Today's bit is a lovely little number. It features a TEENY twisted wire gag mouthpiece, long shanks, and lots of leverage. What makes me sad is that this is what is commonly used on my breed, the TWH. Look in any TWH magazine or on You Tube and you can find them. I have seen stuff like this be used on 2 year olds! TWO! They are BABIES. They have these huge guys on them, they are so weighted down their pool little legs are shaking and these guys are hanging onto the bit. Of course they also have huge stacks and chains on too, but that is a whole different post. I just hate things like this. WHY do people think it is OK to use something like this on a baby? Or any horse for that matter? GAH!
I am thinking the rider who buys this bit should be forced to wear it like underwear. Then they can try to tell us how mild it is! ;)
ReplyDeleteI only use full cheek snaffle bits on all my horses. A harsh bit is not a substitute for proper training.
ReplyDeleteThe only time I've used a tom thumb and spurs was during drill team on my mare because I couldn't get the precise turns and stops needed for drill. Even then, I tried to NOT use them as much as possible.
If Stacy Westfall can get reining performance bitless, bridleless and saddleless, I think we all have something to strive for!
Wish I were a better horse trainer..(sigh)..
I used to own a tack store and I remember a customer coming in and asking for something like this. He said it helped "sore up" the corners of his horse's mouth so that she would be "more responsive" when he switched back to her regular bit. Maybe so, but it takes a cold hearted a$$ to admit they are trying to hurt their horse!
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager I rode my horse bridless in a costume class. I dressed as a Indian Maiden and painted my horse with war paint. Looking back no one even noticed, not even the judge. I should have gotten more than 3rd place, but it was a costume class not a freestyle class I guess. I was able to do that because I spent hours riding and building a relationship with that horse. A bit is a means to an end but this bit is horrible and anyone that feels they need some of the bits I have seen on here is not a horseman/woman at all. I do know that some high port roller bits are not intended to be used by anyone that is not a skilled rider and not on a horse that is not finished. I never could understand though why they are used if a horse is finished, to me a finished horse can be ridden in a bitless as easily as a bit.
ReplyDeleteYa know, I used to feel a teeny bit guilty every time I schooled cross country in a Dutch gag. After reading this blog for a while, not so much. People really put that in a horse's mouth? o.O
ReplyDeleteI believe that you have to have enough bit to be able to use your hands correctly, but I also believe that the end result should be a horse that you can do almost anything with in a snaffle, and that curb bits/leverage bits of any sort, like spurs should facilitate communication, not force a horse to do something through pain.
khamsintack,
ReplyDeleteThat had to be horrible. As someone who has owned a small business before, I don't think I could have serviced that person. We always had the "We reserve the right to refuse business to anyone for any reason." sign hanging above the register.
paul - i'm with you. i probably wouldn't even sell anything cruel like that if i owned a tack shop. forget the lost business - it's about the horse!
ReplyDelete>>WHY do people think it is OK to use something like this on a baby? Or any horse for that matter? GAH!<<
ReplyDeletePreaching to the chior, I know, and probably repeating what will be said 10 times over-
They lack the skill, talent and knowledge to train a horse properly, the money to pay someone else to do so, or their overly inflated, self induced ego is in the way.
Who invents this crap?
ReplyDeleteThis monstrosity ranks right up there with bike chains and Cleve Wells bits. And I used to feel bad about riding my TB in a kimberwick. He doesn't know how good he's got it.
I leased an arab that came "with" a correction bit and had to use it. The horse would still run through the bit. One time I had to head the horse towards a tree to get it to stop. If the horse has a mind to, it will run through any bit. I did get the horse more calmed down and it showed in his eyes, but after a year, it went back to it's owner. I saw it about a month later and it had that wild-eyed look again. Made me sad for the horse, but he wasn't a good fit for me. He had two speeds, walk and RUN! Once you ran him, he was higher than a kite and you couldn't get a walk for love or money!
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing is I have seen someone use one of these recently. She has a 6 year old paint with blown out hocks who gets it regularly and a young two year old who is being introduced to it because he does not do what she want right now all of the time. Gee I wonder if the fact that she runs the 2 year old at a hard canter with a lot of tight turns for almost 2 hours straight with out let up show why the 6 year old is lame.
ReplyDeleteThese trophy saddles crack me up:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tacktrader.com/show_item.php?tack_id=275364&share_this=Y
If I am not the "Open 3-D Champion", I would want this saddle because?
YIKES--What the HECK is this?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tacktrader.com/show_item.php?tack_id=273714&share_this=Y
LOL.. THAT is a saddle that was supposed to be for my favorite stud (looks like she has it out on the web now too, not just her page)...HIDEOUS thing...he's a wonderful Bay SD (red chocolate) Kentucky Mtn horse that she bought from my friend and wanted to show... HERE is a training thing for ja..
ReplyDeleteI helped train him...first time under saddle" half hour in roundpen, then I had him in a halter riding next to the mare paddocks and the other stud's paddock. He'd go six months with no riding and you could hop on and go on a trail ride with a strange mare. This lady buys him, ships him from OR to KY to a "super fancy KMSH show trainer barn"...NEXT DAY they hop on the poor boy...he of course bucks the idiots off (also having a big gag-bit in a mouth that rarely need ANY bit might have been an issue)...NOW , 2 mos later, she is reselling him cause he is (according to trainer) a RANK, Bucking SOB...WHAT?!?!?! Turns out: they lock him in a DARK box stall, rarely any turnout (after he ran for 6 yrs on TONS of acres with another stud and had a pasture and other horses in OR as well), alfa hay and GRAIN (this guy gets fat on air...)..then ride him half an hour in an arena and back in hte dark stall he goes...riding is with big bit and head cranked up too of course...
I cried when I heard about it...my wonderful boy treated that way. He is in the process of being rescued from that situation right now... Anyway, now that he won't make a show horse (cause at 9yo, he's "too old to teach anything else to and rank as all get out"), she has to sell his custom tack, LOL...