Gagavator

Does that not sound like the perfect name for this thing? Mikmar's new invention looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. The mouthpiece, though substantial and somewhat overkill, does not appear THAT severe, but dang, if that sucker goes in the horse's mouth like I think it does, can we say jawbreaker? 

Here is a copy of their description...

A "BEST SELLER" for Barrels and Gymkhana. The Mikmar Short Shank Gagavator is a quicker activating bit that allows the rider a quick pick up and release ride. It is excellent for lifting the shoulders and lightening. Works well for developing bend and flexibility. It encourages flexion, collection and good control. It discourages the horse from leaning and pulling, with excellent rate or half halt. A nice tool for helping the horse transfer weight to the hind quarters, and getting underneath himself for better turns. The Sweet Iron mouthpiece pacifies a busy -mouthed horse and keeps the mouth moist and soft.

The Short Shank Gagavator offers more poll pressure and stop than the Two and Three Ring styles. Works well for all level horses. We recommend using a leather curb strap for bit stability.

Oh wait, I just noticed they sell a LONG shanked one too... 

The Mikmar Long Shank Gagavator offers stronger Poll pressure and more control for those needing it. Works well for stronger level horses. We recommend using a leather curb strap for bit stability.

Yikes. Forget teaching your horse to stop, or carry themselves, or collect. Just slap one of these on and problem solved!!  Click http://www.mikmar.com/bit-pages/gagavators-PS.html to see a video of how they fit/work. And yep, they do go on like I thought. Add curb strap and holy cow. 

This shit ought to be illegal...

Found this website linked from FHOTD, they show a couple of pics of the bits on the blog, but I thought I would post some of them here too. These are some real pieces of work here.

The website raves about how wonderful these things are for starting horses. Starting what? Ruining them? The links on the chain mouth ones have the links welded together in three sections. Are you kidding? This would lacerate the bars of the mouth and the tongue if used too roughly, oh and lets add a gag action and a curb chain too, just to make it a bit better. And ooh! What if we made GAG bridles with them? Then we could tear up their lips too!

You know, it IS possible to...

...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.

Epic Bit Fail to Bit WIN

Um, ouch. This bit is an example of types commonly found in use in India. There has been a large push for donated bits to be sent there and introduced to the locals. Details can be found here... http://friendsofmarwari.org.uk/pages/page9.html I think this is a wonderful idea and applaud the group for taking the step in education and outreach. I wish more knowledgeable horse people would do it.

No substitute.

I know this is an old topic, but some readers sent me some pics that have me riled up again.

I am so sick of seeing crap like this for sale. There is absolutely NO NEED for this. None. For crying out loud, just TRAIN YOUR DAMN HORSE! Stop shoving these beartraps on their faces and using them in a futile effort to "fix" your horse's issues. Sure, it will stop him, for a little while. Then what? Move on to a bigger bit? What happens when you run out of bigger bits? You going to throw him away and get another horse to screw up? You should need a license to purchase shit like this, or preferably, it shouldn't even be sold.

This next one is a gag bit, on top of the long shanks and twisted wire mouthpiece, it can use a gag action as well as the massive leverage the shanks can already exert.

I am not anti-bit, I am anti-cruelty and anti-stupid. I know bits are tools for training, and aids in communication. Different horses need different bits, some don't need any at all. It just depends. But no horse really needs to have it's face ripped up by some ignorant dolt with some contraption that someone at the feed store told them would "sure stop that horse, yes sir". I just wish that more people could be educated on this topic, and that more people could understand the need for proper training and patience with their horses.

What the hell?

Has anyone ever seen one of these before? What the hell kind of snaffle bit is this supposed to be? I have seen double mouthpieces, but never triple, and never spaced out like this. I cannot imagine actually using this on a horse, and how effective would it be? For that matter, what kind of effect are you going for?

Yikes

OK, I can see that the curb chain is supposed to be on the other side of the rings, opposite the mouthpiece. That being said, could anyone care to explain this contraption? This is an Icelandic bit, I know that much, but good heavens, it's weird looking.

Torture Device Tuesday

Wow, check out this bear trap. Geesh folks, really? WHY would you even contemplate putting this on your horse? If it needs this much hardware on its face to control it, perhaps you should reconsider this whole thing and TRAIN YOUR HORSE. *shakes head in amazement* I just do not understand how anyone can look at this and think, "Hey, that would work great on Ol' Dobbin! I am gonna get me one of those!" This looks kind of like a home made jobbie to me, I have never seen anything like this in a catalog or store.

Proof

Ya'll have to go over to Fugly Horse of the Day and have a read. Watch the video. See, you DON'T need a ton of hardware to ride even a high energy, speed event horse. The video is awesome, a roping horse, being ridden bridleless. Sometimes I don't agree with Fugs, but on this, I am totally in accord.

Torture Device Thursday

OMGWTF!!?? You have got to be kidding. Not available in the US? I should hope not. This is a Charro Scissors Training bit that a reader sent me the eBay auction for. Here is the ad text.

"This is a one of a kind charro tijera (scissors) training bit that you can not get in the US.
The bit is absolutly great for those of you who want to train their horse for driving jumping reining ecc....ecc..
No limits to this one.
For long time even here in Mexico forgotten but we found one family who still makes them. This is as well a piece of art
You invest now a little bit more money in this training bit but you will have 75 % less training costs thats for sure.
You will be suprised how your horse gets trained with this bit in no time.
Forget about your snaffle bits, colt bits , ring and shank snaffel bits.
This Mexican bit beats them all and you will never find anything better."

We can see that English is not our first language. I like how they say that you can forget about regular training bits. So, you just tack up your greenie for the first ride and shove this thing in their mouth and 75% of your training is done? Wow, really? And you get the broken jaw for free!

Can you imagine the amount of leverage this thing applies?

I will never understand this.

There is this strange need in the horse world to have a nifty gadget to make our horses do what we want. Some piece of magic hardware to fix every training issue you can imagine. This item, the Mikmar Flexion Combination bit claims to fix all of your "headset" problems and improve collection and balance. Really? I was under the impression that you achieved collection through training and that you achieved a "headset" through collection. Silly me, I have been putting all that effort in for nothing! I could just go spend nearly $200 on this little gem and skip all of that! Genius!

Heck, I am not entirely sure I could figure out how to attach this contraption to my horse!

What the hell is THIS?

I ran across this while tooling around online. It is supposedly a reproduction/reinvention of Renaissance era classical dressage bits. I think it is just a bit much myself. Do the shanks REALLY need to be that long? I admit, it's neat looking, but it still seems a bit much to me.

Still doing better, had counseling last night, going back in a week. Starting to get things packed up and beginning the search for a new place. Wish me luck, you can never tell exactly what a place will be like from photos online, they look fab in the pics, then when you get there, there are broken down cars, loitering people, and trash everywhere. You just never know...

Screwed Up

Today I have a couple of bits sent to me by readers. The first one is a bit someone found in a tack shop that she rescued the local horses from. It looks homemade, but alas, it turns out that you can buy a shiny new one from Reinsman bits. Rod's even sells it with a warning label on their site "use with extreme care". Snort, really?









And, in case the snaffle isn't sufficently horrible, you can buy a curb version.





It makes me sad for the horses of the world.

Cranky

Crank nosebands and Rollkur. Two words that will send dressage aficionados at each others throats in record time. However, no matter how you look at it this IS NOT GOOD FOR THE HORSE! Look at this fellow, see the nice pad under the buckle of his noseband? That should not be necessary. A properly adjusted cavesson should still be loose enough for the horse to relax his jaw. This fellow cannot, its a wonder he can even FEEL his nose with that thing cranked that tight. The whole point in the crank is to render the horse unable to resist the extreme pull on the reins, flexing his neck into this unnatural position. Now, I have NO ISSUE with a full double bridle, heck I use one myself on my old mare, but this is just not acceptable. They have these horses so hyperflexed their noses are nearly on their chests. Oh, and check out the angle of the shanks on the curb of the second one, that's not right. Also notice his eye, you can see the conjunctiva he is so strained. This causes a myriad of issues, both for the horse and for the sport itself. There is a very interesting site called Sustainable Dressage, the author very concisely explains and illustrates the effects of various pieces of tack, how they work, and how Rollkur affects the horse's body.

Torture Device Tuesday

A reader sent me this photo, I was appalled at the amount of headgear on this horse. He is wearing a drop noseband with a rope nosepiece, a gag, draw reins, a standing martingale, and check out the blood on his mouth! Geesh, overkill much? I understand Polo ponies are hot, but do you really need to bloody their mouth to control them? Also, that noseband looks perilously close to cutting off his air.

Bonus Post

In apology for missing a couple of days, here is a bonus post!

All I can say is, "What. The. Hell."

Why? This is sold as a mule bit. I know mules, they don't need something like this any more than a horse does. They are NOT stupid, stubborn, or untrainable. People are so ignorant sometimes.

TDT Guest Blog

Today we have a guest blog! This is an email I recieved from Kelsey, a reader who saw something odd about the horse on the cover of her Dover saddlery catalog. Here is what she has to say...

I got the new 'Elite Hunter/Jumper Edition' of the Dover Catalog today. There is a nice looking hunter on the front cover, but when you look closer, his gear is a bit much, even for a cross country type hunt on a large horse.The horse is in a pelham and breastplate, which is very common hunt gear. However, someone has added not only a running martingale but also a puller type noseband (a new version of the Kineton, I can't remember what they're called). A pelham and a Kineton, PLUS a mart? WTF? Just the idea of a curb type bit and anything like a Kineton is nuts.I ride my large draft X mare XC in a basic dee ring and standard noseband, and she is QUITE fresh in open country. This bay looks a lot like her other than color.I have attached a couple scans of the cover. I know they want to sell tack, but that much on one horse? Yikes!(the Dressage cover was just as bad (Steffen Peters & Ravel), but people seem to think its ok for a curb bit to be at nearly a right angle to the horse's lip line, ugh)



Here is a scan of the whole cover...








Here is a closeup of the horse's head...

Torture Device Tuesday

For today's edition, I am turning once again to the TWH world. This particular bit has 10 inch shanks and a gag mouthpiece. It comes in a variety of mouthpieces as well, you can choose from; small twisted wire, tiny sweet iron twisted wire, twisted wire, chain or small smooth mouth. Depending on how badly you want to cut your horse's tongue up. Again, I am amazed at the variety of ways people can invent torture your horse. I am sure these feel great with some great huge lump of a person hanging on to the shanks for dear life.

Torture Device Tuesday

Today I have a bit that I had thought extinct, a relic of a more barbaric practice of "controlling" horses. The bit that I speak of is commonly known as a "Spanish" ring bit. Now, this is not a ring snaffle we are talking about here, this is a style of bit that was used from the middle ages up through Spanish Colonial times and into the 20th Century. Here is an illustration of a 16th century piece.





Here is an extant piece from the Spanish colonial era...







Bits like this were created to control war stallions, they exert huge amounts of leverage and can literally crush a horse's jaw if used with a heavy hand. For those who are unfamiliar with the way one of these functions, let me explain. The bit is placed in the horses mouth with ring encircling the lower jaw in place of a curb chain. I always thought them a relic of a bygone age, but alas, as with so many things in the horse world, I found that these things are still being made and used. These photos were sent to me by a reader, the bit pictured was (currently SOLD OUT, is that not disturbing?) available for purchase and can be ordered custom made to your specs.













Not only is it not a particularly well made piece, but it lacks the graceful lines and the tongue relief (however small) that the antique pieces offer. It is an ugly piece of work no matter how you look at it. It makes me sad because I KNOW that there are yahoos out there using this thing improperly.

Torture Device Tuesday

Now, I don't know for sure, but this fellow does not look too comfortable. I know very little about harness racing, but this sure looks like a lot of hardware on this guy. I can see that the blinders are operated on pulleys so they can be engaged or disengaged according to the situation. I get that, really. But I cannot for the life of me figure out what all that hardware in his mouth is meant to do. Anyone care to explain for the rest of the class?