mrdarcy
Well-Known Member
I use an imitation Pessoa and disagree with the article in that link. My horse is incredibly sensitive in his mouth and if he was being jabbed with every stride he'd be protesting VERY strongly. Using the Pessoa makes a huge difference to his way of going. Without it he lunges very much on the forehand, dragging himself along with his front end. The Pessoa gets him working uphill, using his back end, swinging through his back and working his abdo muscles. He's very relaxed in his mouth and neck and actually develops a decent top line. He's naturally built a little downhill (he's an arab) and we compete endurance so even more tendency for him not to work from behind. The vet recommended using the Pessoa to engage his back end and get him stepping under as when he did get vetted out it was usually for hind limb lameness. These problems have been eliminated since regular lunging with the Pessoa so it certainly gets my vote.