A "bit" of illumination.

Last year, we decided to compete Jazz. I showed Sonia a couple of videos and she was determined to try to get him to stop opening his mouth. I told her I thought it would never be solved, because he has always opened his mouth to evade control - I have video of him doing it with the stable jockey before I bought him. Sonia insisted that we try a warmblood weymouth by Neue Schule, which has a massive, forward tilted port to make room for the tongue. Over the course of the summer and autumn, Jazz made very little progress in his training until I gave up going to Sonia in October.

By this time I had bought a pelham to hack in with a similar port, on the assumption that it would be better if both his bits felt the same. Out on a hack one day he spun and ran for home ..... and I could not stop him! In the old mullen mouth pelham - no problems. In the "kinder" one - no control.

I put the old bits back on both the double bridle and his hacking bridle. They have no port and a lot of tongue pressure, but he cannot run through them and he respects that. Jazz always feels more settled in his head when he knows the score. While there is a chance of escape, he worries about whether he should take it. With no chance of escape, he sets to and tries to do what you want. He's the same in the lorry. Tied down, he travels really well. It sounds quite barbaric, but with the ropes and chains fixed he is actually much happier.

Anyway, the schooling has recently been going exceptionally well, as you know. So I decided that since he had learnt his lesson about respecting the bit, I would put him back in the ported weymouth that he should be more comfortable in, and see if it made  a difference to the amount of mouth-opening he did. It didn't. But after three days what DID happen is that he was pulling, chucking his nose out, failing to bend and setting on my left hand (an old foible).

In the middle of a session this afternoon, I took him back to his stable and changed the bit back. And the difference was absolutely remarkable. Instant bend and flexion and a FAR more relaxed Jazz.  We did half pass trot and canter and simple changes, all as well as he can do them and very willing. Those bits are going back into storage until we try them on Ace.

Though that may be quite some time, since it seems obvious to me at the moment that Ace will be able to go right to the highest allowable level in a snaffle if we want him to. I do think doubles look so smart on a dressage horse though - it kind of completes the picture. Pointless, possibly irritating to the horse to have two bits in its mouth, but then again part of my thinking is that if he has to wear one above advanced level, he may as well wear one at elementary. I can always ride it on the snaffle and leave the curb rein loose. We'll see.

C