Again I scribbled notes. And now I will try and make sense of them in a quickish summary!!
First up - The Importance of Touch and massaging your horse. This may sound a little Kookie. But we all use a back person, without question. And if you only have 10 minutes spare after poo-picking, use it to touch your horse! It will strengthen your bond if you just spend time with your horse without demanding anything of it. Run your hands all over it. This will teach you what lumps and bumps are normal for your horse. Then if there is a problem you will spot it. Watch his eyes. If he blinks excessively at a certain point this may be a hint of trouble. Try a little massage. If you are unsure of this, then just figure out where his 'Sweet Spot' is and give him a scratch. Most horses enjoy having their withers scratched, but all have different favorite spots. Experiment. If the horse starts pulling faces, lifts his head, mouths or goes parrot-mouthed you have found that spot. And they will love you for it! Charlie loves having his chest scratched. Dora likes her chin rubbed. Daisy loves a forehead rub, while Lu loves having her ears gently pulled. Lily loves a good scratch behind her ears....and Mini? She just loves being scratched all over. She loves having her bum scratched with a poo-picking rake. Equally she loves her chest and belly being scratched. I frequently sit down in front of her and do just that. In return she grooms my hair and back. Another day she will want a good forehead rub. She lets you know what she wants!!
There are a few different Bodywork Techniques and they all have their merits. Many years ago when I ran the RDA we were lucky enough to have Linda Tellington-Jones come out to do a demo of her T-Touch technique. She used the RDA ponies and boy were they in for a treat. I have forgotten so much but one thing that I have used many times since was a technique that may or may not have been called Clouded Leopard. It involves small circles along the neck, just below the mane on the Bladder Meridian Line. It certainly relaxes the horse!!
So check out Tellington Touch on YouTube.
Another Bodywork Technique that I found fascinating from the Summit was learning about the Bladder Meridian Line. This is a line that runs from just above the eye, over the poll, down the neck just below the mane, along the groove just below the spine, through the line on the quarters, and down the hind leg, following the grooves between tendons, right down to the coronet band. There are many videos on YouTube. Also check out the Masterson Technique which uses meridian lines and various simple exercises to release tension in your horse and help your bond.
I then watched a couple of videos on tack fitting with increasing horror!!!
First up.... saddle fit. I have used many different saddles on many different horses over the years, and think I am a reasonable judge of saddle fit. But please please use a properly trained saddle fitter. The saddle is an important piece of equipment, and a saddle that is ok, is not perfect. The saddle also has to fit the rider. And must NOT place the rider or any pressure behind the 18th vertebrae as this is where the ribs end.
There was a story from an old Cowboy about "Local Tying Up". Long and short, we have all heard of Tying Up (Azoturia), or as it used to be called 'Monday Morning Sickness'. Happened when the horse was worked hard all week, had a day of rest in its stable on Sunday and come Monday Morning its muscles had seized up. Anyways this cowboy had ridden a young mare hard all day, rounding up the cattle, in a saddle that was an Ok fit, but not perfect. When they got home the large muscle on her back had swelled and seized up. She had "Local Tying Up". If she hadn't have had to work so hard she would have been ok. However, if her Saddle had been a perfect fit she would have been able to do that work without injury!!
When I had Paddy I finally saved up enough for a decent 2nd hand saddle. I had a saddle fitter out who had a brilliant reputation and had being doing the job for years and years. He turned up with a van full of saddles, and proceeded to try them on Paddy. We ended up with 8 possibles. I then had to lunge him. 4 were discarded. I then had to ride in the remaining 4. For a long time. Over an hour and a half! Walk, trot, canter, jump etc. 2 more were discarded. The saddle fitter was happy. My choice. Then my field mate arrived. Having ascertained that Marie also rode and jumped Paddy sometimes he made her get up and ride over the jumps. He pronounced that only one saddle was good for us both. It was £50 more than I had......But it was also the one I wanted. A 16in Ideal Working Hunter Saddle. Perfect for a wide, short-coupled Fell Pony with upright shoulders that I liked to jump. The Saddle Fitter let me off the £50 so that we had the right saddle!! If you have anything less of a service.....Don't bother!
And now onto Bits. For a long time now I have not used Snaffle Bits with a Nutcracker action, only french links or 'peanut' bits, but having watched this video on bitting I am now questioning the use of bits at all. We have already moved Dora and Mini onto simple Bitless Rope Bridles. And they have both responded really well. But they are usually on lead-reins. Dare we go Bitless ? I think after watching this we will!!!
The video showed a simple demo of a cloth rolled up as a tongue, with two fingers the bars. Then a simple plain old harmless snaffle was laid on the 'tongue'. Oops. just from the weight of the bit the tongue was squashed flat.
Next up a ported straight bar. Ok maybe if your horse has an exceptionally narrow tongue. But they don't. The tongue was squished. So you hurt your horses tongue just on a loose rein. Then you pull on the mouth. The bars of the mouth get pinched, the nutcracker action of the good old plain mild snaffle, then comes up and hits the roof of the mouth. The horse opens its mouth, tries to put its tongue over the bit, sets it necks...anything to relieve that pressure. So what do you do? You say the horse is strong. Its naughty. You need stronger brakes. You fit a Flash nose-band or Grakle. That stops it being able to relieve the pain. With no relief the horse may set its neck even more, it will start to panic. It runs off. Adrenalin takes over. The Horse just wants to get away from the pain, and bolts, or bucks.....or both. So what do you do next? Get a stronger, nastier more painful bit. How about a Pelham? Or anything with long shanks? Yeah lets put pressure on the Poll too. Force its head down. Or we could chose a thin bit, one with tongue plates, one that hurts the mouth more.
I am ashamed to say I have used Dutch Gags (Poll Pressure), Pelhams, Rollers (I naively thought the horse couldn't pull coz it couldn't get a grip on the bit, more likely the gaps between the rollers were nipping its tongue), and even a Running Gag (Cheltenham Gag) years ago on my very strong mare. The thing is, I owned her for 12 years. I knew the more you held her back, the stronger she would get. If anyone else rode her I would advise them to ride on the Buckle. If she got faster I would say "Don't pull, just relax". Why the hell did I not see the connection and ride her in a headcollar???????? My only excuse is thats how it was then. We didn't know any better.
But we did....If only we had looked back a hundred years or so. Apparently in the old days, when horses worked for a living, there were Bitsmiths. Skilled men who traveled the country fitting and making custom bits according to each horses mouth and tongue. When the Horse was sold, the Bit went with him. I can't help feeling since horses have become animals for leisure only we have lost all skill as horse-keepers. For thousands of years, man used horses for work and transport. One horse had to work all day, and last for many years. It had to pull all goods. It was a taxi. It carried the whole family, it hauled logs, carried other animals (killed for food). It went to War. It delivered Milk, Coal and the post. It pulled the plough and brought in the harvest. It pulled canal boats, and went down mines. And there were no vets, ex-rays, hard feed, rugs. Ordinary people were extraordinary Horsemen, just because they lived and worked with horses all day every day. The horses had long working lives, because they worked! They were muscled up, unafraid, didn't eat sugar and were treated with herbs when they were sick. Sorry I digress. Thats only my opinion...Not the opinion of The Horsemanship Summit.
And so back to the Summit. Bitless Bridles. As I am interested in going Bitless, I gobbled this up...And had to change a long held belief that Hackamores are severe. English Hackamores have a long shank....so I always assumed this meant they were severe. But they are milder than any bit. Yes they put pressure on the poll, jaw and nose.....but not the tongue or bars of the mouth. As Daisy seems to hate a bit, as soon as she is declared fit to ride, I am going to try her in a Hackamore. And I am now saving up for a leather Sidepull which is the mildest. Dr Cook Bridles put pressure on the opposing cheek, so not all horses like them. And plain old rope Bosals came in last, purely because a thin piece of rope is more severe than something thicker...although putting a bit of sheepskin over the nose-piece negates that.
That said, it is important to fit Bitless Bridles correctly. The noseband MUST sit on the bony part of the horse nose. If its too low it will sit on the cartilage...and cause pain!
I have to say Daisy has concerned me for a while. She came to us in a bobbly bit and a Grakle. She pulled, she was on the forehand, and would lunge into canter. I have never been a fan of Nosebands, so before long had removed it. I had realised she pulled against the bit, so ride her on the Buckle, pushing from behind. Over the years she has become a lot more balanced and 'under herself'. She stopped bucking (mostly) and tripped a lot less. Sometimes she tanks off. I normally just let her go.....Once she is in front of Lu, she stops. Only once has she outright took off in a gallop with me. We were out alone and I steered her into some trees, which stopped her. She did rear a bit, and canter on the spot, but soon calmed down. Occasionally she has these moments out on a hack, but I know her so well, I just sit quietly and laugh. But one day I tried to see her from a strange riders point of view. I figured she may scare them. So I got her a Dutch Gag with a French Link. Mild I thought, but with a bit of stopping power if needed. And yet when ridden by other people who don't trust her enough to leave the reins loose, she still opens her mouth against the bit. Despite the bars of her mouth being hard (through years of pulling), this bit obviously puts too much pressure on her tongue. I will be trying her in a Hackamore!
And thats it for tonight!!
Here is a picture that, in Hindsight I am not very proud of. It was taken in the early nineties and i am riding Skittles in a Riding Club Horse class, where we had to use a 'plain old snaffle'. She is pulling, and I am hauling back. Look at her mouth! 😦
