Hackamores and Bits and Combinations, oh my!

[ohmissbrittany]

So I got a short-shanked Sprenger hackamore about 6 weeks ago, and my horse loves it for flatting! She’s a very tense mare, and every time we see the chiropractor, has a lot of tension in her TMJ. (She sees the dentist every 8-10 months as needed, not a teeth issue- she’s just a stress case) I like using the hackamore on her, because she’s very soft and happy in it. HOWEVER, when she gets overzealous jumping, she runs right through it. I just did a four-fence lesson course on voice commands because she was not backing off when checked with the short-shank hack.

Should I try a longer shanked hackamore? A combination? A Kineton?

I was looking at the combinations, and don’t like the combos’ gag action. I was thinking about doing a snaffle with the hack and two sets of reins so they can be used independently, like only when she really gets rocking and rolling. Thoughts?

[Night_Flight]

I do a combination snaffle and hackamore with two sets of reins with my mare for showing. Like yours, she’ll run through the hackamore as the jumps get more exciting, so the combination gives me something that she can’t lean on as much while still saving her ultra-sensitive mouth.

I have the hackamore (Herm Sprenger Kombi) on a bradoon hanger and thread that into the snaffle bridle (with the noseband removed) when I want to combine them.

Keep in mind that you’re not necessarily getting the best parts of either bridle; you might still get some leaning on the hackamore and the hackamore stiffens the snaffle action somewhat.

A lot of people will just use bit converters and one set of reins with this set-up but I prefer the two sets of reins so that I can adjust the ratio of snaffle to hackamore action as needed.

[supershorty628]

Have you ever tried one of the combination bits with her? I know you said you don’t like the gag action, but I wasn’t clear on whether that was because your horse doesn’t like it or whether you, just thinking about it, don’t like the action of the whole hacka/bit.

I was pretty leery about trying the combination hackabits, especially because they’re so expensive, but I ended up borrowing one to try it out and am so glad I did. There are so many different bits that you can get in those - I have 1 with a straight rubber bit and one with a waterford, but I’ve seen a bunch of others, and it’s so easy to change the severity by adjusting whether you’re using a curb chain, a spur strap, etc. under the chin.

If you have access to one that you can try without shelling out all the money to buy one right away, you might want to try it once, just to see what your mare thinks of it.

[ohmissbrittany]

[QUOTE=supershorty628;7947990]
Have you ever tried one of the combination bits with her? I know you said you don’t like the gag action, but I wasn’t clear on whether that was because your horse doesn’t like it or whether you, just thinking about it, don’t like the action of the whole hacka/bit.[/QUOTE]

My only issue with the gag part is that it’s generally meant to produce head raising, and I imagine the hackabit was meant to address the horses that tuck their heads to evade the hack. I don’t need to raise her head. Am I wrong about this perception? I have read certain gags act to raise the head, and that Dutch gags use poll pressure to produce a head lowering effect, but not sure how the hackabit would act in relation to those. How do you find the action of yours- is it pretty evenly distributed between nose/mouth? And you’re right- it’s at least worth a try. Thanks for the input!!

[supershorty628]

I’ve found that it’s pretty evenly distributed, but I imagine it would depend on where you put the rein(s). I just have 1 rein on the bottom of the bit - I don’t use a converter or have a 2nd rein that attaches more to the snaffle part, so I always get both actions at the same time.

I don’t use the hackabit because of tucking the head to evade the hackamore - I originally started using it because my mare tends to get heavy and a little on her front end (but not rooting down or anything like that - just heavy in your hand), and while she went really well in a hackamore, I had the same problem that you have in that I couldn’t count on being able to slow down when the jumps were bigger. I needed just a little more control than I was able to get with a hackamore.

[Small_Change]

I would echo supershorty’s suggestion to try a hackabit if you have access to one. Since horses don’t read bitting books, you may find something works nicely even when you don’t expect it to! My hot little jumper went very well in a few bridles that I really expected her to either not like, or simply not respond well too. With the quirky ones, it never hurts to try something a little different.

[ohmissbrittany]

I ended up ordering one, a mullen mouth so it doesn’t “do” much and she can just hold it, after playing with the combo at a tack store and deciding the gag action was very mild, and more leverage/dutch-gag in nature… May update after I’ve used it a few times. Thanks all for the input!