...train your horse to do what you require without the use of bits like this. Really, it is. You could cut a tongue OFF with this sucker, look how thin that mouthpiece is. You should NEVER use something like this on a horse that is not finished, and even then, I would ask why. A finished horse shouldn't need this anyway. I shudder at the thought of how many speed horses out there have relatively inexperienced owners, little training, and less control have these shoved in their mouth, their heads tied down and the rider holding onto the reins for dear life.
Yeah. I'm a firm believer in most things not being inherently cruel, but that's not a bit I would ever want to see in any barn I was at. Unless it was hanging on the wall as a decoration. Nah. It's no good for that either.
ReplyDeleteYikes!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want to even ride a horse that needed a bit like that. The horse obviously requires more training instead of something like that horrible bit to control them.
~Lisa
Who thinks up these things???
ReplyDeleteI frequently purchase torture bits at the local horse auction, just so the local yahoos can't put that crap in their horse's mouth.
ReplyDeleteI've done the same, ClydeMom. A local thrift store whose proceeds all go to a local horse rescue is the place I've found the nasties, long-shanked, rusty, twisted wire bit. I said something to the lady at the store about how discordant it seemed to me. She didn't get it. :(
ReplyDeleteClydeMom and Rachel, you're saints! And building big collections of bits by now, I'll bet.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap! Now the nastiest bit in our barn (a polo curb that came with a horse and was only used about three times) looks like a plain snaffle in comparison with that!
ReplyDeleteIt's almost pretty, except it was made to put in a horse's mouth!
ReplyDeleteI think it should be used on an equally delicate part of its creator/designer, and then let them reconsider its architecture.
The only thing worse sometimes is the description in th catelog and how they go about trying to sell it. Makes it sound like a fix all. Which it might for a short time, but then what?
ReplyDeleteWhat in BLUE BLAZES???
ReplyDeleteIt's probably meant to "soften" a horse. Ugh. Not only is it inherently and unredeemably cruel, but that mouthpiece would bend & break pretty quickly.
@ ClydeMom: I've done the same thing! I liberated this little gem from my local tack shop:
ReplyDeletehttp://tackytackoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/10/screwed-up.html
My mouth hurts ... and my horse would run away screaming if I came into the barn with that. I don't think any horse needs a bit like that!!
ReplyDelete