I do have a slightly different perspective on the slow twist snaffle, which is just not that harsh. Back in my days of riding hunters, bringing along former race horses I did find it useful at a certain point for a lot of horses. Typically I would start them in whatever snaffle suited them, but I found early on in their showing career they would get a bit tired and when they did, it was natural to revert to tired racehorse mode. Tired racehorse mode was all downhill, which makes it really difficult to find a quality distance to a jump, and that’s not a lot of fun for the horse or the rider. So I found a slow twist in those instances allowed me to pretty much ride on featherlight contact and just have a little extra in the corners to pick up the horse and set them up for success. And a couple months down the road the fitness to do the job is there and you’re usually done with that bit and back to something soft and simple. The adage about it’s the hands not the bit holds true … When the hands are good!
But yeah, I’ve seen some truly nasty snaffles, and I’ve found more often than not they are used to compensate for holes in training.
