Interesting stuff from Standardbred Canada's Trot Radio

[triplev123]

http://www.standardbredcanada.ca/news/6-23-11/could-equipment-reduce-bleeding.html

[strong persuader]

I can agree with him. Even went through the trials of trying one on a horse that pulled its head off at anything slower than a 32 quarter, yet in the bitless bridle it never tightened a rein. Met with a direct refusal that it wouldn't even be considered to be trialled for approval, so gave up on the idea. That was around 12 years ago, so maybe the reception would be more favourable nowadays.

[triplev123]

G'day SP,
I've had that link and have been meaning to post it for a while now but keep forgetting.
On the face of it, the premise that horses who grab on are at a greater risk of becoming bleeders makes absolutely perfect sense to me and I suspect that a bit-less bridle has a great deal of merit in that regard.
My initial reaction to the idea was to think of how much control you can exert over a ready to rock, well & truly stirred up & heading to the breeding shed fully grown stallion with just a simple length of chain over his nose. I much prefer chains to rearing bits. The latter are a bit of a joke IMO. I'm not advocating that we send horses out geared up like Sid Vicious of course however, getting back to bit-less bridles...I'm sure there is significant room for investigation and trial there. I'd really like to run the idea past a mate of mine who is a very good horseman & exceptional educator of young horses in particular. He's always open to trying new things. I'll let you know what he thinks.

[Don Corleone]

Mostly now I only educate yearlings and for the first and maybe second prep I never place a bit in their mouths. I been doing that for 30 odd years now. About 25 years ago I ran the proposal past the powers to be about no bit and was meet with MAJOR resistance. All my horses are educated into the saddle at the same time. Never once over those years have I had a problem and believe me I have had some hardcase yearlings in that time.
Me and and friend once tried a hackamore bridle on a deer with some hilarious consequences - it would move to the right, left, do a figure 8 and halt. But sometimes it decided it simply didn't want to move forward. Which led me to the conclusion that deer have to be related to mules!
Honestly most of the gear we put on our horses is not required. But due to regulations sometimes we have to wear them.

[triplev123]

Don C writes [Honestly most of the gear we put on our horses is not required. But due to regulations sometimes we have to wear them.]

G'day Don C.

Due to regulations for sure and also due to other things too.
Over the years it seems to me that the minute a horse does something wrong even once some trainers will automatically go searching for some bit of gear to whack on it.
Maybe the horse starts to hang a bit so straight away on goes a Pole instead of them first looking for the reason, perhaps it's some soreness in the hocks or their back or whatever or it's a dental issue or one of a myriad of other things that could cause it to be wayward.
You'll see these guys at the races and they'll be rigging up horses with harsh bits, burrs, poles, hoods & so on and I often wonder how on Earth any horse that's wearing the Tack Shop could ever feel close to comfortale and prepared to give of its best. I wonder how it could ever possibly be mentally focussed on the job at hand as opposed to thinking about the various pieces of gear that it has collected and is now carrying?
Sometimes if you take even a cursory look at the Tack Shoppers you'll see straight away that they're sore somewhere... but instead of listening to what the poor horse is trying to tell them by doing whatever it's doing wrong and treating that...they'll just keep reaching for gear.
A friend of ours ALWAYS tries to have his horses rigged in an open bridle... and by open I mean wide open, no nose band, nothing...much like a Galloper...and more often than not there'll be no head check either. The thing I've noticed most is that his horses are just so relaxed pre-race and then how genuinely upbeat and keen they are when they go out onto the track. I also figure that being rigged so sparsely gives you a chance at a very early heads up if a horse goes sore or it is sick or not 100% on song for whatever reason. A swag of gear hides or at the very least shades a good many sins, IMO

[Greg Hando]

The biggest problem with unruly racehorses that need all the gear is the way they were broken in and educated by so called horsemen that just look for the easy way out to fix a problem instead of educating the horse properly in the first place there are very few true horseman in our industry at present plenty of good trainer's,driver's etc but not horseman these are few and far between IMO
I'm with Don i think all horses should be ridden when broken in easy to control them on their back all we've done for 90 year's ( the family ) is ridden them from the start and find the horse's are better educated overall with the odd exception to the rule.

[triplev123]

Bzzzzzzzzz. Only single poles allowed here in Oz. Never seen one of Luke's rigged Stoneridge Scooter style.

[triplev123]

That's a burr.

[triplev123]

The biggest problem with unruly racehorses that need all the gear is the way they were broken in and educated by so called horsemen that just look for the easy way out to fix a problem instead of educating the horse properly in the first place there are very few true horseman in our industry at present plenty of good trainer's,driver's etc but not horseman these are few and far between IMO
I'm with Don i think all horses should be ridden when broken in easy to control them on their back all we've done for 90 year's ( the family ) is ridden them from the start and find the horse's are better educated overall with the odd exception to the rule.

Each to his own. I can see the idea behind it but personally, not into having them ridden. Pacers can & do have enough back problems as it is.

[Flashing Red]

They were a lot of gear in America because going that speed, if you aren't going straight YOU LOOSE GROUND. You will hardly ever, ever see a horse in NA going around with its head screwed to the left or the right, hanging around a turn. Here every second horse does. If they aren't going straight, not only do you loose ground but you risk them breaking down by placing uneven pressure on their legs.

[Flashing Red]

Bzzzzzzzzz. Only single poles allowed here in Oz. Never seen one of Luke's rigged Stoneridge Scooter style.

As far as I'm aware you can have a full pole on one side and also a rein/line (half) pole on the other. It's ridiculous, we should be able to put 2 full poles on the horses if they need it. They'll be changing the rules once no race goes slower than 1:53 at Menangle....

[Flashing Red]

Working with stallions, I have found that I have more control with a chain over their nose than a bit in their mouth, personally. I would be happy to race horses in bitless bridles if it suited the horse. :) From personal experience I have also found that the harder a horse pulls, the more likely it is to either develop into a bleeder or bleed worse.... I have used Kyneton bit's in conjunctions with snaffles for bad pullers. Works for some horses, not for others. Normally good for horses that won't tolerate a chain in their mouth. I'm guessing these horses would probably also go good in a bitless bridle, considering the Kyneton works off pressure on the nose...

[Flashing Red]

horses bleeding because they are straining their body harder, breathing harder ?

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