This month, both on the forum and on video, there have been discussions on whether use of bits constitutes abuse of the horse.

Let me be clear, if the rider does not know how to keep proper contact with the horse's mouth using a bit is abusive. From the pictures and videos I've seen in the last few years VERY FEW riders know how…

Well, I have given up on going back to using regular bits for now, it is back to learning all the subtleties of the Wellep bits! Mia had behaved quite well when I used the Mullen mouthed snaffle, but she communicated to me that she MISSED the mouthpiece of the Wellep. So I got the regular cheeked Wellep snaffle out and sat there trying to figure out how I could use the bit on Mia and still have the stability I needed to keep good contact. Finally I decided on bit…

The last two weeks I was all excited, I thought I would be able to go back to riding with my favorite bit, the JP Dr. Bristol Hunter D. Last spring, when I last used this type of bit, both mares had been going very well, keeping contact well, with relaxed tongues and lower jaws, and we had fun "talking" back and forth with the bit. So I changed the bits on my bridles and went out full of optimism and hope. Both mares decided that since they were 1) horses, 2)…

This summer I decided to try out my Wellep bits and see if this bit really was a new, improved method of bitting. Usually when the weather gets hot the horses start politely refusing contact with my hands, and then I change to one of my bitless systems. My experiment was to see if the horses would voluntarily keep contact with my hands throughout the summer with the Wellep bits. I succeeded in this, I only used a bitless bridle once, when I forgot my regular…

Well, two weeks ago I got to have a lesson at the present incarnation of my old horsie alma-mater, North Fork School of Equitation up in Jefferson, MD. I got there early, and got to see Karen Fenwick, who runs the school, give a group lesson. This was interesting, it was a pretty big lesson, 12 people, from college age kids to a lady who looked like she was in her sixties, with physical shapes running from thin and sleek to quite plump. There was even a MALE…