[QUOTE=goodhors;8610672]
If you are showing, curb bit is required after horse is 5yrs. They have passed the “young horse” ages, should be working as a trained horse, accepting in his curb bit. Read the Rules though, always some exceptions. Most of these well-trained Western horses have NO rein contact for their show specialty, working off legs, seat, neck reining. So heavy hands should not be an issue, except maybe when stopping if the curb strap/chain comes into play.
I personally think Snaffle bits are vastly over-rated in horse training. All the English Riders brag up “my horse goes in a snaffle” but then you SEE the mouthpieces and I gasp! They are horrendous, and I can see why the horse won’t go thru their hands or even move forward well!! Certainly the higher level folks are NOT riding in smooth 2-3 piece ring snaffle mouthpieces. There is no way I would use the variety of mouthpieces shown and legal, on anything I own. Nothing that I would call kind, about them. They are sharp, bite, work in nutcracker fashion hitting the upper palate, and rider is ALWAYS in contact with the mouth, horse never gets any relief unless his chin is on his chest, which is a very bad location to keep control with.
I consider snaffles a step in training, horse is always expected to continue on into a curb bit as a “trained” horse for my uses. I might ride in a ring snaffle, smooth mouth, for a class showing, but otherwise his working, showing is done in curb bits. Horse is trained to work in light contact with me all the time. We “talk” with the reins, so he hunts the bit if reins are really long, yet gathers up, if reins are shortened, not hanging on my hands.
There are as many kinds of curb bits and mouthpieces as there are ring snaffles to buy. Back to training, use of hands, in how kindly the horse mouth gets treated wearing a curb bit. The nasty looking Spade bits that folks have fits about, take a TRAINED horse and rider to work well. Horse has usually been in a LONG training program to understand the requests of rider, could be ridden in thread reins and respond as needed. Rider barely lifts reins, horse is doing whatever he is asked, curb strap never comes into play. But few folks want to put in the 5yrs needed to reach that skill level in training horse. Horse has a mouth of silk, dances under his skilled rider.
You can use a leather curb strap or a chain curb strap if you like, depends on what the horse goes best in, with your Western Curb bit. You should read up on how the bits work, there are books available that explain ratio of reach above the mouthpiece and shanks below the mouthpiece. How and why certain shank designs were developed, work or don’t work in certain riding disciplines. Then you get into the mouthpiece designs, why and how they affect the horse mouth. Then you start choosing bits to use.
With Western bits, you need to be careful to get the mouth wide enough. For some reason they think most horses take a 5" bit, so often there is no other size available. Yet none of my Western bred horses EVER wore a 5" bit, just the pony. My old Western horses were not big at 14.2 or 3H, but even the Arab cross wore a 5 1/2" wide bit. I did a lot of hunting to find suitable bits in the wider 5 1/2" size I needed. None of mine have ever needed any special mouthpieces. They all worked just fine in basic curb bits with medium port, thicker mouthpiece, loose swivel sides.
If you are not subject to Show Rules, certainly you don’t need to use a curb bit to go Trail Riding or anything you want to do riding in a Western saddle. Curb Bits are Traditional with Western Riding, so the Shows expect to see them in their classes on older horses.[/QUOTE]
This is probably the best breakdown of all the “why’s” that I’ve seen! Very comprehensive. It’s been tricky to wrap my mind around the shank/curb bits, coming over to Western Dressage after riding hunters primarily. Thanks for the knowledge!
