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Bit by Bit  As I was leaving the office, I was overwhelmed with a deep craving for being at zen, in peace.. that flow of synchronized movement when the horse beneath you extends his right leg, then left, then right again. My favorite of those moments comes after an extensive training session, when I loosen the reins, and IB instantly stretches his neck as he walks forward. My training session last night though was less than stellar. IB was nervously agitated with the noise when a chopper passed over a couple of times, but more so, he was bothered with the bit my trainer and I used on him for the past few weeks. IB had 2 habits that I had to work around: Nº1) A habit of biting over the bit, securing it between his teeth, & putting his weight forward in full-speed. And Nº2) Being the proud Arab he is, he always always wants to stick his head up and high - not matter what the demands of the sports were. Previously, I had him on a full cheek bit, I rode him with constant "playing with my fingers on the rein" to lower his head, but that didn't cut it for him anyway, he's quite stubborn, so I moved to a HappyMouth pelham bit, and instead of the chain, I had a rubber band covered with cloth bandage for softness under his chin. My trainer rides fine with this one, but not me. I seem to struggle (& the horse too) on the forward -he's too engaged with the bit, and I; too engaged with the lowering of the neck, and activity of the hinds. Neither one of us is happy with the other, and neither one of us getting the maximum out of the training session. So instead of pondering in perplexity forever, I decided to revert back to a snaffle full cheek with rolling beads -like the one below- If he bites on the metal, the beads will roll, and that will allow me to pull the reins.  I look forward to my experiment this weekend ;p & if you have any bit suggestions, please fire away x Labels: Pony Tales $5 in my moola box | link | email this post |
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