New Tack Inspection Rule

[AlternatePlan]

Lots of incorrect information on here about how eventing tack checks are done…

At national level events bits/bridles/spurs/whips are checked for every rider - can be done before or after test…but unless there’s been something said by the officials to waive tack checks for that event, it’s done for every rider. Bridles are not required to be removed from the horse’s mouths…during COVID bits were checked via visual inspection. Otherwise it’s a gloved finger in the horse’s mouth. A rider could choose to have the bridle removed but it’s by far the exception rather than the rule. Bonnets are pulled by the rider or groom, but mostly with the bridle left on.

There is no required bit check after XC. Bridles you see being removed on the livestream of big events are because the horses are being stripped down in the vet box to be cooled out…and will go back to the barn in a halter. Occasionally you may see a bridle removed after the finish for a horse to be led back in hand…but this is not because there’s any kind of tack check being done.

At FEI events, after dressage the bit check is done by an appointed FEI steward. The horse is ridden from the ring to that area for the check to be done. The grooms cannot touch the horse during this time. At the equipment check the bridle is most often not removed - the FEI officials can check the bits with gloved hands as well. Bonnets are pulled, but usually without removing the bridle. Tack checks after the showjumping phase are to check boots and weigh them.

[NC001]

At our last recognized event of the year, there was a steward going around checking bits at stalls to get us ‘used to it’ for next year.
I had no problem with it and told her I’d rather know before the test if there was a problem. It was quite easy really - and I definitely prefer that to trying to take off a bridle after a test.

But we are not upper level or super competitive.

[K_VanOlst]

@beowulf

Bring the halter with you, have someone hold it for you

This is an unfair ask for people showing alone. Are we supposed to warm up for a test carrying the halter? Toss it on the ground near the warm up and hope it doesn’t walk off?

Overall, this seems to be yet another instance in which they’re making rules that seem like a solution in search of a problem.

[Mander]

@enjoytheride

I am often completely alone at shows. Blaming riders for not having grooms or being unable to carry a halter and lead rope with them down to warm up or having poorly trained horses is I think unreasonable.

As is expecting me to leave my trailer unlocked for an official to somehow find.

Unfortunately things like this make showing unreachable for many.

There could be a few halters in varying sizes just kept at the check stall. Unbridle, halter with a loaner, re-bridle.

I get it - I show by myself too and it’s rough. This just isn’t the hill I want to die on for why it’s prohibitively difficult to show by yourself these days.

Incidentally, at a show this summer a TD came around to inspect our bridles as “practice” for this new rule. It felt silly at the time. It feels silly now.

It also felt silly watching a mom I know, who couldn’t tell a snaffle from a Weymouth, “bit checking” horses from 10 feet away as they exited the ring. I’m thankful she volunteered, but what use are rules if you have no means in place to actually enforce them?

[kaya842]

1. This rule is dumb for reasons already stated.
2. I’ve never seen or heard of bit checks actually being done at the rated shows in my area. My friend who is half way to her Silver and has her Bronze (all done in this area, including at Regionals) has never had her bit checked.
3. This is showing my greenness as I’ve never competed at a rated show myself, but I had no idea: 1. Not all bits were checked (until talking to friend in point 2) and 2. You didn’t have to take the bridle off. What about bits that are close to legal but aren’t that likely wouldn’t be able to be felt by “a gloved finger inside the mouth”?
4. What is the point of such lengthy, complex bit regulations if not every rider is checked every time? Especially when some places rarely/ never check.

[beowulf]

@AlternatePlan

Lots of incorrect information on here about how eventing tack checks are done…

At national level events bits/bridles/spurs/whips are checked for every rider - can be done before or after test…but unless there’s been something said by the officials to waive tack checks for that event, it’s done for every rider. Bridles are not required to be removed from the horse’s mouths…during COVID bits were checked via visual inspection. Otherwise it’s a gloved finger in the horse’s mouth. A rider could choose to have the bridle removed but it’s by far the exception rather than the rule. Bonnets are pulled by the rider or groom, but mostly with the bridle left on.

There is no required bit check after XC. Bridles you see being removed on the livestream of big events are because the horses are being stripped down in the vet box to be cooled out…and will go back to the barn in a halter. Occasionally you may see a bridle removed after the finish for a horse to be led back in hand…but this is not because there’s any kind of tack check being done.

At FEI events, after dressage the bit check is done by an appointed FEI steward. The horse is ridden from the ring to that area for the check to be done. The grooms cannot touch the horse during this time. At the equipment check the bridle is most often not removed - the FEI officials can check the bits with gloved hands as well. Bonnets are pulled, but usually without removing the bridle. Tack checks after the showjumping phase are to check boots and weigh them.

What, specifically, was incorrect? No one said there is a required bit check after XC. Is something in the air this morning where people don’t read posts in full before responding?

What I said that seems to need clarifying, is that eventers voluntarily pull bridles out in the open all the time, including in bit and bonnet checks after dressage, and after XC runs. I said nothing about it being required. Another poster pointed out cutters do it too, but it is mandatory to do so in front of the judge.

My question is, what makes dressage so different that a stall-set up solution is untenable when other disciplines do it so casually in far busier environments?

[K_VanOlst]

@Mander

There could be a few halters in varying sizes just kept at the check stall.

That sounds like a biosecurity nightmare. No thank you.

[sascha]

@Mander

There could be a few halters in varying sizes just kept at the check stall

No thanks. I would not be comfortable putting my horse in equipment that has been on some other horse’s face. It’s an excellent way to spread disease that I’d rather not be part of.

[Mander]

Fine. Biothane halter that gets wiped down after each horse with alcohol. And if you still find that so offensive, then bring your own. But you can hardly cry oppression when other reasonable options are made available to you and you just don’t like them.

Any other solutions that would please you?

[K_VanOlst]

@Mander

And if you still find that so offensive, then bring your own. But you can hardly cry oppression when other reasonable options are made available to you and you just don’t like them.

Any other solutions that would please you?

It’s not my job to come up with solutions for usdf to do their job I already pay exorbitant fees to show, they need to figure out a tack check that isn’t putting all the onus on the competitor to do dumb stuff like these suggestions or make themselves perpetually available at the tack stall/trailer/whatever. I never “cried oppression” (in fact I see many reasonable people raising these same concerns) but if attendance is already falling at shows (and it demonstrably is), then adding all these additional layers of garbage to the competitors isn’t going to help.

[netg]

Thanks everyone who beat me to the biosecurity concern. After having to quarantine our 5 horses who had gone to a show where someone helped themselves to our hose for a horse who was not right before they went to the show, and left in the middle show for a vet hospital… I’m pretty aware. Luckily that sick horse survived, and after the multiple week quarantine recommended by the vets based on potential causes of illness for that horse none of our horses got sick.

@beowulf

As a past bit checker I would much prefer a haltered horse in an enclosure versus feeling around in a strange horse’s mouth. It’s risky, and riders don’t always have control of their horses. I can’t tell you how many times a competitor has let their horse walk right over me during bit check.

You realize that the bit checker should be the one in control of the horse, as if the rider pulls on the reins it’s your fingers which may be broken? I agree with the general uselessness of having untrained people doing bit checks, as I’ve even had TDs disagree with each other on rule interpretations.

@kaya842

• This rule is dumb for reasons already stated.
• I’ve never seen or heard of bit checks actually being done at the rated shows in my area. My friend who is half way to her Silver and has her Bronze (all done in this area, including at Regionals) has never had her bit checked.
• This is showing my greenness as I’ve never competed at a rated show myself, but I had no idea: 1. Not all bits were checked (until talking to friend in point 2) and 2. You didn’t have to take the bridle off. What about bits that are close to legal but aren’t that likely wouldn’t be able to be felt by “a gloved finger inside the mouth”?
• What is the point of such lengthy, complex bit regulations if not every rider is checked every time? Especially when some places rarely/ never check.

I fully believe the rules were just complicated and pushed through out of normal sequence in order to get someone involved in the rule making kickbacks. It is the only explanation I have seen/heard for how the rule changes were made, and how they made completely gentle, kind bits illegal. I have heard licensed officials guessing the same. No idea who but it makes no practical sense.

Also, if a show wasn’t doing but checks pre-covid, they were in danger of losing their ability to be rated shows. I know they stopped putting hands in mouths during covid but don’t know what the rule changed to. However, before at least 50% were required to be checked.

[K_VanOlst]

@netg

I fully believe the rules were just complicated and pushed through out of normal sequence in order to get someone involved in the rule making kickbacks. It is the only explanation I have seen/heard for how the rule changes were made, and how they made completely gentle, kind bits illega

Like the ridiculous baucher length rule that basically made all bauchers except one brand illegal which was very quickly rolled back.

[netg]

@K_VanOlst

Like the ridiculous baucher length rule that basically made all bauchers except one brand illegal which was very quickly rolled back.

Don’t forget the change didn’t take effect until after championship season, do anyone going to regionals, nationals, and sort of state championship, had to get a new one or risk elimination.

[Manni01]

And the next fee introduced will be the “bit- check” fee

[joiedevie99]

I have no problem with the current system, where some percentage of riders have their bit checked as they leave the ring without removing the bridle from the horse.

The new proposal seems easier to abuse and harder to track, as you’ll miss people whose tack stalls are locked, or who keep their tack in their trailers. But also potentially good enough at the bigger shows where everyone has stabling.

No interest in dropping the bit on my very tall, very hot horse after finishing a test.

[enjoytheride]

@Mander

Fine. Biothane halter that gets wiped down after each horse with alcohol. And if you still find that so offensive, then bring your own. But you can hardly cry oppression when other reasonable options are made available to you and you just don’t like them.

Any other solutions that would please you

And we have an entire thread devoted to dwindling entry numbers at shows for this exact reason because any concern about ridiculous new rules or proposed requirements like riding down to dressage carrying a halter and lead rope results in this attitude.

[sascha]

@Mander

But you can hardly cry oppression when other reasonable options are made available to you and you just don’t like them.

Nobody is crying “oppression” for Pete’s sake. We’re saying we think this new rule without a whole bunch of logical protocols backing it up, makes no sense.

[sascha]

@beowulf

As a past bit checker I would much prefer a haltered horse in an enclosure versus feeling around in a strange horse’s mouth. It’s risky, and riders don’t always have control of their horses. I can’t tell you how many times a competitor has let their horse walk right over me during bit check.

@netg

You realize that the bit checker should be the one in control of the horse, as if the rider pulls on the reins it’s your fingers which may be broken?

This 1000x When a horse with a rider on its back is being handled by someone on the ground, the rider defers control of the horse to the person on the ground for the safety of the person on the ground.

[beowulf]

@netg

You realize that the bit checker should be the one in control of the horse, as if the rider pulls on the reins it’s your fingers which may be broken? I agree with the general uselessness of having untrained people doing bit checks, as I’ve even had TDs disagree with each other on rule interpretations.

You realize that someone on the ground with one hand in their horse’s mouth is vulnerable to a bargey horse, right? It’s the rider’s responsibility to present a civilized horse that stands still long enough to allow himself to be examined. We are told to limit handling of the horse and at most debriefings I’ve ever been at it’s been mentioned not to hold the reins.

My last bit check was at NEDA. Most of the horses were lovely, but there were quite a few that headflung and trampled you. There is a reason this job has few people willing to do it. It’s dangerous for all the reasons posted in this thread. Think of all the people that prefer to ride versus handwalk their horses back to the stable. I wonder why?

[trubandloki]

@beowulf

Think of all the people that prefer to ride versus handwalk their horses back to the stable. I wonder why?

Because they want to get back to stabling as quickly as possible to put this horse away and tend to other things.

Not likely some nefarious bad horse reason.

Kind of like I would ride in the golf cart instead of walking next to it.

(Disclaimer, I was taught to always get off after my horse worked for me, so that is what I do. But I totally do not see others not getting off as a sign that their horse is a jerk. That is kind of a weird leap.)