Micklem bride - opinions?

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MagicMelon

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I've been looking into bits as an automatic first port of call, however Im wondering if maybe a Micklem bride is worth a try. Can people advise what it has been good for with their horses?

Basically new horse is rather strong - he doesn't pull coming into fences but just leans afterwards and between fences, he is also quite hard to turn when he's leaning like this. I've so far had him in a pelham with double reins but its not much good. Obviously I'll be working on the schooling aspect but I believe he's done this for some time... I'm wondering if this Micklem bridle would help give us a bit more control, although are you limited only being able to use snaffles with it? (just because Ive never seen any photos of anything other than it being used with a snaffle).
 
Lady I took my horse to for help had just bought one for her show jumper who was strong going into fences but backed off with a flash and she was really happy with it.

How is the new lad doing?
 
I love mine I have two , we use them all the time great for riding and leading bit does not pull through it the horse mucks about.Great for lunging light easy to use and don't pull round the head.
Brilliant for a quick lunge before getting on a young one , no tack to fiddle with just release riens unclip lunge line and go I have a horse who has had a tooth removed ( complicated but it's left him with an op site right where a noseband goes ) so it's great for him .
I think you will be able to use other bit apart from snaffles as long as the bit does not come up the cheek to be to close to the hanger to allow you to get the little leather things the bit attaches to short enough and I think the bit would have be very long from the cheek loop to bit ring for that for that to be an issue.
I don't like the look of them I think a conventional bridle looks nicer but the horses like them and thats what counts.
 
I have had one for a few years now and love it, you have to get it fitted correctly and it did take a bit of fiddling about before it was spot on if you know what I mean, I hunt my old boy in it with a NS Angled Lozenge and he is brilliant in it, before that I would have to put him in a pelham to have breaks when doing xc or hunting, here's a link to a company that let you hire one to try

http://www.hireamicklembridle.co.uk/

Hope that helps,

Annie
 
I loved my Micklem bridle with my mare made such a difference to her, who was very fussy in the mouth and would lean on you. She really hurt my shoulders because she would constantly be on your hands no matter what you did, she could lean on a waterford. Sadly she is now fully retired at best :/
 
I use mine with my universal as well as snaffle. I have a standard horse size multi version if u want a shot? I liked it so much I bought the competition version too. :). I wouldn't sell it cos it its a handy thing but not using it if u want to try it a couple of weeks if it'll fit.
 
Thanks very much everyone. Promising comments then and sounds like it might suit my horse. I know I'll also need to play about with bits too though which is such a pain as I dont even know where to begin. LadyRascasse - Yep, my shoulders are still killing me too and mine is 17.1hh so a lot of horse to try and contain!

FfionWinnie - He's doing great apart from the strong/leaning thing. Took him to BSJA (first event!) on Friday and he jumped brilliantly, he'll jump anything that's not an issue but its the control in between the fences I really struggled with and trying to turn him to fences was like trying to turn a bus! Otherwise he's lovely, very mannerly :)

Baileyhoss, I'll PM you ;)
 
I bought one for bill (the extra large one!), the comp one. Only really using it now as he was on his hols and a bit too soon to notice dramatic differences as he is only in his first week of roadwork!
What I have noticed is that he is playing less in his mouth which is a big plus as he tended to be a bit overactive with the bit at times!
 
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