UN-BRIDLING THE HORSE WITH CONTROL

by

John O'Leary
Horseman
© 2003

I have often spoken about the relationship between ear shy horses and incorrect or incompetent bridling practices. Now I want to give you a method of un-bridling the horse so that you have control and can eliminate the chance of failure, which is one of the main causes to the ear shy horse. Especially with the newly broken in horse , as everything must be imprinted with success, for this is when problems can easily occur.

Pony Club and Coaches in Australia, teach virtually every new horse owner to unbridle in the following manner. That is because that's all they know because that is all they were taught. Horsemen rarely, if ever,  get invited to Pony Club or Coaching Clinics. Here is how they do it.

Take the bridle in the right hand between the ears, pull the bridle over the ears, take their hand outwards from the front of the head in a vain attempt to assist the horse to spit the bit out of it's mouth. This is exactly what prevents the bit from dropping downwards safely and this is exactly what causes the head to rise. Meanwhile, there is no control of the head of the horse and it can raise the head all it likes, hook the bit on the teeth and fling the bridle across the yard in the process. It is this occurrence that commences a paranoia of the un-bridling process and it happens through a lack of horsemanship and control knowledge.

Due to the attempt of the handler to assist the horse to remove the bridle by holding the bridle up in the air out front of the face, the bit cannot fall straight downwards when the mouth opens and it is promoted to raise up, thus hooking the teeth. I have watched thousands of them and the left hand normally travels outwards and level with the eyes of the horse. Think about that for a minute. Here is an alternative method.

  • Place your left hand open across the face of the horse, midway between the nostrils and eyes. Have it there ready to apply pressure against the face if the horse goes to lift it, thereby keeping the head in a perpendicular form, thus allowing gravity to do the job when the horse opens the mouth.
     

  • Push the ear piece over the ears and release the bridle totally. Under no circumstances must your hand pass a line drawn across the front of the ears. Totally drop the bridle.
     

  • The bridle falls straight down along the forehead, the horse opens the mouth, the bit falls towards the ground and the bridle lands hanging around your left forearm.
     

  • Keep the pressure applied to the face of the horse until the horse gives to that pressure and nods downwards. Thus setting up the future assurance of success. Put another way, you still must have your hand on the face of the horse and assert enough pressure to ensure the horse learns to place it's head in a perpendicular form when spitting a bit out......and therein lies the answer to all of the problems.

Horses must spit the bit out and it must drop straight down with speed. The Pony Club system interferes with this and that is why there are so many negative incidents with such a process.

I know it doesn't matter on your old Pony Club Horse but it does matter to other horses and not all new people into the Industry are always going to be having plodders'. I meet them regularly and one this week again. It is being knocked out under general anesthetic to have it's ears looked into. I bet it has nothing to do with ear mites.

 

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