[QUOTE=Lady Eboshi;7973940]
“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. 
[/QUOTE]
I think so. Just like any other tool, it can be used for good or bad depending on who is using it.
