The princess Sophie goes best in the $15 nylon mullen mouth I dug out of the clearance bin at our local tack store. It’s an Eldonian bit, for old horsepeople with long memories. She does not like a metal bit. I have tried several.
She does prefer an ergonomic bridle.
Going to go with “the horse can’t read the price tag”. I tried all the fancy bits, spent a fortune on those lovely KKs and my mare just wasn’t having it. Went best in an ancient no-brand thin dog bone french link I found in a box at a consignment shop and had paid $5 for. When she physically outgrew it, I replaced it with an albacon that was similar in design & thickness and eventually moved her over to a mylar. So ask your friends and try some “out of the box” ideas and see what your pony likes.
I consider it to be an individual horse thing. The ones that don’t care go fine in a JP (my usual choice for relatively low-priced bits); the ones that are more particular show a decided preference for the high-end bits (my choice is the better HS; haven’t yet had a horse that I had to go to a NS bit).
IME, a horse that likes copper, likes copper (copper-containing alloys), and it makes a difference for that horse; one that doesn’t care goes fine in stainless steel.
I own very similar bits in both price ranges, where the difference between them is mainly the metal alloy, although there will be slight differences in the structure.
Of course, the fit and finish of the expensive bits are generally superior, too. A very sensitive horse could easily notice this.
Being somewhat of a Princess and a Pea/Super Taster type myself, lol – not that I want to be; life would be easier and less expensive if I wasn’t – I get it.
I’m pretty old school. i use a Herm Sprenger® KK Ultra 12mm Snaffle on most of my horses. I have three all on different bridles/headstalls. They work pretty well on most of my horses and one mule except the beginners. For those i just use a uberlong fullcheeks. But i’m not a dressage person …yet. Will see what my new coach-person thinks. I’m open to suggestion, but i do know this bit pretty well and i like it.
LOL, yup, Sophie goes best in a big fat nylon mullen mouth I dug out of a clearance bin. I think I paid $15 though. It still had an old Eldonian sticker.
Before “trialing” bits, save yourself a ton of money and have your vet or horse dentist evaluate the shape of the horse’s mouth. Many times, he has sharp bars, or an unusually thick tongue, or sharps digging into the soft tissue of his inner cheeks, or unerupted wolf teeth that were heretofore undetected. Such things as these can have monumental effects on which bit a horse “likes,” “dislikes” or goes well in. BTW, tying his mouth shut with a flash or fig-8 is NEVER the answer–it only compounds the pain and buries the overt resistance. What he can’t express in his tight, braced jaw will eventually blow out his hocks. Enduring painful “contact” is not “acceptance” of the bit. It’s simply endurance of discomfort.
Side-note to those trying to get TB’s, stock breeds, Arabs, etc. to “accept contact.” Any horse broke by Western methods (and that’s MOST in the USA) are taught to only go “up to” the bit, but never to lean on it. Racehorses are the exception and will “take a hold” in an attempt to balance off your hands. NONE of these issues are amenable to taking a big fat handful of face in a snaffle bit and then grinding your seat into his back “Riding Logic” style. A non-“dressage” bit such as a Pelham or Baucher or even judicious use of a Weymouth may be the shorter route to the understanding of contact that you seek. You can then ride on the weight of the reins instead of giving you both a backache!
It goes without saying that I’m speaking to those with a seat independent of the use of their hands.
^^^. It is so refreshing to read something that promotes riding “in hand” lightly.
When I started riding seriously almost 50 years ago a rider was often judged by their hands, and harsh, heavy, pulling hands were considered WRONG by people who promoted good riding.
Now they are often rewarded. The poor, poor horses.
Flame suit on.
Rent the expensive bit you want to try or buy it second hand. You can always resell high end bits on FB or eBay. I have a sensitive warmblood who absolutely loathes NS bits. I think he is allergic to the metals or something because I have tried several different ones and he behaves like he has swallowed a stick. He likes the basic run of the mill KK. My younger horse loves the NS in pretty much any version. The current project scrap heap warmblood is in an egg butt KK which he seems to like just fine.
Good luck if you’re trying to trial 4.5” or 4.75”. Even finding dressage bits in those sizes are like hens teeth. If you’re like my ponies and want 10mm thickness, it’s nearly impossible especially for HS bits. I’d love to trial NS but haven’t be able to do that in the small sizes.
I have no idea where you got the idea that anyone in this thread was trying to take a big fat handful of face, but thank you for showing us all a way through the darkness.
Weighing in here. I hope this isn’t considered advertising, I won’t name anything!
I own a small business in Australia and our business model is based on selling gently used high-end bits. We don’t sell cheap bits, and we don’t (generally) sell new ones (unless i happen to grab a bargain somewhere on one NWT still). Just high end, used bits.
I tried at least 10 Sprenger bits for my pony, before finding one that he liked (a Sprenger WH Ultra).
Next horse was very sensitive and in her 2 year saddle career with me she has gone from a Trust InnoSense Flexisoft Egggbutt mullen, A Sprenger hanging cheek KK Ultra and is currently in a single jointed Sprenger KK loose ring. Each bit has been what she needed at the time.
Over the 3 years of being in this business, I’m pretty good at picking bits that have the best chance of working for a particular horse or pony. But for someone who doesn’t do this for a job, it really can be a stab in the dark. An expensive stab in the dark.
High end bits are worth it, some horses really don’t care about their bit, but many more do. Buy them used, if they don’t suit, sell them (generally you can sell them for the same price you paid for them… so no loss apart from time and a b it of effort).
The Collected Pony now has a trial program, they are geared specifically towards small sizes 
I got an email about it not too long ago. I think the rental fee is $20, which is credited towards the price of the bit if you end up keeping it.
Well off topic, but I would not advocate anyone using a Pelham or Weymouth on a horse that isn’t even educated enough to accept contact in a snaffle, @Crashing Boar . Even the “western methods” know enough to know that you have to make up a bridle horse, not just slap a leverage bit in its uneducated mouth and call it lightness.
Hahahaha well if you agree that riding in a Weymouth to get the horse off your hands is “light hands” then…
Well, soloudinhere, one particularly boring summer I decided to ride bareback (a very hot muggy summer) and ride in just a Weymouth curb. My horse went very well in a snaffle, and he went well in a double bridle, I just thought it would be something to relieve both of our boredom during that long hot summer, something that neither of us had done before.
I ride Forward Seat, so I concentrated on allowing him to go in his normal head carriage in the snaffle, head down, nose poked out, open throatlatch, with a light rein. After a few weeks, since he had shown me NO OBJECTIONS to my use of just the Weymouth curb I cautiously started keeping contact with the Weymouth curb at a walk, concentrating at all times with not changing his head set when I rode on contact (just like with the snaffle.) The rest of the summer we went a lot on contact with the Weymouth curb, at a walk he fearlessly reached out for contact and kept contact just fine. After a week of so of being successful at a walk I tried contact at a trot but my horse put his head up and went into a more dressage type of head (neck smoothly arching upward, nose more in, etc.,) but since I was trying to keep him in the Forward Seat physical stance I admitted defeat and just rode him at a trot on a sagging rein, same cantering and galloping. After that summer I went back to mostly riding with a snaffle with occasional forays into the double bridle.
After a drunk driver drove his car head on into mine I was having problems with my Paso Fino mare, she wanted to eat grass, she knew I was weak as a new born kitten, and it was super hard and painful for me to get her head up. I spent an hour at the local tack store, trying each curb bit there (over 50 of them) on my arm to choose the one that was strong enough for me to get her head up while not torturing her mouth. That curb I selected ended up being her favorite bit of all time and we had many, many happy hours of trail riding using this bit. I could not keep contact with this mare with the 7" shanked curb she liked so much (she went behind the vertical) so I rode with a sagging rein. So long as she strode forth confidently, did not go behind vertical, and obeyed my directional and stopping aids promptly I really did not care, I just wanted to ride her without further injuring my badly messed up back.
Both these horses taught me never to do a dead pull on the curb bit. they taught me to release my hand aid immediately, and they taught me that the curb bit demands a greater release of a rein aid than a humane snaffle. My first horse was ALREADY light in hand, while willing to accept the much stronger contact for galloping/extended gaits, and he never went behind the vertical although his neck/head conformation made it super easy for him if he had ever wanted to. The Paso Fino mare was also light in contact and light in obeying my hand aids, I just needed help getting her head up occasionally when she saw a particularly lush and yummy clump of grass.
My current riding teacher will let me ride with a double bridle on some of her lesson horses because my riding teacher absolutely trusts my hands after giving me lessons for around 12 years now in spite of my problems with my Multiple sclerosis. I am the only rider at her stable who has this privilege with the double bridle (I provide the double bridle). When I want to try out a new snaffle, Kimberwick or Pelham bit she lets me do it, and sometimes she tells me I am the only rider at her stable that she would trust using the particular bit that I want to try out. After a ride in a new bit we discuss the ride and how the horse reacts to the bit. If the horse obviously does not like it I go back to the acceptable previous bit that the horse has done well in.
My riding teacher has put me on several horses who had real problems with accepting the bit because I have proven myself to her, and her horses. She enjoys seeing me turn compulsively inverted, gaping, and hostile horses (who ran away from the bit with her other students) who suck back at any hint of contact into horses who reach out for the bit calmly when I ask for contact, and who will willingly KEEP contact with my hands with relaxed mouths and lower jaws. True lightness comes mostly from the correct timing of my hand and leg aids, then it is super, super easy once the horse understands what I am saying with my aids.
Just because some riders do not ride exactly like you do does not mean that these riders cannot ride at all.
Some horses simply prefer a curb bit (Weymouth, non-jointed Pelham, non-jointed Kimberwick) to any snaffle bit out there. I take the viewpoint that it is that horse’s mouth, I train for acceptance of the snaffle first, and if there are still some problems I often find that the curb type bits are the answer for these horses to get them to go forth boldly and confidently into the world. Some horses just do not like bits that jangle in their mouths like jointed snaffles do, and many of these horses ALSO do not like Mullen mouth snaffles though they will obey them before they learn how easy it is just to lean on the Mullen mouth snaffle so I have to carry the weight of their head. These horses are often much happier in non-jointed Kimberwicks, Pelhams, and in double bridles, and since the horses are happier I am happy.
The horses I ride will obey, while on contact, me moving my finger maybe an 1/8 of an inch with maybe a gram or two of weight on the rein, in snaffle bits, in Kimberwicks, in Pelhams, and in double bridles, for hand aids. Is that light enough? Of course going faster the horse does take a franker hold on the bit so I may move my finger up to a 1/4" with two to four grams of weight on the reins. Is that too heavy? (Note I said grams, not ounces or pounds of weight for my contact.)
As far as expensive bits are concerned I have had great success with some of the titanium mouthed bits. I have particularly enjoyed riding with some of the Fager bits. Otherwise I usually find that the regular bits work quite well with my hands as long as I listen to the horse.
Agreed. I just spent two weeks riding my trainer’s bit collection of at least 50 bits. Knowing the prices definitely skewed perception, both for and against. Decided on a 200 dollar bit.
I listened to a podcast a while ago on the Horse Radio Network with Reese Koffler Stanfield. She had toured the Herm Sprenger factory in Germany and was very impressed with the attention to anatomical design, weight, balance, symmetry, and final hand polishing for mouth feel. She did not tour other manufacturers, so there was nothing to compare it to. But, she did say that the pricing made sense after she understood the amount of research that went into the designs and how much of the manufacturing process was by hand. Who knows, maybe she received free bits for promoting it. I gave my mare her choice out of my collection of bits and she preferred a Myler over a Herm Sprenger – probably because it is thinner and she does not have much room in her mouth.
Just an update, I ended up purchasing the HS Novocontact single jointed snaffle. Miss maresy loved it from the get-go and it just seemed to…I won’t say it solved, but it certainly improved, communication between us. Sort of like things were clearer.
She continues to work well in it.
Never read Riding Logic, does it advocate taking a big fat handful of face and driving your seat bones into your horses back?
Not sure why you would use a weymouth or a pelham on an uneducated horse? Bauchers were dressage legal last I knew.
I have been trying bits on my OTTB, to find one he likes. My KK bit is a fat one, he has a small mouth, so he hangs, He was better with a thinner stainless steel knock-off, but did some head chucking. Yesterday I tried the Myler level 1 baucher that my paint uses and he seems to really like it. No hanging, no head chucking.
@Crashing Boar does have a valid point.
I have used a double bridle, with a Weymouth, on several horses who were confused about the snaffle.
The last time was on an elderly (25+?) super badly conformed QH. He just could not figure out what a bit meant, what it was for, and he had apparently come to the conclusion that ALL bits were evil, evil, evil, to be resisted by any means possible.
After a few weeks of 30 minutes a week in a double bridle he finally “got” the whole idea. This horse, with super wide neck muscles that his jaw bones ran into painfully whenever he even tried to flex, was super, super, super resistant to all the snaffles I tried, no matter how mild. Well, during the first ride on a double he started to lighten up, and he continued to improve the next few months. When I went back to riding him in just a snaffle he went on improving, he had finally figured it all out. I got the feeling from the horse’s mouth that he was comparing the action of both bits in his mouth, then “EUREKA!!!” THIS is what you meant! This horse is not particularly smart, at all.
As far as expensive bits I have gotten the best results from the Fager titanium bits. They have some “odd” ideas that the horses I ride really seem to like (like a shorter central link in double-jointed bits.) I have not gotten positive results with all the Fager bits I’ve tried, but right now I am saving up to get all the different widths of the Fager “Bianca” double jointed snaffle with a roller in the middle. This is the only snaffle that the QH I referenced above responded to as well as with the double bridle. The horses were not too sure about the other Fager double jointed bits, something about irritation with the shape of the central lozenge (they kept pushing up against it with their tongues) but I am keeping the ones I have, some other horse may really like them!
It is SO NICE when a horse starts to lighten up with the contact, especially since I am physically very weak.
I wanted the NS trans-angled eggbutt bit for my Arabian mare but could not find the 4.75" size in the U.S. I purchased it on Ebay from the U.K. where they tend to have more pony sizes and the price was around $168 vs the $226 U.S. price. Shipping was surprisingly fast and I got the bit in one week. I just purchased a NS baucher bit from another Ebay vendor in the U.K. for $150. Shipping was $10 and I got it in under two weeks. Other bits that I tried and my horse didn’t like were sold on Ebay. I also bought my Micklem bridle directly from the U.K. at a much lower price than in the U.S. As others have noted, the high dollar bits will have good resale value if they don’t work for your horse.
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