It's gotten me thinking a lot about whether a double bridle might help us out. I wanted him in the snaffle for sure through Third level because I've heard from numerous judges that they double take when they see horses at Third level in a double. He is also so backed off the contact in the snaffle that I didn't think it'd be helpful.
 |
| The SO and I carved pumpkins! Mine was obviously TC with a weird chin |
Now though, he's downright heavy in the contact, which is fabulous, and he also tends to get himself a bit stacked up and over strong. I have a pony I'm riding right now that does the same thing and it's very easy for me to provide the pony support in the stacked up-ness and help him find the contact again, then he goes back to the connection and everything is great. I am... not strong enough to provide that support to TC. I need like 6 inches and 75lbs on me to do that I think, he's not a small horse. So that made me consider that maybe I could ride him as I normally do in the bradoon, then pick up the curb when he gets a little over strong to help him find the bradoon again.
On Tuesday, I decided to just throw him in my double and see what happened. He's carried it a few times, both on the trails (2019) and around the ranch (2018).
 |
| He wore this exact bridle! |
I think my biggest takeaway is how unbelievably complicated this horse can be. I picked up the bradoon and he reached for it okay (not as good as in his snaffle though), so then I touched him with the curb and he curled immediately. Cool, cool. So the entire ride was pressing him into the bradoon, using the curb when absolutely necessary, then throwing it at him when he didn't stay into the bradoon when it was used.
This made the ride way more mentally challenging than physically challenging. TC is usually a good mixture of the two. Not heavy in the bridle, although at the canter recently he's been rather heavy, and not a horse you have to kick every stride unless you do and then he absolutely is (he is happy to do whatever you want him to do, including slowing down when you nag him). Challenging enough mentally but not so much that I feel like my timing has to be perfect or else.
It shifted him completely over to a mental ride, which was fun but it hurt my brain.
 |
| It's a pretty browband at least! |
The biggest change I noticed was in the canter, which was a no-duh moment given how much more physically challenging he is in the canter vs how mentally challenging he is in the trot. Having that curb DID allow me to push him more in the canter and it made a huge difference in my ability to ride him positively forward.
We were able to ride a lot of tempi changes, a lot of forward and back, and a bunch of haunches-in down the long side. The changes were SO much better, like way more through because I would put my curb rein at my fingertips and let him hit it gently if he came up in the poll. The forward and back was way better because I could get him back a lot faster, in a more finessed way, but especially without as much right rein, which he's been hanging on recently. The haunches-in was way easier too as he didn't get as stacked up in the neck and therefore didn't get as long in his body.
The trot was... fine. I will say hands down that I prefer him in the snaffle in the trot. He was so backed off of it that I ended up kind of dropping the curb. And the bradoon was a french link, which he backs off of already, so that wasn't doing us any favors. But we still did end with some good work as he got more tolerant of the french link.
 |
| The current setup, although it's a little dirtier now |
My thought is to ride him in it once a week or so to help me work on the canter at a higher level. I was hoping that the work in the double would help him in the snaffle, but it seems to have made almost no difference at least this one time. Oh well. I definitely don't want to ride him in it more than that, nor do I want to show him in it any time soon. I still think he's a little too green for it.
Also, I think I'd like to try other bits to see about getting him super comfortable in the double. Neue Schule, who makes his snaffle bit (turtle top eggbutt), has some great recommendations on their website. I think I'd like to do a bit fitting for that though, rather than just guessing. So I'm asking around to see if anyone is going to put one on any time soon and in the mean time, I'll borrow some bits from dressage extensions and see if they make TC a little more comfortable in the double.
I like your pumpkin
ReplyDelete