"What is the right bit for a horse that shakes its head and fights the bit?"
A horse that fights the bit has gotten into a habit of that so changing the bit is not going to change that habit.
Fixing A Horse That Fights The Bit
Transcription:
What is the right bit for a horse that shakes its head and fights the bit. Okay. So, this is, earlier I was talking about I wish everybody could just go back and watch one of the videos we posted on a horse called Quincy, that literally was just fighting the bit like this.
You're never going to change that habit by changing a bit. It's a habit. Okay? Take everything out of its mouth and put a snaffle back there. A simple snaffle. If you're going to use a gag, take the bottom rein and put it on the snaffle, on the snaffle ring, of the gag.
So, you effectively make a snaffle in the mouth. Now you've got to go, as I was talking about going back to that one rein stop to balance your horse up. Every time that horse starts to shake it's head, just grab it, and pull, and get it to bend.
Every time, concentrate as it starts. Don't wait for it to do this and then you pull. You're teaching it nothing. It starts doing this and you've bent it already. Now you put i's head back, it goes around the circle. It stops you let go. You ride on. You touch the reins, it starts to shake it's head, you've bend it. Get that head back.
And also remember that if you put a crop in that inside hand, as you bend it, just touch it on the backside, get the backside out.
Because nobody teaches the horses to move their backsides, round the front sides. Okay. And I teach that before I move the front side around the backside in a roll back.
Because the minute you get that backside out, you get the host turning like it's on a railway track, that the hindquarters and the shoulders are traveling on a track following each other round.
Otherwise it's always got its backside in, and it's fighting the bit, and it's throwing its shoulder down. No, get that shoulder back. And if it's still fighting you, just touch it on the backside, get it out.
Now it puts its head in. The minute it stops, drop the rein. You're not going to change it with a bit. Get the habit gone, because then the habits gone.
Now you can look to the bit. So, that's my biggest takeaway with this. And I'm asked this time, and time, and time again. And we've just got to get that video where everybody's watching it, because you will not cure that habit by changing a bit, you will not.
So, you've got to go back to that one rein stop. Go back to that suppling exercise, were from a standstill, first you teach the horse to suppling where, when you touch it, it'll put it's head back there.
Now you go, and it starts to fight you, just bend it. And the minute it goes back and gets soft, you get soft. And I promise you so fast, all of that disappears. So, that, that would be my take on that Rob.
Super Gav. Okay, cool. I hope you guys have been paying attention to that, because the bitting is one of the things that we get asked the most questions about.
And 100% you have to pay attention to your bitting, and understand what the bits do, and how they work and how they operate. But most of the solutions to the questions we get asked about bitting, actually are not bitting problem related. It's actually a training issue or a medical issue.
So, you've got to be paying attention to the other things, the training of the horse, and not just thinking about the bit as the solution to solve your problems. It absolutely plays a part in your horses performance, and getting, you know, the right bits that the horse is comfortable in is important, but make sure you're paying proper attention to the training of your horse and, and to its care and making sure that it's teeth are done, and it's feet are done, and all those extra little things.
And, and that's, you know, part of the Academy is, you know, we've, we've split it up into five sort of pillars. And obviously this stick work in there is one of the pillars and strategy is another pillar, but two of the other pillars are 'Better Riding' because your riding always makes a difference.
You know, if you are someone who's holding onto a horse's mouth the whole time, it's probably going to start doing something like shaking its head. So, your riding is super important. And then the other pillar is 'Better Horses and Horse Training'.
And there's just more and more content that we putting in under horse training. And it's really something that you should be paying attention to. And we've got the lessons there in the Academy.
