I don't understand the phrase "rely on the martingale".
Properly adjusted, when the horse has his head in the right place, there should
be no contact with the martingale except for the weight of the rings on the
reins. For a horse ridden on contact with 1-2 lbs of pressure in the rein,
I don't think they could feel the weight of the martingale. If ridden on a
loose rein, the weight of the reins is heavier than the weight of the
martingale. It should only engage when the horse flings its head in the
air and act as pressure on the head to resume the normal
carriage.
Having
said that, mine darn well know when its not on and will happily fling head in a
fit of pique. So from that point of view, they do know when its there/not
there. One of my endurance horses is schooling Third Level (read, through,
forward, accepting of the bit, truly collected and MOSTLY submissive) and his
favorite method of evasion is still to fling his head in the air and do that
Arab corkscrew thing. We may only reach that point once in an hour of
schooling, but I still don't want his face in my face! I'm the one that
ends up with the black eye, not him!
Alison A. Farrin Innovative Pension Innovative Retirement
Services 858-748-6500 x 107 alison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message----- From:
ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Drin Becker Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 9:45
AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC]
Martingales
Charlene wrote
"That again is
only ones opinion. In my opinion and experience....Running martingales don't
work well with the S hack and it is not teaching your horse...... they learn
to rely on them. They have a constant downward pull then to the
hands."
Once I am assured my colts will not drop their
heads and go to bucking on me I put all of them in a running martingale with a
snaffle . I usually ride them in one for a year or two and then take it off , I
have never had one learn to rely on the martingale , all I have ever had it do
is help teach them control/collection . To me it taught them good habits from
the start , 99 % of my riding is on trails and in rough country not arena riding
. But like you said , this is just one persons opinion .
