I was very fortunate this week, I got to ride in above freezing temperatures.

The last few times I had ridden Mia (the Arab mare) in a bit something was not quite right. She would willingly advance into contact and keep her tongue relaxed, but she was not completely happy with the experience. So I decided to change to my mildest bit, the Mullen mouth snaffle the next time it was warm enough to ride with a bit. Friday--and it was above freezing!!! I had already changed the bit on my Micklem multibridle, so I grabbed it and warmed the bit up all the way to the stable. Debbie, my teacher, was not too sure about the bit change but agreed when I said I thought Mia was telling me my hands were worse. I also used my old dressage saddle. There is very little I can do on horseback, and I am always riding in the ring, so to give my horses variety I occasionally change my saddle, bit or bitless headgear. This seems to help prevent total boredom.

The arena was FULL of puddles, down by the rail and scattered throughout the arena, more and more puddles. Mia does not like getting her feet wet, so it was a good day to train on obedience to the aids. Since the Mullen mouth snaffle has no joints in the mouth it needs light aids for the direct rein of opposition for the turns, but at the same time a horse can also comfortably bore down with his head. Mia liked this bit action, she was reaching out for contact AND keeping a good steady contact willingly. MUCH better contact than with the Dr. Bristol. Flexing her lower jaw, licking her lips, she convinced Debbie, my teacher, that she, Mia, preferred THIS bit. Mia started inverting twice, each time after a discussion about going THROUGH the puddles, but each time I advanced my hands and squeezed with my legs Mia willingly reached for the bit and lowered her head. I guess Mia likes a bit that stays steady in her mouth. Since I took the chin strap off the Multi bridle there is nothing keeping Mia's mouth closed so if she really objects to a bit there is nothing to prevent her from showing her displeasure.

And Mia gave me another reward for listening to her. She developed suspension at the trot! All of a sudden, her trot which had always been real easy to sit, developed spring, poinging from diagonal to diagonal, MUCH harder to sit the few times I tried. I was ecstatic, I have been working toward this for seventeen months. When I started riding Mia she was very weak. Her trot was soooo easy to sit, with a softly swinging back. Luckily I realized that this was because her back was weak, not because she had a naturally smooth trot. So I have been working on her back and hindquarters all this time, trying to get them strong enough to deliver a stronger trot. Now I have to develop this stronger trot until it becomes the norm, then I will get to start working on relaxing the back at the stronger trot. This will take time because of her conformation. Yeah! NOW I can start working on developing Mia's forward impulse.

This week it will be too cold to use a bit, when I ride next Wednesday (I hope), the temperature will be barely above freezing at noon. It will be back to my old Jumping Cavesson bridle, trying to replicate with it the wonderful results I got with the bit last week. Bitless is nice, but with good hands there is so much more that you can do to influence the quality of the horse's movement using a bit.

May all you readers of my blog have an absolutely wonderful year in 2010, with many wonderful hours spent with horses.