Re: Running Martingales

[Fadaar@aol.com]

I have to agree with you - as well as my dressage instuctor.  When my horse
was young, I needed a running martingale so that I was able to stop him - hard
to stop a horse at full blast with his head up in the air avoiding the bit,
especially when you are only 13 years old.  Anyway, after a year of so with
the running martingale, he didn't put his head up anymore and I was able to go
back to a gentle snaffle.  Now that my horse is almost 20 and I am 28 I have
been taking dressage lessons from a member of the German Riding Federation and
he says that a top level horse should still be able to perform advanced
movements in a gentle snaffle.  In fact he says that a horse is only truely
schooled when they can do this.  If you watch some of the Grand Prix level
horses, however, you will see the rider leaning slightly back because they are
pulling with everything they have to control their horse.  My horse can do
third level dressage movements in a sidepull.  But in order to get to this
point we had to use a running martingale.  When I asked for new, challanging
things he tried to evade the bit for a while.  Now that he understands what I
want - it isn't really necessary but I ride with it anyway because if I don't
need it isn't in the way.  Granted I have never fininished and endurance race
I have completed thousands of miles of competitive trail on this horse and the
martingale was never a hazard for myself or for any of the others I competed
against.  I will be using a running martingale on my new horse when she is old
enough to ride to avoid some of the problems I had when my other horse was
young.  It weighs next to nothing and if fitted properly, will not cause any
problems when tripping.

I don't think it is fair to compare standing to running martingales.  Standing
margingales are not a training device but just a way to prevent a horses head
from going above a certain altitude.  A running martingale simply allows you
to keep the same leverage regardless of where your horse's nose is at.  I
agree that a standing martingale is nothing but a death trap.  When a horse is
tripping they need to be able to put their nose forward to get their balance -
a standing martingale will not allow this.

Rita