A Taste of Fall

Last Sunday's weather was simply wonderful. When I stuck my head out of the front door it was COOL, so cool that I felt no need to wear my ice vest. In fact it was cool enough that I could wear my protective vest, a regular shirt, leather half-chaps, and I did not have to use my hanging neck fan. Together with the lower humidity it was glorious.…

I Try Another Bit with Bingo

Hot, humid weather down here in the South. The lows have been in the mid 70's F, which sounds really pleasant until I open my front door into a sauna. I really appreciate being able to ride earlier in the morning during the summer heat, but the humidity tends to be worse earlier in the morning. My ice vest is really helping me to cope with the heat, I am so glad I…

Is the Double Bridle EASIER for Horses to Understand?

This week was the fourth time I used a double bridle on Bingo. I continue to be totally amazed how this horse who was VERY resistant to hand aids has settled down and is now showing definite signs of understanding my hand aids. Even though my curb rein is sagging enough so that I do not bring the curb chain into action, when I give hand aids…

I'll keep the background story brief about me and my horse Jobi for now. I'm sure it will develop itself with more posts. I owned him for many years and brought him up through advanced work in dressage using French Classical methods, life change forced me selling him only to later have the opportunity to buy him back. He was returned to me a very different horse and we are unweaving the many bad habits, resistances and new quirks.



Among those has been his complete inability to relax…

This is my first attempt at a blog post so hope this is not too silly! It is 90 something degress outside, full sun so cannot ride until later thus I decided to blog.  My topic: happy mouth bits since I have found a tack item that I really like.  I started using the happy mouth loose ring snaffle on my OTTB.  He was right off the track.  I started with my double jointed D-ring snaffle. He did not seem to like it, seemed confused ( he is a horse that wants to please, like most TBs) but I knew…

http://www.eurodressage.com/equestri...11-cdio-aachen

The two images that caught my eye were, first... Rath and Totilas and second... Peters and Ravel.

Take a close look at them......Rath is hard on the snaffle and the curb, while Peters rein contact is less.

However, their heads are nearly in the same place......

Rein connections…

Conditions: Absolutely beautiful day, sunny and feeling like early spring. Nice long hacks on both horses before and after the rides. Rode both in snaffle

Caddymaster So yesterday, after his massage, I noticed some striking diferences. 1) he kept trying to pull all the reins out of my hand - as if he needed to cough - something he general won't do unless he really does indeed need…

Conditions: still raining all day so horses with no turn out. Rode after work. Ring very crowded with Caddy one other horse with Tia.

Caddy: rode in snaffle. Focused on speed control. Suppleness in neck and connection. Worked with lots of transitions. Needs to be rounder and more through, but I think I am on the right track. Difficult ride as jumping lesson going on in…

The bit that you use on your horse is quite a personal thing. It is like shoes really. Sometimes we just force ourselves to wear certain types shoes that we really shouldn’t just because they are in fashion not because they fit us. The same sometimes goes for saddles, boots, saddle cloths, nose bands and bits.



I personally have a lot of shoes that I rarely wear that have been bought over the years, some fit and some I just like the look of. I’m the same with bits. I have over a…