My Saddlebred mare is very fussy with her mouth (and well everything lol). She very clearly likes the Kimberwick with mullen mouth and some tongue relief that she rides in and greatly dislikes any type of snaffle mouth. Any suggestions on what I should look for in a driving bit for her? She is very forward and a bit spicy but not necessarily strong, although she has a tendency to go behind the bit to express her opinion that she thinks she should be getting down the trail faster than I say we should be.
Bomber makes tongue relief driving bits (happy mouth is the name, I think), a Liverpool on the first slot (or rough cheek setting) is a close match to a kimberwick
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Thank you- I will take a look at it
I have a bit similar to this (the mouthpiece is copper though) and I love that the mouthpiece swivels and my pony can put it wherever he is most comfortable with it. It has tongue relief as well which is a huge bonus
I always drove my ASB in a similar snaffle that I rode in. Mine goes well the with something thin, tongue relief, and wrapped in bit wrap by the bars.
You could continue to use her favored Kimberwick for driving if you wanted. Putting the reins up close to the mouthpiece might keep her happy, because those long reins exert a LOT of leverage if one is not careful with your pulls.
I do not think the plain D shape, cheek rings give you any choices. one setting is all you get, no real leverage because reins slide up on the smooth D ring.
We have always used the Uxeter model of Kimberwick, with the slots on the D cheeks allowing you “options” with more or less leverage, curb chain action, depending on the slot choice. Or a plain, straight-pull setting in the D, not using slots. Uxeter cheeks come with various mouthpieces having tongue relief, different thicknesses.
Good driving bits can get expensive real fast! If you can use what she likes riding, you may be ahead for a while. But it seems with most new-to-horse bit, they LOVE it, go well, for about 10-14 days, before reverting to previous behavior!! This is why “magic bits” sold at a Clinic make people happy for a little while. Change of pressure, thickness, leverage, change how horse responds for a short time. Then horse is “over it” and not responding to the magic anymore.
We have a pile of bits we cycle thru with our horses. Luke is still a puzzle, though he does seem to like the Myler Liverpool with the arch across his tongue, using no curb chain. The independent sides seem to help, but he dislikes any curb chain pressure, or loose chain that swings when he puts his nose way up! Rein is a straight pull off the big ring, but mouthpiece does not fold in this model like a jointed snaffle. He has been thru about 6 other bits since purchase giving him time to get used to each. He “does alright” with them, but no magic yet! Ha ha
Thank you-
Yes, she rides in an Uxeter type Kimberwick so I will definitely start with using that. She generally is really soft about her mouth and is very opinionated about what is comfortable or not (or really about everything lol)
I’ll offer a slightly different perspective on this…
Chances are that bit is addressing a hole. The hole could be conformation issue (low palate, thick tongue, narrow jaw and so on) and it could be that it is addressing a hole in your driving skills. And generally, if it is a really masterful driving clinician it’s addressing this first issue. But while you may take your new bit home you also generally take all your bad habits home with you as well, and these contributed to your problems just as much as the horse’s mouth conformation.
The clinicians that are really good in this regard can identify the correct bit pretty quickly. They can also identify what we are doing wrong as well. But those habits are a lot harder to fix than a change of hardware. Mostly though, they’ve not been wrong about bit choice for me. Sometimes the bit has been good for a short time as the horse transitioned into something else as their development improved, but it was still the right choice for that stage of training (I’m looking at you, Hungarian Pivot).
Then again, I’ve certainly been around plenty of people who had a bag of bits and not a clue what they were doing!
DMK I should have put riding in front of clinics, which is where I saw the “majik bits” selling. Did see the difference it made right then, heard about the short time majik lasted after getting home.
Totally agree that folks don’t change the cause of problem, way they do things, so get no improvement with their driving horse. They don’t dig deep enough in getting a trainer, doing video or having someone watch their workout to remind them to “fix xxx” as it happens. They may need a different equine if they plan to do competition at the highest levels.
I wish we had more access to numerous clinics with various trainers. We have a couple clinics in the State we can attend each year and always learn from the Clinicians there! Very helpful tips and suggestions get us looking at things in new ways! Interestingly, none have ever suggested bit changes for our horses. Tighten this, loosen that, ask differently with timing or rein cues. Try this rein hold, Get the seat higher or lower. Sit UP! Ha ha Still working on how to put a 5th wheel brake on one carriage, that was suggested. That carriage is still sitting, unused, until husband can modify it. Got out the 4-horse team Dog cart instead and the Pair love it! Don’t care about the weight, go well doing Dressage and Cones at home with it.
I do have a collection of driving bits to dispose of, mostly because they are not wide enough. Everyone here takes 6inches wide to be comfortable. They are not the “newer designs” still being created. We use regular mouthpieces all solid, no jointed mouths. The Myler is moveable but doesn’the fold. The extras have accumulated over the years, common mouthpieces with tongue relief, various sides. Seems I need to buy all bits in a bundle to get the ONE bit I want!
The really odd bits hang on the beams in the house. I will have to look up your Hungarian Pivot! My house favorite is a Weymouth bit with a big spade mouthpiece. Very well made. Makes you wonder what Southern Belle used it on her Saddleseat horse? And why??!
Here’s a Hungarian pivot in a Conrad, they come in multiple mouthpieces, but all have the seamless pivot action. Now metalab makes them under Boyd’s name but originally you could only get them if he sold one to you or you happened to know someone in the tiny FOB (friends of Boyd) circle who had access to the Hungarian dude who made custom bits for BE.
This one is great, and it did do a fantastic job of keeping xan from getting his tongue over the bit, however I used it on swale rings which give the shank a lot more swing and once he figured out that when I let go of the inside right rein on a circle/turn (as one aspires to when one is trying to be an upper level driver, sigh…), he could take that tongue and push it on the “open rein” inside line side of the bit, which would flip the shank way forward and stay that way for as long as I had pressure on the reins and/or he was bracing his tongue. Which, as it happened, was after the bell rang for us to go into the dressage arena for our final 1* test. He spent the entire test bouncing off the right rein while I split my time between trying to loosen the right rein enough to let the shank drop on right bends (he would then double down bracing against it a soon as the rein loosened) to trying to finesse outside/right rein contact on left bends because the curb chain was REALLY tight thanks to the flipped shank. Shockingly bad dressage score but his tongue wasn’t over the bit, so there’s that, I suppose…
So that was the end of our time showing in that bit, although I do plan to give it a try again, just probably only in training because it really is an amazing bit design.
Also, I personally see more focus on bitting choices in driving clinics because the bit is such a huge aspect of the driven horses. But a lot of that is because usef developing athlete programs does such a great job of giving us access to top caliber drivers, and they are much more experienced than all but a handful of people in this country when it comes to bit selection for driving horses and ponies.
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