Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

With all this talk about which bit or head piece to use, we are losing sight of 
the real problem, ie, your horse needs more and better training.  Many are 
horrified that anyone, especially someone in our sport, would put a tiedown on a 
horse that cranked its nose almost to its chest.  Sharp, roweled spurs and 
stinging whips don't get much respect either.  How often have we deprecated 
those who would use brute force to get a horse to do what they want?  And what 
of the praise for TTeam work and incorporating dressage into one's training 
schedule?  Someone on this list uses a signature quoting Parelli to the effect 
that if your horse isn't doing what you want, you either asked the wrong 
question or asked it wrong.

Yet here we are talking about "controlling" our horses with various pieces of 
tack.  You can use the euphemism "pressure" if you want but we all know that 
when sufficient pressure is applied, it's called PAIN.

I'm not speaking from a holier than thou position.  When my first Endurance 
horse started tossing his head, I put him in a running martingale so I could 
leverage his head down when he did that.  Then he started running through the 
snaffle so I put him in a low port curb.  Next he started rooting with the bit 
so I switched to a hackamore.  Today I ride with both a snaffle and a mechanical 
hackamore as my back up brakes (that's the one with the red reins).  So I too 
have, and do, resort to brute force when I don't have the time to do the right 
thing... which is improve my horse's training and/or discover why we are having 
a problem communicating.

We are fortunate that God gives us summers too hot or winters too wet and icy to 
compete in.  It is our opportunity to spend time TRAINING our horses and not 
just lay them off for a few months, only to come back to the same old problems 
the next ride season.  So go ahead and use whatever you need for now but do not 
lose sight of the fact that you are not solving a problem.  You are just 
glossing over it.


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