CONTROL AND COURTESY

[Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com]

Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>  said:


>...

> A snaffle bit is a bit that is used with direct reining -- that is, the
> reins are attached to bit at the corners of the mouth and not below the
> lips.  The action is on the tongue, the bars, and the corners of the
mouth.
> It doesn't matter if the part inside the mouth is solid or jointed!
>
> A curb bit is ANY bit that uses leverage where the reins are attached at
a
> point below the lips and activating the bit with the reins causes the
> attachment points to come back towards you...the bit rotates in the mouth
> and activates the chain or leather under the chin.  It's a bit that is
used
> with indirect reining and acts on the bars, the chin, and the poll...

Permit me to quibble... :-)

If you ride saddleseat, you will use the curb as a direct rein.

However, it is true that even in saddleseat, 90% of your *steering*
is going to be done with your snaffle and the curb only gets
into the direct act a bit.  In this style of riding, the curb's
primary purpose is to create flexion.  If you're in the show ring
trying to slow your horse down with your curb, you're in big
trouble!

In recent years, the pelham has become a woefully neglected bit
in the US.  Prior to the late 1960s, they were very popular in both
saddleseat and hunt seat riding.  The saddleseat riders used them
when they weren't showing as a hacking pleasure bit when the
precision of a full bridle wasn't necessary, and the hunt seat
riders used them when they were actually out doing real live
hunting.

The pelham's proper function is pretty much as described here
today:  a snaffle bit with an emergency brake curb backup.  You
ride exclusively on the snaffle (top rein) with your bottom rein
loose and slightly dangling.  Pulling on the reins activates
just the snaffle.  Only if your horse acts up or starts
getting too strong or pulling a Mr. Toad (great slang!), then
you tighten up the curb rein and bring the horse back to you.
You use any kind of snaffle mouth piece you normally need, plus
as much curb (shank length and curb chain tightness) as the
emergency may require.  I've got an old nickel English
"hunting pelham" I found used that has shanks almost as
long as a saddleseat Tom Bass.

But because riding a horse in a pelham indicated that there
might possibly be times when your horse was less than 100%
controllable and mannerly, some time in the late 1960's the
pelham became unacceptable as a hunter show bit--it had to
be a snaffle, no matter how much the horse pulled!  Somewhere,
the idea crept in that pelhams and curbs were "cruel" and
they disappeared altogether from the hunt seat repertoire.
(At least in the US.  I am given to understand they are
still commonly used in the UK.)  I never have understood why
they fell out of favor with the jump crowd, who lately seem
to have invented an extraordinary variety of mouth gizmos to
avoid putting a pelham or full bridle in their horse's mouth.
Maybe because the jump riders all started out as hunt riders.)

The only rub with the pelham is, of course, two reins.  If
you've been riding with two reins all your life like I have
it's no problem--it's *one* rein that feels funny to me--but I
can see where they would tend to seem a spaghetti pile
if you weren't used to them.  "Adapters" that attach to
the top and bottom rings so that you can attach only one
rein are no answer:  they have been shown to hinder both
the normal snaffle action of a pelham and its emergency brake
curb action, giving the worst of both worlds.

If I had to choose only one rein, I'd probably opt for
the Uxeter Kimberwicke, which is essentially just a very
mild pelham:  bar snaffle with a low port and a very,
very short-shanked curb.  Then I'd fret about which
slot to put the one rein in.

Miscellaneous historical tidbit:  in the 1960's, a "Tom Thumb"
was a very short-shanked rubber mouth bar pelham, very much
like a Kimberwicke in severity.  I havn't seen one in
years.

Linda B. Merims
(and Night Star, who goes in a medium shanked, Mullen mouth
pelham, which means he's a soft-mouthed horse who occassionally
gets very strong ideas!)
lbm@ici.net
Linda_Merims@n3.3com.com
Massachusetts, USA



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