I’m really confused as to why the enlightened equitation folks are strong proponents of the pelhalm bit, yet it’s not legal for rated Dressage.
What is so great about the pelhalm? Why is not Dressage legal?
I’m not for or against it; I simply don’t have any experience with the pelhalm bit and want to understand what it does.
The simple answer (I believe) is that a Pelhalm bit gives a rider leverage. Good when needing a bit of extra breaking power while jumping, not so good when you really want a horse on the bit like in Dressage.
You generally don’t see any bits that give an appreciable amount of leverage until 4th level or higher when you can ride in a double bridle with a bradoon (essentially a loose ring snaffle), and a weymouth (curb). The curb bit should only be used for very refined and precise adjustments and not as the main bit. If you look at pictures of really good riders, you may actually see a bit of slack in the curb reins when the horse isn’t in high collection (like piaffe, passage, or pirouette).
[QUOTE=Scandias;7971674]
I’m really confused as to why the enlightened equitation folks are strong proponents of the pelhalm bit, yet it’s not legal for rated Dressage. [/QUOTE]
I’m not sure who this group is, but most dressage people are very against pelhams. They are in my opinion terrible bits, as Dramapony said, they are leverage bits. They do not promote the contact I want.
You can’t separate the rein actions like you can in the double. The Pelham is essentially a curb bit. Which is interesting is the fact people who ride on contact would choose this bit. Western riding uses a curb as well but does NOT ride on contact.
Headset riding, in my opinion.
A pelham bit has elements of both a curb bit and a snaffle bit. In this respect a pelham bit functions similar to a double bridle, and like a double bridle it normally has “double” reins: a set of curb reins and a set of snaffle reins.[1] Because it has a bit shank and can exert curb-style pressure on the horse, it is considered a curb bit.[2] Like all curb bits, a pelham bit has a mouthpiece, shanks with both purchase and lever arms, a ring for rein attachment at the bottom of the shank, and a curb chain. But like a snaffle bit, a pelham bit also has a bit ring on either side of the mouthpiece. Like some curb bits, a pelham bit usually has “loose” shanks - hinged at the mouthpiece in the same way that the rings of a snaffle bit are hinged. When two sets of reins are used, the snaffle rein generally is wider, to help distinguish it from the curb. A “cowboy pelham” is a western style of loose-jawed curb bit with additional rings at the mouthpiece allowing a second set of reins to be added.
I sincerely hope it never becomes legal for dressage.
Not to argue - but I wouldn’t say that a pelhams is ONLY a curb bit… It does have a snaffle rein, which CAN be used independently - so its basically a mullen mouth and a curb bit in one.
That said - I agree, I do not see them as an appropriate dressage bit, especially for lower levels. They do encourage “head set” when the curb action is used.
I LIKE pelhams for certain things - my TB went really well in a rubber mouth pelhams for hunting - I could ride off the snaffle rein, and engage the curb rein when I needed some breaking power due to his exuberance.
I don’t need extra breaking power in the arena - and especially when practicing dressage.
Right, a bit of a gray area as far as calling it a curb…My concern is the action is hard to separate when you have two reins and 1 bit.
I think the theory behind using a Pelham for “Enlightened Equitation” is the same reason they bumped double bridles down to third level: better to use more bit than have a rider who can’t hold their horse together and then allows the horse to be heavy or the rider ends up being too “busy” with their hands.
The Pelham (if properly used) encourages the horse to stretch forward with their poll rather than be tight and contracted. Can help an over horsed rider keep from getting stiff from fighting with a strong horse. Not a perfect world solution, but so many of us aren’t perfect.
[QUOTE=Appsolute;7971902]
Not to argue - but I wouldn’t say that a pelhams is ONLY a curb bit… It does have a snaffle rein, which CAN be used independently - so its basically a mullen mouth and a curb bit in one.
That said - I agree, I do not see them as an appropriate dressage bit, especially for lower levels. They do encourage “head set” when the curb action is used.
I LIKE pelhams for certain things - my TB went really well in a rubber mouth pelhams for hunting - I could ride off the snaffle rein, and engage the curb rein when I needed some breaking power due to his exuberance.
I don’t need extra breaking power in the arena - and especially when practicing dressage.[/QUOTE]
Appsolute, I agree. My mare has recently started jumping in a pelham, after years in the same bit she flatted in (French link). It’s wonderful for her, because I can mostly ride off the snaffle rein, and it works exactly the same as the Baucher we do dressage in. But when I need it, we finally have just a little bit of very subtle extra reminder to listen to the person, not your own hair-brained idea to do that 5 in a 3. It only gets used for jumping lessons and (jumping/eventing) competitions.
The temptation to use it for flatwork, just to get the “headset” is a bad one, because IMHO, that’s totally not the purpose of the bit. It shouldn’t be dressage legal because that’s not what it’s intended to for. Not liking it because people are using it wrong, or with one rein, is disliking the bit for the wrong reasons.
Thanks for all the feedback; it’s all starting to make sense now.
[QUOTE=CHT;7972375]
Freeing worms from cans everywhere[/QUOTE]
LOL…that should be my tagline as well.
IIRC, J. R. Young’s comment about pelhams was that he thought their only true good use in training (as opposed to holding a strong horse in the hunt field, etc.), was to use one without a curb chain so a rider could get used to using double reins! Otherwise, he felt, you don’t need the curb until you’re more advanced, and then you use a double bridle. LOL
I think one place where a Pelham could be useful is for horses who are “ready for the double” but have tiny mouths – like many Morgans (OP’s and my breed of choice.) Yes, Morgans get ridden in a double in the breed show world, but the bits are usually MUCH thinner than what is allowed in dressage, and it’s not necessarily that it’s because they are hot and hard to control, as much as that there just is no room in those little mouths for two thicker bits. One Morgan trainer I know and respect prefers Pelhams over doubles on her Hunter Pleasure horses for that reason.
Note that North Forks Cardi won his national GP freestyle in a snaffle. He’s a little guy from a breed that probably isn’t known for having a roomy mouth.
One more point… a lot of those UL horses being shown in a double seem to really be just shown in a curb, if angle of the curb shank says anything.
Just because one adopts the label “enlightened” doesn’t mean it is true.
I’m not going to comment either way on the bit itself, but I thought I would put this link here to put things in context. While I don’t worship at the Heather Moffett\EE alter, I do think she has some good things to say and she’s a pretty sympathetic rider. In this article she explains about why she herself began using a Pelham (mullen only, with two reins, never with “roundings” etc). It’s probably not going to change anyone’s mind, but just to give folks a reference to Scandias’ question and source.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Enlightenedequitation/10151742056983946/
[QUOTE=SendenHorse;7971849]
I’m not sure who this group is, but most dressage people are very against pelhams. They are in my opinion terrible bits, as Dramapony said, they are leverage bits. They do not promote the contact I want.
You can’t separate the rein actions like you can in the double. The Pelham is essentially a curb bit. Which is interesting is the fact people who ride on contact would choose this bit. Western riding uses a curb as well but does NOT ride on contact.
Headset riding, in my opinion.
A pelham bit has elements of both a curb bit and a snaffle bit. In this respect a pelham bit functions similar to a double bridle, and like a double bridle it normally has “double” reins: a set of curb reins and a set of snaffle reins.[1] Because it has a bit shank and can exert curb-style pressure on the horse, it is considered a curb bit.[2] Like all curb bits, a pelham bit has a mouthpiece, shanks with both purchase and lever arms, a ring for rein attachment at the bottom of the shank, and a curb chain. But like a snaffle bit, a pelham bit also has a bit ring on either side of the mouthpiece. Like some curb bits, a pelham bit usually has “loose” shanks - hinged at the mouthpiece in the same way that the rings of a snaffle bit are hinged. When two sets of reins are used, the snaffle rein generally is wider, to help distinguish it from the curb. A “cowboy pelham” is a western style of loose-jawed curb bit with additional rings at the mouthpiece allowing a second set of reins to be added.
I sincerely hope it never becomes legal for dressage.[/QUOTE]
“The contact most people want” most of the time in capital “D” Dressage seems to be akin to water skiing on the poor horse’s bars. They take and TAKE and TAKE and never “give,” plus they never teach the true flexion of the jaw and poll. The origin of this is the lack of a seat sufficient to absorb the amplitude of many of these WB’s enormous, springy gaits. What looks nice in the video can be hell-on-wheels to sit for an older AA. That struggle is NOT fun.
There is a VAST difference between riding in self-carriage in COLLECTION and riding a braced, unbalanced horse in COMPRESSION, but with most of the sub-FEI level instruction available in the U.S. today you won’t ever BE “enlightened.” Which is one reason why many places “dressage” has become BO code for “entertaining and ego-stroking terrified overmounted old ladies who can’t jump.” 
To ride properly in anything BUT a snaffle, you need the following:
[B]An independent enough seat so you can use your HANDS independently (applies as much to hunt seat, saddle seat and western as it does here).
A horse who has been properly taught to yield to pressure (NOT bear against it!) upon his bars by relaxing the jaw and “chewing” the bit, and flexing at the poll.[/B]
Now, if you’ve got these two things, you can go out and do just about ANYTHING, in any tack or conditions, because the horse is not resisting your aids. In fact, properly trained and bitted in a Pelham or double he almost CAN’T resist in the way I see "D"ressage horses blowing through whichever set of aids is weaker–hanging on the forehand in that big fat snaffle or sucking back behind the ineffective leg. Which would be why foxhunters and every Cavalry on Earth used Pelhams and full bridles and The Snaffle was relegated to the racecourse–SO THEY COULD GO OUT AND GET SOMETHING DONE!
Back to our typical AA. The "D"ressage system that rules the ring today is very much a German one, predicated on the style and means suitable for riding the German WB. Only one problem; that method is often not tolerated by more sensitive breeds with a different balance and pain threshold. A nice comfortable “contact” for a Hanoverian might get you a flip over backwards on your QH or Andalusian.
“Enlightened” equitation is promo-speak for training in the French and Iberian tradition, MUCH older than the modern German style, which pre-supposes using an Iberian or TB type. This includes the American stock breeds and even things like a Saddlebred. ALL of these horses respond FAR better AS A RULE to “Legs without hands, hands without legs,” “separation and moderation of the aids” and “optimization of orders” rather than just taking a heavy, steady hold and letting him lay on it. Another difference is these breeds don’t generally have to go “long and low” for years before they can achieve self-carriage; Western horses get it done at age 3!
Now if any of the above is something new to you, FLY to Xenophon Press or Amazon and get a copy of Another Horsemanship or Racinet Explains Baucher.
Either could be subtitled, “Dressage for Real People Who Don’t Want To Die of Frustration.” 
Most French-school trainers, and that includes any clinicians still rumbling about who are graduates of the Cadre Noir, are happy to have you use any bit that WORKS. Yes, they’ll be rigorous about your horse being forward, round, and through in all the ways the Germans do, but they’re not dogmatic about bitting because they’re not subjecting themselves to USEF rules. Those rules are arbitrary–not laws of nature like gravity! “Winning a First Level Test” and “Training My Horse To Be Rideable For Life” are two different questions.
Figure out which one’s more important to you and proceed accordingly.
The difference in feel I could liken to the horse coming UP to the bit and holding it lightly, the way a dog might hold an egg in her mouth without breaking the shell. Another analogy might be riding the clutch at a red light, for those of you who relate to the stick-shift thread. :winkgrin: When the horse yields, YOU open your fingers without moving your hands. It is NOT a pulling with the arms and shoulders and that’s for sure.
Nothing magickal about a Snaffle, folks–and nothing heinous about a curb. All a matter of the education level of the hands holding the other end, and that’s the truth. 
Just because one adopts the label “enlightened” doesn’t mean it is true.
Well, in Heather’s case, it is quite true. She’s also friends with Carl Hester, so she must be doing something right.
I’ve found both her saddle and her methods (EE book) quite helpful, but as the poster above alluded, any tool is useless in bad hands.
[QUOTE=Lady Eboshi;7973940]
Nothing magickal about a Snaffle, folks–and nothing heinous about a curb. All a matter of the education level of the hands holding the other end, and that’s the truth. [/QUOTE]
Not sure the point of your long winded post here, but I still hate pelhams. you can feel more then free to use and love them on your horse.
Well, in Heather’s case, it is quite true. She’s also friends with Carl Hester, so she must be doing something right.
\
:lol:
I’m sure in view of his status he’s ‘friends’ with a lot of people -doesn’t mean he adopts all their whacky ideas.
Please. Her ideas are founded in classical dressage. Nothing radical here. The Pelham is just a useful tool like any other in the right hands.
If a rider needs a pelham to ride a dressage test,either the rider hasn’t the seat, or the horse isn’t suitable for the task .
Cobs being wrestled on to the bit? If it needs wrestling or a pelham it isn’t ON the bit.
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