It looks like it goes from the girth through the bit, over the nose, and down the other side. I have never seen anything like that, but I have limited dressage experience.
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It’s a neck stretcher. Just like Squirt described. Depending on how tight it is adjusted it forces/teaches the horse to keep their head in a certain position. It prevents the horse from raising its head and avoiding the bit, especially if a rider doesn’t know how to correctly ride the horse.
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You are not the only one on here with personal history with Lauren, I have been on here quietly reading.
As far as her statements that she rides 4-5 horses a day, she can write anything online. I find it laughable though as she would go a good 7-10 days without riding symphony or even visiting the barn even though she lived 3 miles away!
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That seems to go over the nose though. Any neck stretcher I’ve ever seen has gone over the poll. Is that a flair strip over the nose?
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Ha! The first GP schoolmaster I ever rode I could not get to canter from trot. She went into an extended trot so big it bounced the helmet right off my head! (In the pre-harness days).
The second one, many years later, I literally could not trot, at all. Every step of posting trot seemed to have about 10 minutes of airtime, and would double bounce back down and then post back to the rafters again. Felt like I was trotting in moon boots lol. But canter on that horse was absolutely dreamy.
Both totally humbling, humiliating experiences that were so much fun and so motivating.
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Oh weird. I couldn’t see the over the nose part when I watched it. That’s a new one for me!
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Thanks!
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I have never seen anything like that, and I do not have limited dressage experience. It looks terribly restrictive, with no relief for the horse unless it ducks behind the bit.
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Aren’t neck stretchers primarily used by hunter people?
Whatever that thing is, that horse is NOT happy and wants it off. I don’t see the purpose of riding a horse with a thin piece of leather running over its nose and attaching it to the girth. It doesn’t teach contact or stretch, just headset and avoidance.
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The look in his eye there is not one of a relaxed, happy horse 
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NADD (not a dressage diva) but the horse seems consistently behind the vertical the whole time as well, is that right? It looks like the thing goes from girth up to that large pad thingy hanging down off the noseband, then down round the other side.
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I was wondering about the whole flair strip thing as well.
Is this a new trend… people putting flair strips on their horses during dressage lessons? Really?
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Here’s a brief description of how neck stretchers are apparently usually used. They do not seem to foster teaching a horse and rider to develop correct contact. They seem to be a tool that focuses on “head set” via the application of poll pressure.
Maybe this contraption of hers is a modified neck stretcher, attached at the billets like a side rein. Even so… if there is still poll pressure involved to get the horse’s head down… that is going to teach a horse to drop behind the vertical, and not foster correct contact. Same thing if she has modified it to go over the front of the nose instead of over the poll.
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It is essentially a side rein that applies pressure to the nose versus direct bit contact. The leather runs through another piece of leather attached to the noseband. It’s a gadget, and a poorly adjusted one at that.
I will say that side reins can be and are used under saddle. For example, the SRS uses side reins with all of their trainees while they learn their seat. They later graduate to reins. You just won’t see them this tightly adjusted and they also use direct bit contact versus pressure to the nose. The horse is tense and running off but it really is too restrictive.
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Well… you learn something new every day on COTH. I have never seen anything like it on the nose before while riding.
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Really good synopsis (I only quoted a small prtion)
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My guess is that Dininger et al have all her posts, and know all her user accounts. They are asking her to produce them, because they want to see if she’s going to lie about them, or hide any of them, or deny anything they can discredit her about. Its akin to asking someone, “So, did you ever make a call to Mr. Moriarty? Ever?” and they say “no, I don’t know Mr. Moriarty”, but then you have their cell phone, and the rerport from the cell phone company showing 7 calls to Mr. Moriarty within the hours before and after the crime. Not a good look.
I think that’s why Lauren doesn’t want to show up for a dposition, and why the K’s don’t want to produce their texts and phone call data. They are all damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. If they show up, they better tell the truth about who they talked to when and what they said, because the defense has all their meta data anyway.
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That reminds me of this clip from red nose day. Lee Mack is the best!
https://youtu.be/LG36jUN88mQ
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Why would a trainer of Ulf’s caliber have someone using it? Maybe I’m being naive, but putting pressure on the bars and holding a horse’s head/neck in a certain position without the possibility of release looks like continuous punishment. Very counter-productive in getting a relaxed, through horse with an elastic contact. Which was the goal of everything I was taught. 
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