This might be a stupid question but......

To help give more control over high head carriage. To stop the horse from giving you a broken nose. To assist the horse in carrying itself correctly etc etc. Horses can still rear with them on.
 
Martingales stop the horse for putting his head past the point of control if fitted correctly. A standing martingale can be useful for a horse that rears.
 
When a horse puts its head up to evade the bit, the running martingale pulls the rein downwards at 45 degree angle, thus putting pressure on the bars of the mouth. This should give more control. If there is no martingale then the pressure of the rein is on the corner of the mouth which is soft and can tear easily if a horse pulls and gives less control.The horse can also get its head higher causing further loss of control. The running martingale should be fitted so that it only comes into effect when the horse head goes up high enough as to be considered evading the bit.
The standing martingale puts pressure on the nose. Again keeping horses head down but is more fixed than running martingale and therefore should not be used when jumping as horse cannot stretch through its neck.
There are other martingales such as Irish which I think is supposed to stop reins going over horses head in racing falls.

P.S. It did nip rearing in the bud with my horse but that is not what it is designed for!!
 
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