Nosebands

[scruffyponies]

Have just been reading the H&H article on tight nosebands. Really pleased to see this topic getting an outing.

Half the scruffies aren't even in nosebands, and I rarely give it much thought, except when I see horses at fun rides etc. with their noses trussed up - which seems to be more often than not.
Doesn't look comfortable to me. Does a tight noseband ever do anything except upset the horse?

 

[Antw23uk]

A tight noseband can do a lot of damage. I often tell people if i think their tack is ill fitting and I have been known to adjust a noseband whilst standing talking to someone, lol! I don't particularly ride in one, especially this time of year when I'm just hacking and he is usually plastered in mud with a really hairy beard! Its just one more thing to clean!

 

[sbloom]

I never rode in one on my last horse, just something else to clean. I loathe flashes, pointless and, ultimately, fairly harmful (whichever way, however loose, there's a downside), well fitted drops and grackles have their place. The new ergonomic bridles seem to work for many and often have built in nosebands so hard to comment on those.

 

[Antw23uk]

The new ergonomic bridles seem to work for many and often have built in nosebands so hard to comment on those.

Yep my bridles headpiece has a strap for throat lash, cheek pieces and noseband but i just use a small amount of velcro cable tidy either side to hold the noseband straps to the cheek pieces to stop them flapping about when i dont have a noseband on

 

[Cortez]

Does it do anything? Well yes, a tight noseband straps the mouth shut so the horse can't open it to get away from the pressure of the bit, in the course of doing that, if it's really tight, it smashes the nerves in the cheek against the teeth. None of those things is desirable in my view, so I don't use tight nosebands. In the past I have put flash straps on when required to by employers/fashion, but since I became my own boss I've never used one.

 

[Polos Mum]

Does a tight noseband ever do anything except upset the horse?

It does keep the horse from opening their mouth, chomping or hanging their tongue out - so if you're competing and want a neater looking appearance then they do that.
But really they just mask a training flaw - if mine is uncomfortable or unsettled in his mouth then I want to know that and to change things to fix it - not strap his mouth shut and pretend the issue isn't there.

 

[cauda equina]

Mine are fine without nosebands, and once you ditch the noseband it turns out you don't need a browband either
It seems weird that the trendy new 'comfort' bridles pile more and more leather onto horses' faces, when they might do better to take some of it off

 

[Inda]

My mare hates a noseband. She’s tense and resistant to any instruction from the rider. I had wanted her to be bitless, but she preferred the bit and no noseband.

I bought a fairfax bridle and cut the nose and straps off a few months ago as the flapping was bugging me.

She’s just had surgery to remove a melanoma from behind her left ear and is currently bridleless. Which is interesting on a 5year old

 

[Cortez]

Having had and cared for many GP dressage horses in my time, it is interesting how many of them have permanent indentations in their nasal bones and callouses on their chin grooves, as well as depigmented skin around the corners of their mouths. Not caused by me, I may add.

*(Including the sainted Valegro, BTW....)

 

[Flowerofthefen]

There is one trainer I won't have as as soon as she starts the lesson she tightens the noseband ridiculously tight and tightens the curb chain if horse is ridden in one.

 

[stangs]

Good riddance to browbands too if you ask me

 

[JackFrost]

and does a throat lash actually do anything?

(ETA I can feel this morphing into the bridleless riding thread ?)

 

[Hepsibah]

Crank nosebands. Urgh.

 

[Rowreach]

Interesting, I wonder if H&H will stop publishing pics of our best known riders competing with overly tight nosebands, much like they boycott pics of top show riders on obese horses .... oh, hang on a minute ....

Re nosebands, if they are correctly fitted and there for a reason, I have no issue with them, and use them, and my mare goes far better with one than without (seems to act for her much like a nosenet does).

The biggest issue with most bits of tack is that users don't know what they are for or how to fit them. And that applies to very basic things, not just the fancy ones.

 

[pistolpete]

So nice to see so many people anti tight nosebands and flashes. What I don’t understand is how virtually every horse at low level BD seem to still have flashes on ?. Sad.

 

[Cortez]

So nice to see so many people anti tight nosebands and flashes. What I don’t understand is how virtually every horse at low level BD seem to still have flashes on ?. Sad.

Fashion as much as anything.

Throatlashes are purported to be there to stop the bridle being pulled off if the rider falls off and holds the reins (doesn't work). Many styles of riding/tack do not have a throatlash (doma vaquera).

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I take them off, think horses look better without them and always have. I did have a horse on loan who went better in his grackle than without and seeing as I only had him for 6 months and he was 17, I wasn’t about to argue.

 

[Zuzan]

Mine has never been used...... I ride without .. always.. it is perfectly possible to have a well schooled and educated horse without one.

 

[Ratface]

The only reason I have a noseband is to attach a pollen mask over Orange Loon's nostrils, as necessary. Otherwise, it's all pretty basic good quality English tack. Decades old, and still serviceable. However, I was taught how to clean it properly and have always done so on a regular weekly basis.

 

[Bonnie Allie]

Interesting, I wonder if H&H will stop publishing pics of our best known riders competing with overly tight nosebands,

Spot on! The irony was not lost on me this week when I read the article as it has been making me crazy how every featured rider of late in the mag has a ridiculously tight noseband in every flipping picture.

Our local riding club has the gauges and notified competitors for a low level comp that the marshals were going to use them. So many people lost their tiny little minds over it. We still have a looooong way to go in demonstrating we understand welfare.

 

[MuddyMonster]

Mine didn't wear a noseband for a few years as he didn't need one and I'd lost it off the particular bridle I was using. He now wears a cavesson as part of a combination bridle, which I prefer as the all in one headcollar & bridle set up suits our needs much better.

No difference in him either way - he's perfectly capable of opening his mouth & chomping away, with or without a noseband ?

I've not got problem with people using a noseband as long as it's well fitted - broadly speakingthwt translates to not too tight.

 

[sbloom]

Interesting, I wonder if H&H will stop publishing pics of our best known riders competing with overly tight nosebands, much like they boycott pics of top show riders on obese horses .... oh, hang on a minute ....

Re nosebands, if they are correctly fitted and there for a reason, I have no issue with them, and use them, and my mare goes far better with one than without (seems to act for her much like a nosenet does).

The biggest issue with most bits of tack is that users don't know what they are for or how to fit them. And that applies to very basic things, not just the fancy ones.

I wish picture editors, and everyone else for that matter, would consider photos more carefully. This includes advertisers - I have been completely turned off a yard (that on paper I'd have been dying to saddle fit at) because on FB they advertised, and raved about, a clinic whose main photo showed the clinician riding a horse overbent, strung out behind, and with the rider massively leaning back. I see numnah companies and umpteen others show saddles about 3" too far forwards, saddles that clearly don't fit...it's everywhere, and it makes it damned hard for people to have any idea of what is correct.

 

[Elno]

Crank nosebands. Urgh.

Why? Crank nosebands are actually better than plain cavessons when it comes to pressure points.

 

[milliepops]

Why? Crank nosebands are actually better than plain cavessons when it comes to pressure points.

yep.
people just get a bee in their bonnet about things sometimes. i always use a crank if i need a cavesson style noseband (i have one who has a drop on her snaffle bridle, all the rest have cavessons), crank style does not equal tight, after all

 

[scruffyponies]

and does a throat lash actually do anything?

(ETA I can feel this morphing into the bridleless riding thread ?)

Yes, if it was correctly fitted, it would stop a Dartmoor's driving bridle falling off over his ears... sadly it's too big, so it doesn't.

 

[Elno]

yep.
people just get a bee in their bonnet about things sometimes. i always use a crank if i need a cavesson style noseband (i have one who has a drop on her snaffle bridle, all the rest have cavessons), crank style does not equal tight, after all

Exactly. I vary between a drop and a crank and horse is happy with a mouth without sores (confirmed by dentist).

 

[Gloi]

I often steward. I'm quite tempted to buy a noseband gauge and use it next time .

 

[NinjaPony]

Whatever happened to two fingers under the noseband? Hate to see tight nose bands, seems to be fairly standard practice unfortunately. Mine was in a cavesson for schooling, and a grackle for hacking as he could cross his jaw when excited. I always find horses prefer grackles over flashes as the pressure is distributed more evenly over their face, and it leaves the nostrils clear. Even so, the two finger rule still applies, and the noseband shouldn’t act as a way of hiding existing contact issues, or a shortcut.

 

[GreyMane]

While we're on this, why do western riders do the throat lash up so tight that it is tucked right up in the angle between neck and head? Certainly don't look like there's a hand width there...

Am uncomfortable seeing any sort of chokers on humans, too!

 

[Hepsibah]

The purpose of a crank is to strap the mouth closed, tightly. I've seen too many that have been badly used.