From: Pip
Hi Jessica:
Yes its me again. Technical question this time. Long as usual
I have discovered with all three of my arabs that they seem to prefer the broken pelham over a regular snaffle. I don't use the curb rein very much, especially on the babies where it just hangs unused, I'm not trying to put them in a 'frame' (egads, what a horrific term that has come to be), just create softness and happiness in the mouth. The broken pelham his nice because you essentially ride on the snaffle anyway. I just tried Wilfred in it (its an old nickel bit I've had for years and its very smooth and narrow in its profile,not thickness!-by the way its NOT an Uxeter or Kimberwick bit, its a regular pelham, with a snaffle mouth), and he loves it.
I've been battling with a snaffle on him for a while - and he was better with the french link (I assumed he had the same low palatte problem that his brother has), but still fussy, chewy, leaning on it, and generally getting heavier and heavier. I don't want to be hanging on his young mouth , but I also don't want him to learn to ignore the bit! Seems that he's been so busy messing with the bit that when I try to communicate something to him he either ignores me, or is so preoccupied that he really doesn't listen.
Yesterday I put him in the pelham and he was fabulous! quiet in the mouth, content, no chewing, responsive, light, but not afraid to take the contact and move forward. Like a different horse. We were able to work on balance through the corners, leg aids and other stuff without worrying about his fussing with his mouth.
the only logical reason I can put this down to, since the actual bit is the same shape in the mouth, is the fact that the pelham hangs from bridle, whereas the snaffle rests on the bars of the mouth. Is this a correct assumption? I'm thinking that the pelham takes the pressure off his mouth and lets the bit just hang, supported by the bridle, rather than lying right on his mouth. He is so 'anti' pressure and tends to lean into, rather than move away from, any kind of pressure, that his automatic response to the feel of the snaffle is to lean against it. With the pelham he just responded to it normally and didn't seem to care.
Of course I can't compete in dressage in the pelham, but have been thinking about alternatives, since the curb bit isn't really where I want to be. Baucher snaffles are not legal in Canada so I can't use that approach, but I wondered (at the suggestion of a friend) about a full cheek snaffle - with the keepers - that might rotate the bit a little and perhaps relieve the pressure on the bars of the mouth.
The pelham in profile, if you cut it in half, has a sort of D shape to id, with the flat part of the D resting on the tongue (due probably to its old age and wear!) so its a ver! neat!
If the horses are happier with the pelham than the snaffle, there could be several reasons for it; since you are using jointed mouthpieces in both cases, we won't get into a mouthpiece discussion this time. ;-) Compare the size of the mouthpieces, though -- perhaps the one in the Pelham simply fits better!
A more likely answer, though, may be the placement of the bit in the horse's mouth. Most people adjust a pelham so that it just touches the corners of the horse's mouth (which is correct) -- and most people adjust a snaffle so that it makes wrinkles in the lips (which is NOT correct!). Try using your snaffle bit again, but adjusting it so that it, too, just touches the corners of the horse's mouth. A bit that constantly pulls against the horse's lips will annoy that horse, no matter WHAT the mouthpiece is like. You may find that the horse is quite happy in the snaffle when the bit no longer pulls agains the horse's mouth, and when the horse can move the bit easily with its tongue.
It would be good to find an alternative to the pelham! I find that Arabians (and some Saddlebreds), because of their conformation, learn all too quickly to break behind the poll and tuck in behind their bits -- and once learned, that habit is a dreadfully hard one to break.
Why are Baucher snaffles illegal in Canada? They are very nice bits, and many horses are more comfortable in them than they are in conventional snaffles. I know that the Baucher isn't available with a very thick mouthpiece, but most Arabians can't handle a very thick mouthpiece anyway.
If you want to experiment with a full cheek and keepers, try to find a Fulmer snaffle rather than the kind of lightweight full-cheek snaffle one tends to see in the hunter ring.
I think that the bottom line, so to speak, is that whether the horse is getting fussy and playing with the bit or ducking behind it or leaning into it, the answer is always the same -- find a bit that doesn't cause physical discomfort to the horse, and then worry less about what's going on in front of you than what's going on underneath and behind you. When we think about bits and bitting, we tend to become very preoccupied with our horses' heads and necks, and we forget that what we NEED to do is ride them forward from behind so that they can learn to carry themselves. You'd be amazed to see how many "bit problems" are actually self-carriage problems, and how quickly the horse can "accept" a bit when it is ridden forward from behind.
Rather than go to a pelham, which is counter-productive for early dressage training, I suggest that you go to a jumping hackamore or a simple sidepull! You can work on everything just as before, without being concerned with your horse's reaction to what is in his mouth. And if you find that you have some of the same difficulties even when there is NOTHING in his mouth, that will be very valuable information.
Good luck, and keep me posted!
-Jessica
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