffle, with the aim of schooling everything eventually in the snaffle. That way I had the double as an extra level, for when he was up the extra level out competing.

I also made the error of trying him jumping in the double because he could be strong and I thought I'd have the extra control. However, he never felt comfortable 'taking the bit' when he needed to alter his own striding, so started chipping strides, and evntually started refusing in it. Switched back to a cheltenham gag with two reins and he felt happier to take the bit when he needed to, but I still had plenty of control.
 
Strides you need a bradoon as the rings are smaller, but essentially the same as a normal snaffle. You can get different mouth piece thicknesses also, which is worth bearing in mind
 
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