Roller ball spurs and ones with horizontal rowels

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wimble

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I've only ever used ball end (fixed, that is) and POW. Keep looking at the roller ball/impulse type, and the ones with horizontal rowels and wondering about them. It looks to me like horizontal rowels ought to rotate better on the horse's side than the 'normal' vertical ones, because after all you use your leg in towards the horse, not scrubbing it up and down, if you see what I mean. Anyone got any thoughts about them? I have a novice/elementary horse who fully understands what the leg means but can't always be bothered to respond to it terribly quickly, or responds but then drops behind the leg again soon after :)
 
I'm after just the same, and my horse sounds v similar to yours (she is a bit of a p**s taker if truth be told!) and I have been suggested some spurs by my instructor - he has the vertical rowel ones, but obv is an enormously better rider than me! I quite like the horizontal stainless steel roller ball ones, but my only thought was that since they are v short in the shank I didn't want to have to be making a more noticeable change in my ankle/foot position to use them. A longer shank would allow much more subtle use of them when needed I think?
OH has the horizontal rubber type, but every now and again then we take them out of the tack box one of the balls has dropped off - a bit of a pita so I'm not too tempted by them!
I'm not sure anyway, so I shall watch this with interest and see what others thoughts and experiences are with them!
 
Have not tried the horizontal rowels. I have some rubber roller ball ones though, I bought them for a horse who is generally quite forward but was struggling to learn lateral work (moving sideways away fromt he leg), didn't want anything too sharp/hard as this would just make him tense so got these instead and they worked very well for the job required. They are not so great on really lazy horses though, they do help but I find metal spurs are move effective. The rubber ones are great though in the sense that you can't mark or hurt the horse with them.
 
I have both, prefer my roller ball for jumping, just enough oomf if he backs off, but without the OTT reaction I can get from prince of wales type spurs. I use the vertical metal rowels for flat work as they seem to get a slightly better reaction than the roller balls - I prefer both to prince of wales.
Hope that makes sense in my own garbled way!
 
I have some of the rowelled smooth disc spurs and they do the job! I've only used them a few times in the past, and now my horse is so quick off my aids i don't need to wear them and just now stick with the ball end spurs. One of my trainers uses the disc spurs on all her horses too.

I've seen the other type, the roller ball ones but imho can't see the point in them (maybe it's just me being cynical!) because they are meant to be spurs that don't mark the horses side, but if spurs are used correctly they shouldn't (or the riders leg) be constantly on the horses side anyway?! as they should go off a light aid?
 
OP, I'm not a spurs expert but it sounds to me as though what you're looking for here is more forward impulsion rather than more refined aids. Have you considered if horse gets a sufficiently varied routine to feel forward? Regular changes of scene (and fast paced work out on hacks) can really help in the arena.
 
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