Life is Too Short, Ride Your Best Horse First

I often get so wrapped up in the client horses and riding lessons here for training that when the day comes to an end, I'm exhausted and I realize that I wanted to ride Highboy but didn't get to him.  This used to happen to me a lot when I had Major and Cecil as well, it seemed like because they were the horses who were farthest along in their training I would often leave them for last on the list because it wasn't a crisis if I didn't get to them. 

However, as time has passed and I've lost good horses to the big pasture in the sky, I've come to realize that the quote, "Life is too short, ride your best horse first" is a good one by which to live.  As part of my self-care routine I have been working with Highboy twice a week, because he is MY horse, and the one that grows my soul.  He is a long term project, he arrived here two years ago as a four year old.  In the time he's been with me he has grown four inches taller, and now he looks like a sport horse instead of a gangly youngster.  If his free jumping while playing in the arena is any indicator, once he is finished growing and I really start his under saddle jumping training he will make me a better rider over fences, too. 

One afternoon a few weeks ago I was riding with some boarders here, and Highboy approached Sara and asked to chew on her crop.  It had a rubbery handle with little nubbles for grip.  Sara offered it to Highboy, who took it in between his teeth and proceeded to slowly chew on it.  He almost went into a trance, he closed his eyes and kept rolling the crop handle around and around in his mouth.  I had the thought that he may be wanting a different bit now that he's further along in his training and getting a little fidgety with his face.  

Since then I've been experimenting with his bits to see what he likes.  At the top of the bits photo you can see the one Highboy preferred when he first arrived here.  He said he liked a snaffle with eggbutt sides, a single joint, with a copper mouth.  It was probably what was most familiar to him from racing.  At the time I tried a bunch of other things with him, but he said he preferred that one. 

Now that he is a little older and has more riding experience, he says that he's ready for something different.  I tried the bit that is second from the top in the photo, Cecil's old double jointed KK loose ring snaffle.  Highboy liked it pretty well but said he didn't want the loose ring.  I knew that was the part which was bothering him because his tongue and jaw were relatively quiet with the three pieces inside it, but if I tried to cue him with a rein he would tense and wrinkle the corners of his lips. 

To address that, I then tried a three piece bit, the third one from the top in the photo, a sweet iron french link with eggbutt sides.  Highboy liked it pretty well.  He would salivate and get some nice toothpaste-like foam in the corners of his lips, but his tongue and mouth were still busier than I would expect if he was truly happy with it.

I kept up the search to find something he likes best, and I was able to track down a combination of the things he liked:  the bottom bit in the photo.  It has D-ring sides so no movement there, three pieces, and a tasty mouthpiece with a copper roller in the middle.  I put it on Highboy this morning to see what he thought, and it was like I had hit some sort of switch in his brain. 

His mouth was incredibly quiet, and his entire demeanor changed.  The new bit was acting like a pacifier, so much that Highboy almost seemed like he had been sedated.  I had to really rev him up to get a canter from him, and even hopping over the little jumps in the arena he was almost sticky and slow.  But his mouth was quiet and he seemed so much more focused than his regular excited and distractable self.  I then took him out to the back forty to walk with the dogs, where he did wake up a little and did hop around and play once we got to the far side.  Mostly, though, he said very clearly that he likes this new snaffle, at least for now.