So I was talking to a horse trainer and I was telling him some of my more long term goals that I had with my horse that were more towards being supple, flexible, and things like that. The trainer suggested that I use a German martingale, he didn’t explain it very well so I was hoping for some more explanation and if you guys personally use
It’s basically an artificial aid used as a shortcut to produce a certain headset by cranking the horse’s head into place. I would skip it and take some dressage lessons.
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I have had clients use them short term. They are similar to draw reins, but are self limiting (the setting you have them on, limits when they come into effect vs go slack). I used them time to time on lesson horses so students could get the idea of riding forward into the bridle. They only “crank” the head into place if quite short, and used with a strong contact. There is no reason to use them that harshly. I do not use them if the horse is the one who needs to learn about contact though…only if it’s the rider that is the one that needs to learn. (because focusing on the head/neck when it comes to contact is going to build the wrong muscles in the horse…but allowing the rider to focus on their leg/balance when learning to get a horse using its back, works on the correct muscles in the rider)
