My snaffle tells on me.
Yes, it’s true. I get to a certain point with my horses, and I hide that T. Balding smooth mouth in the back, or the breaking pen or somewhere I don’t have to face it for a good while. It’s my bread and butter when starting something, bringing something along and getting them to “the next step,” whatever that is, but I’ll be totally candid with you — I prefer a bridle or something with a little more to it when I get to that stage.
Contrary to how it sounds, I don’t adore a ported bridle just because it has more bite or makes me feel like a better horseman. I like my horse to stay between my hands and carry its feet where I place them, and a bridle helps me create more of that with less movement in my hands. A bit with a little leverage translates my requests with a more black-and-white approach and more caution, and honestly, I like how it immediately passes more responsibility to my hands and my horse.
But it’s breaker season again (Oh, and did I mention Snaffle Bit Futurity?!), and my old friend the smooth snaffle has surfaced again. I’ve got plenty to start and a 3-year-old to show in it, and I need to be on my two-handed A game to find success. I tend to have contact with a snaffle when I don’t intend to, and I can get a horse heavier than I want to. So, I have traded out my bridle for a snaffle on everything that is further along than the “snaffle stage” to try and gain for myself.
Guess what? I’m missing SO MUCH. Thinking that having a bridle made me more responsible has actually just masked a lot. Riding my broke horses like colts forces me to break down each piece, whether I am working on a maneuver or using them for a job. If I have too much contact for too long in that dull little snaffle, they would get heavy. Lightbulb moment! In the bridle, the leverage means enough (not to mention, they know how to carry their bit as trained and find relief on their own) that I could be a slight drag, unbeknownst, and they would continue on and make me feel like I knew what I was doing.
In the snaffle? Nope, not so much! I became more aware of my hands. The crispness that I feel in a bridle changes, and I must think about my timing more precisely. The place that I pull to, whether it’s right, left, back or a combo of the aforementioned, is so important with a D ring or an O ring. It has highlighted some of my weaknesses as a rider and helped my horses gain within their own strengths, too.
I could be way off base, and I’m not suggesting everyone chucks their correction bits and goes two-handed. On the other hand, some people live in their snaffles, love them and crave nothing more — more power to them. But as horsemen, if we aren’t gaining, we are deteriorating. I just love having a breakthrough moment where I can hopefully grow in my knowledge. Moving “backward” from a bridle to a snaffle really helped launch me forward in this journey called horse training.
And well, yes, there’s the whole “have to show in it at SBF rule,” too.
