This page is dedicated to all of you that have `binned the bit`. For all the horses that no longer have to endure the discomfort and pain of having a metal bit in their mouths.
If you would like to send your pics and a little bit about your equine friends transitional period from bit to bitless and which bitless bridles your horses prefer, I would love to hear from you. So send a pic and some text and I will add it to this page. Send to sjandtj@btinternet.com
As this is a new site and I am still working on it, I will start the page with some of my horses that have come to me with bits in their mouths and having behavioural problems caused by bitting.
Silver Shahma
  | Shahma an Arab Mare was advertised in our local paper at a reduced price because she weaved. I went along to see Shahma, she`d been `broken in` (a word I hate) When we first saw Shahma she was so depressed and sad, and when the yard chucked the saddle on her she had a panic attack. I knew then I had to take Shahma from that horrible yard. Actually Shahma chose me. The yard wasn`t selling Shahma they were just getting her ready for selling. I contacted her breeder and heard all about Shahmas story. This person bred her and sold her on, and then found out that Shahma wasn`t looked after very well. I saw the pics of her when the breeder went to buy her back, she was a bag of bones, nearly starved, and had all sorts of skin conditions/sores over her back. Shahma came to me with loads of health problems, and mental problems, we took years working things out together, and we became such great friends. As soon as she came home to me we rode out bitless, she was so much happier. Shahma loves the Sidepull bitless bridle best, but doesn`t mind which bridle as long as she doesn`t have to endure metal in her mouth again. We started doing some local endurance rides, and Shahma was so good at it, she was picked for the Welsh Team as a Novice horse. She loved it, sadly after a few more rides I semi retired Shahma as I knew her health wasn`t 100%. We still go for lovely mountain rides and share pic nics. Shahma will always be with me, we are meant to be together.
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Toskin Mishmar
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Toskin is my beautiful boy, an Arab Gelding. I wasn`t really looking for another horse, but as they do he came along. I loved him the first time I set eyes on him. He`d been taken with his mother to be `broken in`. I wish when I first saw him I had taken him there and then before he was `broken in`. Anyway when I finally found the money to purchase Toskin he`d already been `broken in`.
I tried him out and he was a nightmare to ride, and his personality had changed. Anyway I decided to buy him and bring him home. He had so many hang-ups and would bite and kick anybody around him. I had to gain his trust, and slowly we overcame all of his fears/hangups, that had obviously been caused by the wrong starting process. When he came to me I gave him lots of quality horsey time and just played and had lots of fun together, we went back to basics, very slowly. Toskin was started in a scawbrig bitless bridle, and ridden in a Crossover, Scawbrig, and now a Sidepull. Toskin loves to play, and often we will play `chase me` in and out of the trees. |
La Vida Charismma
 | Vida is my `Dancing Arab`. She loves playing and dancing and learning new things. Vida was started the traditional way at a Dressage Yard, when she came home to me I re-started her bitless and barefoot. So Vida has also `binned the bit`. Vida and myself play and learn new things all the time. We ride across the mountains, do pleasure rides, and generally just play and have loads of fun together. Vida had a brilliant life before I fell in love with her, so no problems to work through. When Vida came here she hadn`t seen sheep, cows, open mountains, streams etc, so these are the things we had to work through. Now we ride across the open mountains, through streams, sheep, cows etc and Vida takes it all in her stride. All the dancing and play we do together is all done at liberty. Vidas dancing first started when myself and Tim (partner) were having some dancing lessons (winter fun and exercise). Anyway Tim and myself would go onto the yard in wellies and waterproofs and practice our dancing. Vida would watch us and then start copying our steps, it was so funny, three of us dancing together. So I decided to tap into this talent with Vida just for fun and at liberty. When she wants to play and dance she will just find me in the field or on the yard and start dancing, and stepping out. I just love to play with my Arabs, it`s not just about riding our horses, it`s about the whole thing, the affinity and love we all have for each other.
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Finn
 | I got Finn five years ago and right away noticed he was head shy, but not to a severe degree, probably because he was severely mal nourished, though being a first time horse owner, and being told that it was a natural shape for a TB, I didn't realise! He also went all the time with his tongue over the bit, it must've been doulbe jointed as no matter how high up in his mouth it was jacked and how tight the flash cranked, he still got it over. I was told he was dangerous like this, though I always had complete control of him, even if I had to be firm on the reins, which as he's rather not go than go, didn't happen much! Long story short, he has a lot of issues and was clearly beaten up before I got him, and was by some of the yard owners where he lived, but they can be crafty about how they do it, so by the time I noticed my boy was a bit people phoebic, the damage had been done! So my dream horse, wasn't! As I loved him with heart and soul, I never gave up! I was blamed by half the people for his bridling issues, told that I must have knocked him in the teeth because I'm so short, when I knew I hadn't. After a severe fall in which I was thankfully not permanently injured, I lost my nerve and things got much worse, poor Finn became terrified of everyone as the yard owners hit him round the head with the hard end of a whip (being hurt and housebound for a few weeks I didn't know this either!) So by the time I was able to ride again, he had more than a few fears! He became utterly impossible to bridle on bad days, and could take an hour on good days! The guy who rode him for me, used draw reins though he had very gentle hands, and Finn looked like a merri-go-round horse with wide open mouth and whites around the eyes showing and tense wide open nostrils. He would spook, nap and bronk like a rodeo horse every 5 minutes of 'normal' looking riding. So I knew the bit HAD to go! I read up and found the DR Cook, the minute I put it near Finn's head, he stuck his nose in it with enthusiasm, which for a headshy horse, pretty good! He long lined in it well, licking and chewing, (which in NH terms means he's thinking and learning!) with pricked ears, a relaxed muzzles that he blew out and snuffled through (a sign he's a happy chappy!) I rode him in it on my own three times for 45 mins each, and trottted, in spooking conditions with motor mowers around and he didn't bat an eyelid at ANY of it! His trot was also loose and forward and almost eager which had never happened before. At the time I had been too nervous of his tense behaviour to ride off a lunge, budifferent before I even got on. We love it!t in this bitless bridle, I just KNEW it was By the way, as a final note, we are also totally barefoot and treeless, which helped a lot of his problems too! The English style I'm riding in is a freeform, and the black western one is a barefoot nevada, and we LOVE them both! I think I may trade in my Dr Cook for a sidepull, as it'll be easier to do my NH things in, including dissengaging the hind end as this signal seems to be very confusing in the Dr Cook. As I'm a jeweller, I'm planning to braid my own out of bright coloured leather and bright rope for the nose part, native american ish style! Jennifer and Finn |
Maddie
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Here is our Maddie in the lovely scawbrig we got from you! Thank you for making a special Maddie sized one! We also use a rope riding halter sometimes. ( Often I will take both into her stable and let her choose which one she wants and this works very well. ) We did try Maddie in a cross under bitless bridle too but she was not happy in it at all. She did not like the 'head hug' action and became very distressed each time it was used. Our decision to 'go bitless' did not include keeping her in a particular product if it was not right for Maddie, and we knew we would find the right solution eventually! Since Maddie has been bitless she has been far more chilled out !
We are very lucky that we have direct access out onto a country park with miles of bridleways and off road riding so we have no road work to do if we don't want to. In relation to riding bitless many people don't even realise Maddie is bitless at all ! When people do eventually notice I often get asked 'where are your brakes?' ... my answer .. 'if your horse won't stop when you ask him / her too.. i think that's not a bitting or a bridle issue .. its a relationship issue'. Maddie , as good as she is , occasionally won't 'play ball' when I ask her to ... but , then again, she didn't when she was bitted either! It's all too easy sometimes to forget that the horse isn't being 'naughty' when they havn't done what we've asked ... they're just being horses !!!! Horses just don't have the same agendas as people do and we must remember that - always !
They also very often ask me ' how do you control her?' ,, my answer is .. if anyone thinks they can 'control' an animal as big as Maddie they are very sadly mistaken ... .. i ask: 'Maddie lets do this.. ' and she says either ' yes', 'no' ..or ... occasionally ... 'up yours' .... !!! the plan is that we then try to negotiate a suitable compromise - one which hopefully means neither of us losing our dignity and respect. Sometimes that's very much easier said than done - especially when its the 'up yours' response!
Not only have we now 'binned the bit ' we've also 'shoved the saddle' too! When Maddie first came to us last year she was very assymetrical - she had had a bad abcess, at some time, in one of her front feet which had caused her to overcompensate with the other shoulder, leaving her more heavily muscled on one side. This gave us major headaches when trying to find a suitable saddle. We tried a number of styles of both treeless and treed saddles but nothing really worked well for Maddie. In the end I found it was just easier to ride without a saddle. I'm lucky she's like a sofa ... you can plod along all day in comfort! I can now feel her back lifting and moving as mother nature intended it too ... and the biggest benefit with riding bareback is that your seat and riding improve tremendously ..... in a very short while !!! !
Maddie is the classic example of 'less is more'. My lovely girl is indeed a gentle giant. She is a 12 year old, 17 hand, Shire x Irish Draft and weighs in at about 800kgs. ( Shhh ..... we don't tell her she's big - we say she is 'voluptuous!) This is a helluva lot of horse to handle ! She has the Shire build and is incredibly strong and powerful. She could very easily take advantage of our relationship and cause absolute mayhem if she chose to. I'm so very lucky that she is a horse in a million and chooses not to do so ( ... though I'm sure she must think it occasionally as she often has a twinkle in her eye when she thinks I'm not looking !!!)
She has some major damage in her front feet from her old abcess and previous laminitis. We pulled her shoes last year when she first came to us .. but her poor feet were not able to sustain her weight on the weak and damaged hooves she then had. After many months of top supplements, and rigorous hoof hygiene and care, her feet are now improved beyond recognition. She's just been into hospital with canker in all four feet - a sad legacy of her previous neglect. We are glad to say we're on top of it at the moment and she's recovering well ... but the vet does not want her shoes off yet. We are hoping that, at some point, she will be able to finally try and go barefoot .. but in the meantime, prior to that, we need to find someone who makes HUGE hoofboots ..... and when we say HUGE ... we mean 'Maddie sized' ones '! |
Despite the abuse and neglect she has been through in her past she is still so very gentle, kind, trusting, honest and forgiving. She is so gracious in putting up with my amateur attempts at 'horse-womanship'. Maddie is my first horse and I always thought my riding was at ' rusty novice' level! I was worried about whether I would be a good enough partner for her and whether or not she would be happy with me. Well ..... Maddie is an angel in disguise and has taught me so very much since she came to me, and not just about horses, she also taught me about myself. She gave me the courage to try new things and most importantly 'to stand in my own truth'. When I go to her in the field she thows her head up, neighs and canters to me - and I don't think you can get any better reassurance than that!!!
We will keep on doing what we're doing ... because we know it works!
