Tag Archives for half halt

The DQ Invades the Hunter Fun Show…And Has a Blast!

Go Ike!

Go Ike!

So everyone knows that we’ve been rather unfortunate with our off-the-farm experiences lately.  Every time we try to go somewhere, it rains, and rains, and rains.  Well, the curse has been lifted!  This past Friday, Ike and I headed to Hill Top Stables (http://hilltopstablesva.com/) to ride in their Friday afternoon fun show.  The show included command classes, hunter flat classes, hunter over fences, western pleasure, and games.  There was something for everyone.  I perused their prize list and determined that there were three classes that we could enter.  No, pole bending and barrel racing were not one of our selections.

We arrived right after the gates opened to provide Ike a good hour to walk around, calm down, and giraffe his neck.  Turns out, we needed all that time.  You were allowed to warm up in the competition arena.  The jumps for the hunter over fences classes were already set.  Each was creatively decorated:  Halloween ghosts and garland on one, beach toys and a boogie board on another.  Let’s just say that Ike was a bit worried about these obstacles.  “Um, Mom, why are there things in the arena?  We don’t have stuff like this at the other shows.”  My Hackney giraffe huffed and puffed as we walked by each one.  Shoulder in was my best friend to help guide Ike past each one.

It was a good thing that I’d asked Ms. C to meet us at the show.  Just about the time she arrived was the time that the other riders started jumping…”OMG, Mom, why are these horses flying???!!!”  And if one of the horses happened to rub a rail or knock one down?  Ike would panic.  In his panic, we almost took down one of the standards.  Poor sheltered dressage horse.  Ms. C helped tame the fears with Mrs. Pastures cookies and reassuring words.  She also gave me some pointers on how to ride Ike like a hunter horse.  I must sadly admit that I’ve never ridden the hunters and have no idea what they want.  Ike and I tried our best to follow Ms. C’s instructions, but every time I’d give Ike a little more rein, someone would rub a rail and off we’d go.  We finally decided to be done with warm up and let Ike stand and watch until it was time for our first class.

First up, the Senior Command Class.  Basically Simon Says on Horseback.  The judge had the class walk, next rising trot, then extend your trot, and then back to walk.  What came next?  Canter.  Thank goodness we’d been schooling our walk-canter transitions and trot lengthening at home.  Then it was back to trot, then walk and reverse.  The next command caught me off guard.  There we were walking and we heard, “Hand gallop, please, hand gallop.”  Uh, okay.  Ike took a few steps of trot into our “gallop.”  Thankfully I remembered to ride in two point which is rather challenging in a dressage saddle.  And even more thankfully, the judge asked for trot rather than walk.  We then had to halt, perform a rein-back, and then trot and line up.  As the announcer called the placings, our number was called for second place.  Go Ike!

We had a short break before our second class-  Green Rider/Horse Under Saddle.  This was a class for adult amateurs and juniors in their first or second year of showing over fences.  Since we have never shown over fences, we were allowed to enter.  It was a class of 7-8 riders.  Again, the judge asked for walk-canter transitions.  Ike nailed his transitions in both directions.  The canter-walk transitions were not quite perfect, but were okay.  We almost had a collision during the left lead canter since there were two riders walking on the rail and there was a jump just off the rail.  There luckily was a narrow opening between them and the jump and my very loud half halt kept Ike out of the tail of the Thoroughbred.  Of course, this all happened in the direct line of the judge’s view.  We lined up and waited for the judge’s decisions.  “First place goes to number 14, Commanders Eisenhower…”  What?!  No way.  So very proud of my big man. 🙂

Our third and final class was Open Hunter.  Pretty much the same riders as the second class.  Dare I say that Ike was getting tired.  His trot was choppy and we missed our walk-canter transition to the right.  This young dressage horse is not used to cantering laps around the arena – lots of respect for those well conditioned hunter horses that have that stamina and can do it in multiple classes.  When the placings were called, Ike politely received his fourth place ribbon and gave the ribbon lady a nudge with his nose.  I think he was hoping for a candy for all his efforts.  Luckily, Ms. C greeted him with a cookie so all was well in Ike’s world.

It was a great outing that I consider a success.  The sun was out, Ike overcame his fear of flying horses, and he was his usual stellar self when asked to perform.  I think everyone should consider going outside their comfort zone and try something new with their mounts.  Don’t worry that you are the only dressage rider on the biggest horse. Just do it.  You just might find that you have a blast when you take all the performance expectations out of the equation.  When you just relax and enjoy yourself, you will surprise yourself at how well you can do.   Now if I can just remember my own words of wisdom next weekend at our dressage show and get that last qualifying score!

Whoa, That is What a Lengthening Feels Like?

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No, there are no new photos or videos of today’s ride.  The camera stayed in the car; probably a good thing since, yet again, a thunderstorm showed up at the end of my lesson.  Still trying to figure out how I pissed off Mother Nature enough that she’s decided that it should rain almost every time my butt hits the saddle.  I’m predicting a tropical storm or hurricane September 7th and 8th when I try for the last time to get my qualifying score.

For the 45 rain-free minutes of my lesson, Ike was a stellar pupil.  We are continuing to challenge him beyond the Training Level skill set we need for competition.  Why stagnate when there is no reason?  Are we ready to show First or Second Level?  Oh no!  But we will never be ready to compete at those levels if we don’t take the first steps to learning the new skills we will need.

Today’s lesson started with shoulder in to haunches in while tracking in both directions.  I found that shoulder in to the left is easier to the right, but I can more easily move Ike’s haunch to the right.  Go figure.  It is also a challenge to keep the giraffe neck and body in the correct alignment.  How easy it is to overbend that neck…especially for the girl who loves her inside rein a bit too much (I’m a work in progress).

This collected work helped to set up some lovely canter work.  Ike can still get a bit too strong in the hand with the canter.  Speed Racer made an appearance yesterday – no delicate half halt was going to slow down the boy yesterday.  Thank goodness we had none of that today as we worked on trot-canter-trot transitions on a circle.  Ms. C then had us feed off to a trot down the long side of the arena with me asking for the next trot gear.  We knew there was another gear lurking about and today, we found it.  I half halted and rebalanced on the short end and then with the gentlest squeeze of my fingers, I offered my hands forward and POW! the next trot gear revealed itself.  It felt like we were floating on air down the long side.  I honestly squealed with excitement.  Ms. C let us know that we’d found our trot lengthening.  Ah, said the blind girl.  Ohh dear, said the girl who realized she will have to sit that trot at second level.

We managed to again find that fabulous trot in the other direction right before the thunder rumbled and reminded us that we should seek cover.  We finished with a few circles of stretch down walk and trot and quickly headed to the barn.

Ike and I are still in the infancy of our journey, but it is gearing up to be a heck of a ride.  Now time to do some core work so I can keep up with my horse!

Sliding Into Show Weekend

So Mom, can you take my brother to the show this weekend instead of me?

So Mom, can you take my brother to the show this weekend instead of me?

Well here we are.  It is Friday night and I’m finally sitting down to fill you in on our week.  Ike and I had a pretty sane week.  We abandoned leg yields, half pass, and counter canter and refocused on our Training Level needs.  Last time I checked, there were no lateral movements in any of the Training Level tests.  That is not to say that we haven’t thrown in a sideways step or two trying to escape the corners at the judge’s end of the arena, but we get no extra credit for that.  Judge’s just aren’t impressed.  In fact, we often hear “too much use of outside rein.”  Well, duh, when Baby Huey decides to throw his full weight against my inside leg, there is no way that my thigh will prevent him from going wherever he decides we need to be.  The outside rein is all I have left – no, it is not ideal and thank you for pointing that out in my test comments.

The show this Sunday is one of my last chances to qualify for the regionals in October.  It feels like the test right before spring break with the regionals being our final exam.    So doing what every good college student does, we crammed for our test at the last minute hoping for all the knowledge to transfer from Ms. C’s lessons and carry us to a qualifying score on Sunday.  We did two lessons in two days.

Yesterday we worked the basics.  Can Alison find a good rhythm and tempo at the walk, trot and canter?  Answer: sometimes.  I still have the tendency to overuse my reins and Ike ends up behind vertical.  Maybe it is his long neck, maybe it is me just having a hard time trusting that I can send my hands forward to get Ike to open up at the throatlatch.  We can thank Cigar for that tendency; you just never knew what might happen if you gave Cigar an inch.  Give him an inch and you could end up in the next ring in record time.

Our canter is still a work in progress.  How we handle the canter depends on what canter Ike gives me.  If we are careening around in freight train mode, I just try to be heard and pray that our down transition is close to where it is supposed to be.  If Ike decides to show off his rocking horse, moving up to First Level canter, then I can finesse a bit more and position shoulders and even get the correct flexion.

Today we practiced our tests.  We have rediscovered our centerlines and square halts.  We need those points and why not start and end with an 8 on your score sheet?  Would love to get another 9.5 on a final halt…that is one test that I will save since that score might not ever be seen again.  Overall Ms. C was pleased with our tests.  I still need to keep my upper body back in the canter (shhh, don’t tell anyone, but it feels like I’m sitting tall when I’m astride, but unfortunately pictures give that secret away).  Ike canter work was a mixed bag.  His right lead today was a bit strong.  To counteract what was happening, I would ask for canter, but then ask for a halt just after we started our circle, then at another place on the circle, and then right after we returned to the long side of the arena.  Ike handled the exercise quite well and without ending up on his face during the canter-to-halt transition.  Yes, Ike, you must listen to Mom and wait for her to tell you what to do.  Hard lesson for big boy to swallow, but the peppermints when we were done did help.

Tomorrow Ike gets the day off to rest.  I will pack the trailer and give Ike his show makeover.  It will unfortunately be a VERY EARLY day Sunday since I have an 8:30 a.m. ride time and we are 1.5 hours away from the show grounds.  At least we won’t be riding at 7:15 a.m. in the dark like we did last fall.  When you roll over on Sunday morning and see that it says 5:00 a.m. on the clock. and then close your eyes for another few hours, think of us…we will be rolling out of the barnyard at that time and keeping all fingers crossed that we have a successful day.

It Has Been How Long Already?

003Two years, that’s right, two years have flown by.  It was August 8, 2011 that Ike officially joined the family.  He started his journey to Virginia that day and arrived two days later.  My baby-faced three-year-old with 30 days of training is now a handsome, strapping young boy.  He continues to amaze me and I count my blessings every day that I have the privilege to ride him.

He is sporting a new bridle in the photo in this post.  Sadly, he has outgrown the one I purchased for him when I was in Wellington (well, duh, you can’t go horse shopping in Wellington and not hit the tack stores!)  The pretty bling browband that I had specially made for him sadly no longer fits either.  And, in case you weren’t aware, he also outgrew my old horse trailer; we had to buy the supersized two-horse bumper pull with a side ramp so there was plenty of room  to accommodate the giraffe neck.  Guess I should feel lucky that my saddle still fits him…

I still can’t believe how quickly he has progressed in his training.  Now some would say that with a more educated rider he would probably be further along, and I would not disagree with that statement.  Let me explain my reference point:  My dearest Cigar began his dressage education in 2005.  He was not the ideal horse on which to learn dressage.  “No!” was his go-to place.  “No, I do not wish to yield to your half halt.”  “No, I do not wish to canter with my nose near vertical.”  The talent was there, but the willingness was not.  That coupled with his propensity to injure himself made for a very slow journey out of Intro and Training Levels.  By fall of 2010, we’d barely clawed our way into First Level when his fractured knee ended his riding career.

Now Ike, on the other hand, is a very willing partner.  Cigar would call him a suck up.  We are discovering more and more gears as he grows stronger.  The lengthened trot I rode yesterday felt like it only took 8 strides to ride the long side of the arena.  Two years ago we were lucky to canter without me losing a knee on the fence while Ike’s legs were flailing around like propellers.  Just yesterday during our lesson, we started schooling counter canter.  While schooling counter canter, Ike actually performed an effortless flying change.  A bit of an overachiever like his mother.  Two years ago, Ike would drift left and right since he lacked the balance and strength to keep his body traveling in a straight line.  Yesterday, we attempted half pass at the trot with gorgeous results to the right and a decent effort to the left.  Wow.  So this is what it is like to see forward progress.  It is a giddy feeling.  Makes me wonder where we will be this time next year!

Happy Anniversary Ike!  We are so glad you are part of our family!

Adult Supervison Necessary

022As you know, I took a week off from my normal routine and went on vacation.  Time away is supposed to help you cleanse the mind and recharge the batteries.  Time away from the saddle on the other hand is not good for my riding skills.  Now you would think that a week should have absolutely no effect on our progress or my ability to ride my horse.  After all, Ike was worked by Ms. C, and I did manage to walk on the beach and boogie board which should both count as exercise.  That is all good and wonderful, but a week without proper riding instruction left me feeling out of sorts and I realized during my lesson today that I require regular adult supervision in order to stay fine tuned with my riding.

I know many people who ride and train their horses on their own with only occasional lessons or clinics when they hit a rough spot.  Some attend a monthly clinic.  Still others rarely if ever solicit input from anyone and never seem to suffer any dire consequences from the lack of assistance.  Ike and I would still be running into fences if we did not have our weekly lessons supplemented with clinics, extra lessons, and impromptu assistance when things go horribly awry.  I am the toddler who cannot be left alone for fear of ruining my horse’s natural talent.

My first three rides after my vacation were not my best effort.  We will blame one on Ike since he was a pill for most of the session.  The other two poor rides fall squarely on my shoulders.  No blaming the weather, the gunshots, nor the neighbor’s dog.  I could not seem to establish a steady connection, find any thoroughness at the trot, and cantered as if there was a fire in Ike’s tail.  Not good.  The entry fees have been mailed for my last 3 chances to qualify for the regionals in October.  We need to find our A-game quickly and get back on track.  I might have to resort to two lessons a week until I find my riding legs again.

In order to advance during yesterday’s lesson, we first had to back track.  Stand at the halt and flex your horse to the left and then to the right.  Sounds easy enough until you are told your horse is tilting his head rather than flexing….try again.  We ended up needing some ground assistance in order to unlock Ike’s massive head.  Finally, success.  Now you may walk.

Trotting was also challenging for me yesterday.  And we aren’t talking anything fancy – just trot on the rail and maintain a steady connection.  Don’t forget to half halt when necessary to rebalance your horse.  I finally brought Ike back to a walk and declared that I felt like a “$&**# idiot.”  Ms. C just matter-of-factly kept the lesson moving forward and did not let me wallow in self disgust.  Good thing.  With her coaching and guidance, I was finally able to find my mojo and ride my horse.  With only two weeks until our next show, there is no time to waste.  There are no “atta girl” points given in dressage tests.

Headed back to the barn today to attempt to replicate what we had by the end of our lesson.  Wish me luck.  This toddler is going to need it!

What The!?!

The Big, Bad Horse

The Big, Bad Horse

So I go out-of-town for a week of sand between my toes and I came home to an ENORMOUS horse.  I swear that Ike added 6 inches in height and at least 100-200 pounds while I was gone.  How is this possible?  What did Ike eat in the 7 days I was gone to bulk up that quickly?  I checked around the barn, but did not find any secret stash of steroids or evidence of weight gain powder residual in his food bowl.  Of course, I am certain that he really didn’t gain any height or weight in one week, but the mind sure can play tricks.

While I didn’t do much besides play in the surf and soak up some rays, Ike had to face the daunting task of performing for Ms. C on two days.  Luckily he was his usual stellar self for both of his training sessions.  She put Ike through his paces and confirmed that indeed, he is ready to move to harder concepts.  She played with pushing Ike forward and then bringing him back to a working gait.  There are more gears yet to be discovered.  Oh, dear.  While an extended canter does nothing to faze me, a huge extended trot is enough to give me the vapors.  Thank goodness that you can now rise the trot even at First Level.

Knowing that our (okay, my) next big hurdle is sitting Ike’s trot while keeping him together and keeping my legs from shooting out in front of me, that is what I worked on for my ride on Sunday.  Why not go full-out my first day back in the saddle!?  I used my SOS strap as best I could to help keep my ass in the saddle where it is supposed to be.  Also used all my yoga breathing techniques to keep me from holding my breath as I am prone to do.  Had limited success with the SOS strap since I then would forget to half halt and Ike would lose his connection and raise his head.  Arrrgh!  Oh yeah, as I was forgetting to half halt, I also managed to let my reins get too long so Ike was left to wonder what the heck was going on in the saddle.  He did his best at interpreting what he thought were my aids, but were in fact just me flopping around like a fish out of water.  And no, there is no video.

Today was a challenging day.  Ike must have woken up on the wrong side of the stall, because he was recalcitrant from the moment I retrieved him for the farrier appointment.  He tried to bite me.  He tried and almost succeeded in biting his farrier (he must have forgotten what happened the one time he did bite Phil…).  He then tried to bite me again.  Once the shoeing was done, he pawed the shavings in his stall until there was a hole near the door.  I yelled.  Ike then turned around and pushed with all his might on the stall door which got him a poke on the butt from me.  He then tried biting me while pinning his ears as I wrote the check to the farrier.

I decided to tack up to see if the mood would carry over.  Why yes, it did.  He tried to bite me as I tightened the girth.  He spit the bit out.  He even spit out his peppermint.  A squeeze from my leg resulted in an ear-pinning, cow kick to which I responded with a tap from my whip.  I got an ear-pinning, “I’m going to bite you” look from that.  Ike then sucked back and would not connect.  Then he decided to play giraffe and blow through my half halts.  After 30 minutes of arguing, we FINALLY had 10 minutes of pleasantness.  I considered that a success and dismounted.  Tomorrow is another day.  Hoping Ike has a better night’s sleep tonight.  Vacation is over!

You Know You Are a Horse Junkie When…

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1) It is 107 degrees with the heat index and yet you still put on your riding pants and black leather boots and give it a go.

2) You can count on two fingers the number of pedicures that you have ever had, yet your horse gets their hooves done every 5 weeks.

3) The equine family member also gets a set of very expensive shoes every five weeks along with their pedicure, but you have had the same pair of riding boots for the past 10 years.

4) Your horse has buttery soft leather bridles and halters, has a custom fitted leather saddle…you have “pleather” shoes and purses or you have a nice leather purse that you bought second hand on eBay.

5) The nutritional content of your horse’s feed is analyzed and scientifically calculated to increase performance.  You eat whatever you can find in the cabinet or whatever you can purchase from the fast food restaurant that happens to be on your way home.

6) Your tack is immaculate, stalls are cleaned on a daily basis, and water troughs scrubbed as soon as a little scum is noted.  In your own home, you can write your name in the layer of dust on the furniture and their is a small dog’s worth of dog hair lurking under the sofa.

7) Heaven forbid if your equine prince or princess not have their saddle pads and polo wraps washed after one use.  You use the “sniff test” to determine if you can squeeze another day out of your t-shirt and jeans.

8) There are more expenditures for horse-related activities in your checkbook than any other category.  As such, your horse’s budget is larger than that for your mortgage, car and food.

9) Weekends are planned around your horse shows.  Weekdays are planned around riding, vet appointments, feed store, and trips to the tack store.

10) The number of bookmarks for horse-themed websites and tack stores is far greater than all other bookmarks combined.

11) You can quote every horse show within a 50 mile radius over the next 6 months.

12) You have a credit card that is maintained just for emergency vet bills.

13) The hair care products used for your horse’s mane, tail, and coat are top of the line.  You purchase store brands.

14) The interior of your car is tan to better hide the barn dirt.  The upholstery smells of lederbalsam, horse sweat, and hay.  The smell is permanent.

15) The vet, farrier, and trainer are all on speed dial on your phone.  They are the only numbers committed to memory.

16) It is your birthday, but your horse gets more gifts than you do.  The same is true for Christmas.

17) Most of the artwork in your home includes a horse.

18) There are more photos of your horse(s) on the laptop than of any other occasion.

19) Horse show ribbons are an acceptable alternative to curtains or wall decorations.

20) You realize that all 19 things on this list are true, but you wouldn’t trade your horse or the lifestyle for anything.

And We’re Moving On Up, On Up…

005Well, okay, we are not moving into a penthouse suite, nor are we moving to the top of the training scale.  Only in my dreams do we piaffe and passage with the best horses and riders.  No, we are moving on to the next level of Ike’s dressage education which means we will begin schooling first and second level concepts in earnest.

The game changer was last Tuesday when Ms. C rode Ike.  She now knows exactly where Ike stands with his training.  Poor Ike can’t hide behind my poor technique or lack of skills anymore.  Ms. C likes how Ike responds in the Neue Schule bit; he is not too heavy, nor does he avoid contact with it.  She believes that he will have excellent lateral work.  She also said that he now has the physical and mental strength to handle the greater demands that he will now face.

Soooo, that meant that during my lesson on Saturday and my lesson today, I had to be focused and mentally ready to really ride my horse every single stride.  As I’ve stated in past posts, I have a tendency to turn on the cruise control and forget to half halt, shift my weight, move my leg, or do anything to improve Ike’s way of moving.  Ms. C yelling, “why are you letting your horse flatten?” or “where is Ike’s shoulder headed?” usually bring me out of my cruise mode and back to reality.  I’d say that having the ability to focus and ride every stride are probably two of those key elements that separate the talented riders from the rest of us.

So first on the list of skills to master as we embark on this next phase of our training is focus – I knew how to do it when I ran hurdles as part of my high school’s track team.  I could run by bleachers filled with screaming people and not hear a thing.  Nothing.  Nothing but the sound of my shoes hitting the pavement.  Not sure when I lost that ability.  Is it part of the aging process?  Maybe I need some ginko biloba to increase blood flow to the brain and thus, the brain’s capacity to think and stay focused.

The next skill to master is relaxing my arms and legs so that I can improve my sit trot.  If we are moving on with Ike’s training, then I need to be able to keep up as he masters the new skills.  What good is it to have a horse that is ready for Second Level when the rider is still struggling to keep her ass in the saddle without shooting her legs out and bracing.  This isn’t water skiing.  My sit trot during my lesson today was better than on Saturday.  I’ve noticed that there are times that it is still better to rise than to hunker down and fight for the sit trot.  With Ike, when I ask for a trot lengthening, it is better for me to get off his back…at least at this point in the training.  Today I would sit the short ends, lengthen the long sides, and then go back to sit trot.  While it might not have been the prettiest, I do think that we did okay with our efforts.

I’m very excited with where we are with Ike’s training.  I fought for seven years with Cigar and barely made it out of Training Level before his career ended.  He challenged me every step of the way and at times, I would get very demoralized.  I pretty much decided that I had no idea what I was doing.  Ike has helped me regain my confidence and realize that progress is possible.  It might even happen faster than I anticipated…

Way Too Hot For Woman or Beast

007The month of July is underway and it has been a hot one thus far.  It hasn’t stopped me from riding, but the length of time I typically ride is severely curtailed.  Just can’t seem to get motivated to ride more than 30 minutes when the sweat is pouring down into my eyes.    And who doesn’t love pulling their helmet onto their head and realize that it is still soaking wet with sweat from the day before?  Awesome.

July also means the reappearance of the flying green beetles and an unidentified flying bug that typically hovers about a foot off the ground until it decides to dive-bomb the horses when they happen by.  Just like the cicadas, these bugs apparently have poor maneuverability and often run into my helmet or the horse’s neck.  Horse flies have also made their annual debut.  You know they are present when you see one of the horses bucking around their paddocks.  A few of the horses also utilize the stop, drop and roll technique – I guess they are hoping to squash the offending fly during the roll.  Can’t blame them.

Although our rides are short, I have no complaints with Ike’s work.  Ever since we purchased a larger bridle and changed the bit, our work has progressed more rapidly than I could have ever anticipated.  Ms. C continues to school our shoulder in, leg yield, and walk-canter transitions.  I attempt to replicate the work when we practice on our own.  I’m still learning not to shoot Ike to the moon in the walk-canter transition.  We don’t really have a canter-walk transition to speak of…we still need some trot steps or we practically fall flat on our faces.  We have even played with shallow canter loops with limited success.  Some days Ike can hold the canter through the loop, other days we falter before we make it back to the rail.  It’s all good.  I’m just so tickled with what he can do and how hard he tries to please.

We don’t have any shows scheduled until next month.  We have our entries mailed for our last three attempts at qualifying for the regional finals.  Can it really be that hard to achieve at least one more score of 63% or higher?  Keeping my hopes up that we will.

Open Up and Say Aaah: The Quest to Find the Holy Grail of Bits

004We ask our horses to do this on an almost daily basis.  Please put your head down, open your mouth, and politely put this piece of metal in your mouth.  Just think about it, the closest we come to that experience is when we wear braces and, for some, the dreaded headgear.  Now think about how much thought you put into the current bit you are using?  No really, how much?  Was it the cheapest?  Was it used by the former owner who claimed it was the only bit that the horse would accept?  Did you find it on eBay?  Did you close your eyes and order the bit that your finger selected?

I don’t think any of us would trust ourselves to put on our own braces, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an easier answer for bit selection.  Selecting the correct/best bit for your horse can feel like heading out on a quest for the Holy Grail.  Checkout any website that sells tack and you will see page upon page of bits.  So many shapes and sizes.  Lots of different alloys and types of metals and polymers used in the mouth pieces.  Which mouthpiece size, thickness, or cheek piece is best??!!  Oh yeah, then check out the rulebook for your chosen sport to make sure the bit you have selected is legal for competition.  Calgon, take me away!

If you have followed Ike’s adventures, you know my struggles with giving Ike a correct half halt and Ike’s difficulty responding to my efforts.  He has had a tendency to hang on the bit and run through my aids to the point that it physically hurt to finish my ride.  We started with a JP Korstel loose-ring with a French link that quickly transitioned to a basic loose-ring snaffle with a medium thickness for the mouthpiece.  It seemed to work for a while, but the stronger Ike has become (read: bigger muscles and more stamina), the less effective the bit and I became at giving clear aids.  Where to go next?

Enter a Level 1 Myler bit with a loose ring cheek piece.  Now we were getting somewhere.  Ike was much more responsive and apparently can carry himself.  What a shocker.  Why didn’t I know about this sooner?  We still struggle to get the correct flexion and struggle even more at getting Ike’s body in correct alignment, but those are young horse issues, not a bit problem.

And then I was offered an amazing opportunity to try a European brand of bits that are just entering the US market – thank you to the Florida reps for the Neue Schule Company [German for New School and pronounced “Noya Shoola”] for allowing Ike and I to be American guinea pigs for your products.  I shared details of our adventures with the representatives – Ike’s age and training, what bits we have tried before, and how he feels while I ride.  Yes, I even told them that I feel like I have to carry him around the arena.  Based on the information I provided, they sent us their Verbindend bit to try: http://nsbits.com/global/index.php/dressage-legal/verbindend.html.

9010-12-140-_sr55_h_5The mouthpieces of their bits are made from an alloy called Salox® Gold.  For you science geeks out there (don’t take offense, I am one too), there is a great explanation of the science that went into the engineering the alloy used on their website: http://nsbits.com/global/index.php/technology/the-science.html.  Who knew you could combine your love of science with your love of horses?  Awesome.  What I have found thus far is that Ike salivates A LOT with this bit.

The Verbindend bit is designed to help those who have horses that tend to be heavy on the forehand.  I’d say Ike falls into that category when he allows me to carry him…not exactly the feel we are going for in dressage.  This bit is designed to “greatly emphasis the signals through the reins.”  The Verbindend bit definitely has helped me better execute a half halt and since using it, I’ve not had stabbing pain in my arms and shoulders during my rides.  Ike carries himself and I’m able to execute a range of half halts from two fingers to a full squeeze and feel Ike give a response to the aid.  Oh, so that is what an effective half halt feels like.  Ms. C even had us playing with working trot to trot lengthening and back to working trot and showing clear changes.  It is a new concept to Ike, but one that was made relatively easy since he was clearly hearing my aids.  We even toyed with walk-canter transitions with some success.

This guinea pig is a big fan of the Neue Schule Verbindend bit.  Can I say that it is the be-all-end-all for every horse and rider out there?  Probably not.  There are honestly too many variables in equine conformation, equine age, equine training level, rider skill level, and riding disciplines to say that there is one bit that is always going to work on every horse.  But I will say that you should consider this brand of bit if you are in the market for a new bit.  My best advice is to contact the company representatives for any brand you are considering.  They are very knowledgeable about their product lines and want you to be pleased with your purchase.  Be honest with what you tell them and you will find that there just might be that perfect bit for you and your horse.