Re: Snaffle Snaffoo

[Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com]

Jasmine Cave <toppere@siu.edu> said:

> ...Miller's carries richard shrake bits that are
> made of black iron, including snaffles...

I don't dispute that you can find sweet iron snaffles. I see
them in western catalogs all the time.  But does Miller's
show them in their *english* catalog?  The point I am
making here is that there seems to be a kind of cultural
segregation on sweet iron.  The English-style folks seem
to have gravitated instead to all the various "German silver"
blends.

(Richard Shrake, by the way, is a marvelous
lecturer.  I heard him at the Northeast Horseman's Conference
this past February and he had many, many interesting
insights on bit action useful to all disciplines.)

> I ride in a double bridle for
> dressage so I have a aurigan single jointed loose ring bradoon and a
> stainless steel medium port sliding cheek weymouth which is a true curb.
> When on trails I use an "s" hackamore. When doing saddle seat I use a
port
> pelham which has loose rings for the snaffle rein.

You should really try using your dressage weymouth (or whatever
combinations of snaffle and curb bits in a full bridle rigging)
when you ride saddleseat. Trying to use a pelham to set up a
horse is like trying to do surgery with a butter knife.  The
ability to use the sensitive actions of the bits independently
is critical.  In a pelham, it's like my horse feels he has
to choose to respond to either the curb or the snaffle action.
With a full bridle, I get very distinctly different reactions
with each bit and can blend them very subtley to create just
the effect needed.  In comparison, using a pelham when doing
serious work feels like trying to play a piano in mittens!
And a pelham is *never* acceptable in the show ring.

> All good western
> trainers start a horse in either a snaffle or a bosal, then graduating
the
> horse to a short shanked curb that also has a snaffle ring, then to a
> "true" curb, than hopefully to a spade. The snaffle has always been used
on
> the western set and most english bits like elevators, gags, and pelhams
> came from western designs.

I am going to have to disagree here, on two points.  Although
it is now common practise to start a western horse on a snaffle,
I do not believe that this was "always" so.  I might be wrong,
but I think that this is something that has grown up over the
last 30 years.

That most English bits like elevators, gags, and pelhams came
from western designs is simply not true.  I might be convinced
on the elevator:  this is a design that I have only recently
seen come into use on English bits, and then only on jumpers.
But gags and pelhams have been around, in use, on "english style"
horses since at least before the turn of the century.

I would, however, concede entirely that the english-style
hackamore was taken entirely from western designs.

Moreover, I would agree that people who ride English style and
who want to have more control with just one rein, but who
can't quite bring themselves to go for a curb might do well
to check out all these new jumper bits that *are* very similar
to bits originally developed, in more recent times, as western
training bits.

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Linda_Merims@ne.3com.com
Massachusetts, USA



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