Re: RC: Re:CONTROL AND COURTESY

[Dave & Abby Bloxsom <cyclone@snet.net>]

> << .. my trainer and I fiddled around for awhile and
>  discovered that he goes best in a pelham.  Not my first
>  choice, but he likes it and I can use it.  Doesn't make
>  much sense, but it works. >>
> 
> I rode for years on various horses with a short-shanked Hartwell pelham--it
> has loose shanks and a solid mild port mouthpiece.  Every horse I've used it
> on seemed EXTREMELY comfortable with it.  

I've had the same kind of result with an egg butt mullen mouth snaffle. 
I've never found a horse (YET) that didn't go beautifully in it.  When I
was a kid and we rode shetland ponies, the mullen mouth was de rigeur. 
Then as the horses got bigger I was instructed I should use a jointed
snaffle, since the other was "a beginner bit" ... well in the end, after
fighting with a high-headed Arab mare for 20+ years, I discovered that
there was a reason for her carriage.  (What Heidi said before about the
joint hitting the horse in the palate)  

So I went right out & got me a horse-sized mullen mouth, and haven't
ever gone back.  I can do my lower level dressage stuff in it with a
more than willing horse, and can even stop the fussy one.  I do think
that palate pressure is probably the most under-recognized cause of
training problems that I see. (used to be saddle fit problems, but
that's getting better <g>)

BTW, the 20+ year-old mare went round for the first time in her life in
a mullen mouth.  It fixed what trainer after trainer had missed for a
long time!

-Abby B


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