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mechanical hacks have varying degrees of control. Some have padded leather nosebands and short shanks. Others have bicycle chain wrapped in something with long shanks.

 

The more severe the nose piece and longer the shanks, the more severe the control. When you pull on the reins of a hack, you are pinching the nose, squeezing the chin with the curb chain and putting pressure on the poll. The harder you pull, the more pressure.

 

There are some English hacks, most hackamores are used for western style riding with neck reining, loose reins and just light pressure to ask for a whoa.

 

with any shanked bit orhackamore, you can add 10 pounds of pressure for every inch of shank. If you put 10 pounds of pressure on the reins riding with a loose ring snaffle, your horse feels 10 pounds of pressure on the corners of his mouth. Add 4 inches of shank, and you get 40 pounds of pressure on each side with the same 10 pounds of pressure with your hands.

 

the hackamore exerts that pressure on the bridge of the nose, a bit exerts that pressure on the mouth.

 

One is not necessarily kinder or gentler than the other. It's just another piece of equipment that is great in the right hands and torturous in the wrong ones.

 

I had a Morgan gelding who never knew a bit in his mouth. I always rode him in a mechanical hackamore. It had a braided leather noseband which put its severity somewhere in the middle between the bike chain ones and the padded ones. No good reason why he was always in a hack. My ex husband trained the horse that way and I never changed it. We got along well. I've got other horses who hate the pressure on the nose and feel trapped with it.

 

It's another case of doing what's right for the horse.

 

And I would NOT use a tiedown or martingale with a hackamore or bitless bridle. Ugh... I think these have a propensity to make a horse feel trapped by the equipment and tying their heads down will only make it worse.

 

chris

Kristen A Fisher <kskf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> So can you explain why the mechanical hackamore give more control? I have 
> seen a lot of people use them and know they have some leverage, but don't 
> have a good idea of how they work.
>
> Kristen

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

 

Chris Paus

BayRab Acres http://pages.prodigy.net/paus

Lake Region SWA  http://lakeregionswa.fws1.com