Riding in a Dually (Advice Please!)

[Pookies]

I have recently tried hacking in a dually, having ridden the same horse in one several years ago. The only problem I had was when I cantered he put his head right down and threw in some excitable bucks. He wasn't trying to get me off (and I stayed on!) but obviously not ideal. Any ideas on how I can prevent this or is it just a hazard of riding in a dually?? In a traditional bridle he will throw the odd excitable buck (you barely feel them) when we first set off on a canter but his head is always up and they are not as big as the bucks we had today!

 

[Firefly9410]

It is because there is nothing to stop a,horse diving down with a dually. With a bit there is pressure on the mouth if the horse dives down onto it so it keeps the head up. With the head down the bucks will be bigger. The only things you can do in a dually is the usual advice for a bucker which is to raise your hands to help raise the horses head and kick on. A horse cannot buck properly if he is going forwards. It is not pretty to watch but is effective. Once the bucking stops return to normal riding.

Edit: if the horse is yanking the reins out of your hands with the bucking you can use grass reins on a headcollar just as easily as on a bit. Attach bale string to saddle D, pass it through normal headcollar side ring, up over poll, down through other side ring and onto other saddle D. That will stop him lowering his head but he may start leaning on the headcollar rather than carrying himself, so manage without if you can.

A hackamore would be better than a dually for preventing the horse from getting his head down.

 

[Wheels]

What are your reasons for using a dually?

In my opinion it is a bit of a blunt instrument, you might be better with a proper bitless bridle if you don't want to use a bit.

 

[Pookies]

He's 22 years old and his teeth aren't amazing although he's all up to date with a dentist. When putting a normal bridle on he always used to open his mouth for the bit and now he doesn't. So the two things together I thought I'd rather try bitless. He's not a bucker usually, just the odd excited one when we set off on our first canter and after that he's completely fine. Usually I barely notice them but today in the dually he was able to get his head much lower and do bigger bucks!! I pulled him up and all was ok but I wondered if there's something different I need to do with my hands (such as suggested about keeping them higher) to prevent him from doing it. Or anything else I can do to stop it? He seems perfectly happy when hacking in his normal bridle so if I'm not able to correct his bucking in the dually I may just have to go back to his normal bridle. Thanks

 

[pip6]

If your riding on the rings maybe it's hurting his nose. It's meant as a correction instrument, not for riding. When you go to a demo, they do ride the new starters in them, but from memory they put the reins on the normal headcollar buckles, not the training rings. Wouldn't ride like this for hacking myself, as if horse is fidgety in head he'll be slapping himself in the head with the rings. Better off getting a gentle bitless bridle or use a plain headcollar. Can get a cheap synthetic bitless bridle with no metal shanks.