I did get my lesson today, in a COLD wind. At least the temperature was above freezing.
In the wash stall MJ was having a FIT. He just could not stand still, I tried my Posture Prep on him and the only thing he would allow was me doing short strokes down his back, from front to back. He did let me use the paddle brush on his mane, but his forelock? NO, NO, NO!!! He usually acts like the 30 year old rather quiet and calm QH that he is, but not today. I let Debbie do the rest of the grooming and tacking up, and he was not acting any quieter for her, at all.
He was very patient with me when I had trouble getting my right leg over the cantle. Since he has two butt blankets on he has some protection from my foot but I did not look elegant at all when I mounted him today. Dismounting was almost as bad.
He was mostly quiet to ride for the first 20 minutes, he was really suspicious about the dogs (he usually ignores them completely even when they run between his legs), and when a horse cut loose he was all ready to join them. He was sounder today (I am the only one riding him now) so I was able to get him to extend his walk, a little bit. Contact was fine though he did not particularly want to listen to the bit when that horse was running around.
After 24 minutes I got off. My body was not operating well today in the cold wind.
Debbie got a new small, very small pony, to add to her lesson string. Of course being really small he has not had any really effective training about such little things like obeying his rider and responding appropriately to a smooth single-jointed snaffle. Debbie had tried the 4" Weymouth curb that I sort of permanently lent to her for her previous problem with a small pony, before the curb that previous pony had totally ignored all snaffle bits, with the curb he finally consented to obeying his rider, somewhat.
So Debbie asked me to fine a snaffle bit whose mouthpiece had some “teeth”, like a slow-twist snaffle mouthpiece. I told her that Fager did have 4" mouthpieces but of course they are EXPENSIVE. She said she could not afford a Fager bit right now for this pony, but that she would love to put him a titanium mouthpiece. There is no such thing as an inexpensive 4" titanium snaffle bit available in the world. She also specified that this pony had NO ROOM in his mouth for most bits. She also wanted the bit not to cost much more than forty dollars.
I went on line. 4" bits are not that common and there is not a great variety to choose from if one wants some “teeth” in the mouthpiece. After an hour or two on-line I finally found something that might work, a 4" copper mouth single twisted wire loose ring snaffle, for less than $40.00. I found this bit on the Walmart on-line site, of all places.
I called Debbie and she asked me to order it for her. At least this bit MIGHT give her tiny riders a chance of controlling this pony. I don’t particularly like twisted wire snaffles but I ride civilized riding HORSES who have some education and training, however bad that training might be for my purposes. The big advantage of this particular bit is that besides having some “teeth” it also has the thinnest mouthpiece of any pony sized snaffle I found on line. This pony should be able to keep his mouth closed when this bit is in his mouth.
We also got into a little discussion about double bridles. I told Debbie that I used double bridles so that I would not HAVE to use the double bridle to control the horse (my curb rein is usually sagging comfortably.) Debbie understood my comment and agreed with it. In my hands she now considers the double bridle as one of the better solutions to many horse problems (if the rider can deal with a handful of reins.)
Too bad they are not legal for the 4-H hunter classes that they do. Pelhams are sort of legal in these classes (frowned upon), but I can tell you that IMHO Pelhams are truly inferior for someone who loves fine riding on a responsive horse. Pelhams do not feel “live” in my hands like the double bridle feels “live.”
I tend not to buy any bit narrower than 4 1/2" because there is no way in the world that I can ride such a small horse comfortably. So I have a small selection of 4 1/2" wide bits, a slightly larger selection of 4 3/4" wide bits, a large variety of 5" wide bits, and as the width gets bigger my number of bits gets smaller. I decided that I do not really want to ride the BIG horses so my selection of the wider bits is rather limited. My preference in riding horses is for Arabians (of course), or for a horse under 15.2 hands. 14 hands to 14.3 hands is IDEAL for me!
