July Trainer Tip “It Pays To Be Curious”

Misreading your horse can be absolutely one of the biggest setbacks in your training timetable. One of the most common misreads is that of bit selection. In the first trainer tip I outlined the use of latex to soften up a snaffle for those horses that have tender bars. Sometimes even more important is the “scissoring” effect that single jointed snaffles have on some horses. This scissoring is the clamp like effect that occurs when a snaffle is pulled more or less evenly back in a horse’s mouth. It is, at times, very intense. Try it on yourself by putting the snaffle over your wrist or arm and pulling both sides. Even with a latex wrap, this squeeze can be so objectionable to your horse that his/her mouth is never comfortable.

What brought this tip to mind was a seminar that I just completed in Michigan where I was presented with a horse that had a definite problem with wanting to go forward to the bridle. Even on a loose rein, this horse would occasionally go up in the air when asked to go forward. When he did get to the bridle, he seemed acceptant to the point that he would go forward. However, he would never really “commit” himself willingly to the bridle and he continued to be resentful over the use of my legs. The bit that was being used was a full cheek smooth snaffle that was already lightly wrapped with latex. By using some of the leg aid techniques that I was presenting at the seminar this horse did make some progress, but it was so inconsistent that the horse remained confusing to me after two sessions of riding. His responses were somewhat typical to that of a horse which has suffered with a mouth that continually hurts, yet he wasn’t cut or bruised in any way. Finally I opted to change snaffles to a short shanked, unwrapped, Bristol, with no curb strap. This bit would enable me to contact each side of his mouth in a different manner, as well as utilize a small amount of poll pressure. I was hopeful, yet skeptical as to whether this would work. What I intended to do was speed up his response time towards “rotating” his head (which a multiple jointed snaffle can help with) so that he could free up his jaw and come off of the bridle quicker. I was skeptical that he would accept any unwrapped bit as it might be too severe.

Right after I made the switch the horse immediately began to rotate his head in a lateral move in a much quicker manner. As soon as this occurred, he began to accept his leg aids much more receptively as well. Not believing the amount of progress that had been made in a relatively few minutes, I switched back to the original wrapped full cheek that had been used. Absolutely as soon as I had done this the horse immediately reverted to the same behavior as before. (Yet this bit was theoretically milder than the Bristol that he liked.) I again immediately switched back to the Bristol to see if he would “come back” to his comfort zone. He did in an amazingly quick time period. This horse also continued to make significant progress.

At the time I explained this change of attitude by attributing it to quicker head rotation. (Which did occur.) Upon reflection, however, I can attribute most of his improvement to the diminished scissoring effect of a Bristol type snaffle. “Reading” your horse can be said to be an art, however, careful observation of each horse that you work can help you to categorize them. I like to come up with a few words that seem to apply to each horse as soon as I can. Words such as “slow”, “lazy”, “meek”, “worrier”, etc. help me formulate what kind of approach that I will take. Of course, these words are subject to change as soon as I find out new things about each horse. I try to not let physical size play to big of an initial role in the assignment of these descriptive terms as so often I find a large, strong horse that has been mischaracterized and treated as if he will train like a “big guy” and will accept being pushed, when in actuality he is big, strong, and timid. Understand as well that with problem behavior, the behavior that is presented is almost always caused by some other factor that is “up a level”. For example, a horse that kicks at the whip can have that behavior as a learned response to being touched by a whip, but his problem probably stems from being locked in the bridle and then being hit with a whip. ( Being locked in the bridle causes horses to panic and think that they are trapped). In this case, in order to effectively deal with this problem, the correct “read” of being trapped in the bridle will save countless hours of frustration and misery for both horse and rider.

This particular horse that I just dealt with did not fit my normal “reads” at all; at times it pays to be curious!

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