Cob Jockey

Connor's tongue-over-the-bit issues are not something I've fully documented on this blog. I've mentioned them every so often, but not as often as it happens.

To find a picture to illustrate the problem, I picked a random Year/Month photo folder in which I thought I probably showed, picked a random photo to look at to see if his mouth was gaping open, and found one immediately. If that doesn't tell you how prevalent this problem really is, I don't know what will. Photo from September of 2017.

I created it initially with my heavy-handed riding, and then it turned into a habit, his default reaction to the work getting hard, which, in retrospect, probably held us back as much as anything, because I was afraid of asking him to step up his game for fear of triggering an episode. As soon as things got challenging in a ride, he'd get it over, no matter what trainer we were riding with or what bridle we were riding in.

At this point, it's as fixed as it will ever be, so I wanted to share what worked and what didn't in case any of you find yourselves in this unfortunate situation. In chronological order:

 Riding in the Bombers Happy Tongue Loose Ring, straight bar version

 

The bottom bit

This is the only bit that he wouldn't - or couldn't - get his tongue over, and it gave me an opening into breaking the habit. We rode in it for a year after the bit fitting clinic at CGP's, and it helped to break the habit, although I'm not riding in it permanently - CGP eventually said I needed more finesse for Dressage than the straight bar gave me.

 

Kissing double jointed bits goodbye

 

Connor has very short lips, and double-jointed bits, especially loose rings, seem to hang low on his tongue and were an invitation to him to get his tongue over. At this point, I can't imagine ever going back to a double-jointed bit with him, we've had so much more success with a single joint.

 

Fixing myself

 

This, obviously, is the biggest thing. I had to identify what pulling was (it wasn't what I thought it was), why I pulled (because I didn't have enough core tension to keep me stable in the saddle, so I used my hands to compensate), what I needed to do to break that habit (rediscover some dead neural-muscular connections, strengthen my core AND make my newly-strengthened core my brain's default unconscious go-to) and how to do it (Pilates).  

 

One rein riding

I do this less and less these days, but CGP telling me to ride him with one rein in small circles when he gets fussy with his mouth really helped. It changes the physical and mental paradigm of the moments before he'd normally get it over, and it also gives me an "If x happens, do y" type of tool that I can remember to use on my own.

 

Letting someone else earn back his trust of the contact

Temporarily giving up the ride had to happen. Four straight months of someone with amazing hands and great timing had to happen. I caused this problem, but I could not have solved it on my own.

 

Taking the bit away

I don't have any pictures of the sidepull, so how about a picture of a dog pulling at my side?

She only rode him in the sidepull a few times, but it was enough to break his ingrained habits. His relationship to the bridle was truly different after a few times in the sidepull - not to mention he was PISSED at having his favorite pressure release valve taken away.

Learning to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Two months ago, in a ride in which I distinctly remember CGP saying "You did a good job not freaking out about his mouth being busy today," and me saying "Oh I was freaking out on the inside."

He may not be getting his tongue over these days, but when the work gets hard he still defaults to a fussy mouth. CGP is adamant that I have to ride through it, that I can't interpret him mouthing the bit as a sign to back off, that I can't live in fear of him getting it over or we'll never progress. This is a work in progress - I know she's right, but this isn't something I'll rewire in my brain overnight.

Chiro, Massage and Ulcer Treatment

Best boy deserves the best treatments

I do think there's something to CGP's theory that pain elsewhere in the body makes him more likely to express his tension via his mouth. At this point he's been treated for foregut and hindgut ulcers, and he's been getting both chiro and bodywork at CGP's with great success. Bodywork in particular has made a huge difference, although that's a story for another day.

Finding a noseband he likes

Stillllll waiting (three months after I ordered it) for my Schockemohle drop to come in, thanks COVID.

I had basically ridden this horse in everything BUT a drop over the years, but it turns out he really prefers the drop. It also turns out that Micklem =/= drop, and he prefers the bit hangers not be attached to the noseband. Who knew?

This problem will never go away after he's done it for years, but at this point we can work with it and manage it, at least to the point that I can confidently say it won't happen in the show ring.

After six weeks of waiting, my new bit finally arrived on Friday!

Shame it won't stay this color blue forever

It's still amazing, although the instant forehand elevation he gave me at the clinic isn't quite as dramatic right now.  I have a feeling he's trying to figure out how to get around the new bit and me not letting him lean on me anymore now that my first instinct is to go to my core when he leans on me rather than my hands.  Turns out carrying your own head is, well, hard:


I don't normally do this in a review post, but the bit came with a very descriptive guide on the tag, describing the action my bit takes on the mouth and also quite a bit about Bombers bits in general, so I'm going to share that here in pictures.  Reminder that if you're reading this on RSS you may need to click through to my actual site for clear pictures.




My bit is the Happy Tongue Straight.  We tried the curved at the clinic and it was clear he went better in the straight.  I did end up borrowing the curved for three weeks from a barnmate though while waiting on my straight.









Coming soon - a comparison post between the Shires knockoff, the forward curved Happy Tongue Loose Ring and the straight Happy Tongue.

We're a month out from the clinic and parts of my clinic order have arrived.  (She did say it would take that long, which is fine)


That's not quite accurate.  The entire bridle has arrived, minus the reins, but the noseband arrived with a flash, so we're exchanging it for one without a flash, and rocking the western look in the meantime.

LOVE this crown design!  It lays so nicely over the top of the head.

I had hoped to replace the throatlatch with a smaller one, because he's on the last hole on both sides.  The throatlatch comes tagged and barcoded separately from the crown, albeit in the same bag, which made me think you could swap that part out, but sadly they don't sell them separately.  The horse crown is definitely the right size, so we'll deal.

Look how much room the little guy has for his ears, I'm so happy.

I'm going to do a proper review of it once I have the whole bridle, but even with all the hassle, I'm so happy with it.  Remember the whole reason I went down this bit/bridle fitting clinic path was because I knew the PS was too tight on his head, and then at the clinic I learned it was also resting on some sensitive nerves:






The properly fitted Schockemohle, compared to the PS, is practically loose over the top of his head. 


I'm not throwing PS under the bus here, I'm just saying mine wasn't the right size for him, and I don't think there was anything I could've done differently to get it sized correctly.  The straps are not sewn in the right place on the noseband for him on the cob, but the cob is already too big in diameter on the last hole, so the horse size wouldn't have worked either, even with a chin pad.  Bridle fitting is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more complicated than I ever realized.

Our temporary loaner bit

Finally, the bit hasn't arrived either, but a barnmate had almost the exact same Bombers bit lying around, just with a forward curve to it.  We rode in that one at the clinic and it wasn't as dramatically life changing as the straight version, but it's still better than the baucher for him.

Our real bit

It's nice to know our improvements lately have NOT been due to my tack changes, BUT it's also nice to realize how much more comfortable he is in this new setup.  There have been multiple times lately when I thought he got his tongue over the bit, to the point I actually stopped him to check, only to realize that the lightness and movement I felt in the reins was due to him softly mouthing the bit with a relaxed tongue.  He hasn't even thought about getting it over in any ride with either of the Bombers bits, and that's a ringing endorsement from Connor.

Happy, happy pony

Once we had the bit settled, she took a look at the bridle.  She had Tota Comfort, Schockemoehle and Passier bridles to play with.  I explained that I've had him in traditional bridles, a Micklem, a figure 8 and the PS of Sweden he was wearing, and I've felt like all of them were tight behind his ears.  I also had concerns about the amount of pressure the PS of Sweden was exerting on his poll, and I told her about his regular brief but violent headshaking episodes (that seems to be partially related to my hands).

Long story short, she ended up putting him in a Schockemoehle mix and match that looked something like this, but without the flash:


When I asked why she chose that for him, she said this bridle is basically her secret weapon for uncomfortable horses and the one she's had the most success with.  She showed me how well it fit behind his ears, and sure enough, this is the best fit yet in my opinion.  His ears have actual space, not just the idea of space that the PS has.  The crown (which I would describe as "pseudo-articulating") is designed to have as little pressure as possible on the first vertebrae.

Finally, and most interesting to me: when we were deciding what sizes to order for which parts, she was on the fence between cob and horse sized noseband.  Purely in terms of nose circumference, he needs cob, but she ended up ordering the horse size and here's why: the placement of the cob cheek straps would have sat right on top of his extra prominent (she says) cheekbones and irritated them.

Guess what noseband is appropriately sized in terms of diameter and sits right on top of those cheekbones?

...oh.

She said she had to make a compromise - the horse size is likely to stretch out to be too big in diameter at some point - but she said that stretching was a better outcome than the cheek pieces permanently sitting on top of his cheekbones, and that if it did stretch, I should put a pad under the noseband.  I appreciated her talking me through it and her honesty and told her I was on board with the horse size noseband.

Here is what we ended up with, immediately after that amazing 10 minute lesson I referenced yesterday, which we wore the entire new bridle/bit setup for.  (Keep in mind this is just a demo bridle and not every part is sized correctly - the noseband is though):

Some serious foam

I did end up buying both the bridle and the bit from her, but she didn't pressure me to do so.  I got the feeling she wouldn't have minded if I just thanked her for her time and left.  But honestly, I was floating so high off the ground after the way he felt during that ride, I went all "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!!"  Anything to make him comfortable and feel THAT good during a ride.

I knew I wasn't getting a deal, of course.  The bit was about the same price as I would've paid on my own, the bridle and reins each were about $10 more than I would have paid online, so hey, you know what, consider it a tip, you earned it. (Shipping was $9.95 total).

All in all, it was an outstanding experience.  Kim's expertise and deep toolkit saved me from so much hassle, time and money throwing bits and bridles at the wall and seeing what stuck.  I can see taking advantage of her services again sometime as our needs change (and maybe someday we have a double for her to evaluate!).  I would also LOVE to do a ridden clinic with her someday too.

Oh one more detail.  I succumbed to peer pressure (LEAHAIMEERENATEMEGANAUSTENTERESAKARENALLI) and bought it in brown...

A story for another day

Holy shit.  You guys.  I don't have enough exclamation points to describe how happy I am with last weekend's Kim Gentry bit and bridle clinic!!!  If you have the chance to do one of these, even if you don't think you need to, DO IT!

I went by myself and got zero media, so have a picture of my pack mule.

I've never done anything like this before.  If you haven't heard of these, GP rider Kim Gentry travels the country with a suitcase full of fancy bits and bridles - Neue Schule, Schockemoehle, that sort of thing. I went into it with no complaints about my bit, but I've never felt like I had a bridle that fit Connor, particularly behind the ears, and this sounded cheaper than buying and selling a pile of bridles to figure it out, so I paid my $150 and hauled him back to the farm we rode with Mary at.

I warmed up and she called us over.  After we talked about our background, she stuck her hand in his mouth to get to know his anatomy.  Some of the things she said were "low palate, large tongue, extremely sensitive bars, big puffy lips."

The first thing she put us in was a Neue Schule Turtle Top, a French link loose ring designed to lessen the pressure on his low palate.  Predictably (for me), he got his tongue over less than a lap in.

"Oh!" said Kim, "Do I have something for you, mister!"

I didn't recognize the second bit she put in his mouth, but HOLY SHIT it was a revelation.  The first thing I noticed was that his front end, neck and withers were lifted from the moment we left the mounting block.  The second thing I noticed was that he felt SO good in the contact - consistent, light, comfortable.  The third thing I noticed was that I had access to every part of his body with so little effort, he felt like a gumby horse compared to normal.  And the fourth thing I noticed: instead of launching himself into the canter chest and underneck first, he actually started the transition from his hind end and pushed forward instead of pulled.

"This is great!  He immediately got round in his topline, and that transition was great," she said.  "Let's try a variation on that bit and see if he likes it better."  This was the same bit, but with a slightly more forward curve to it.


Within seconds, I knew this one wasn't it.  He was back to feeling like a wood block.  But I was glad she tried it, because after that I got a second spin with the Choirs of Angels Bit, and it was just as good the second time.

This time, she taught me a brief 10 minute lesson.  And it was then that I was really sold on this bit.  Connor was offering so much that she was able to push us way further into collection than I've ever felt on that horse before.  At one point she asked me to transition from canter to trot by pushing his hindquarters out on the circle and then leg yielding steeper and steeper until he was forced to offer trot, and I swear to god he was cantering in place with his front end so elevated it felt to me like he was rearing with each step (he wasn't, they have mirrors, remember I'm really not used to his front end actually being elevated), and I was smiling and laughing with a joy I couldn't hide.

What, you don't have a baguette mule?  He's a farmer's market essential accessory!

"THAT is an incredible transformation," she said.  "There's a really fancy Dressage horse in there, this is going to unlock new worlds for you.  And all it took was getting him really comfortable, that's what it's all about, finding the bit that makes them the most comfortable with their anatomy."

And, for me, being pushed that far with him and him not getting his tongue over the bit told me he really WAS comfortable.  I doubt he could get it over the port, but he wasn't even trying or thinking about getting it over.  Either way, both horse and rider were happy.

The bit?  A Bombers Happy Tongue loose ring.  Literally would never have tried this in a million years. From the website: "The Bomber Happy Tongue Loose Ring allows for immediate release and relief from tongue and bar pressure. The bit is immediately reset to a neutral position in the horse's mouth...The rider will know immediately if this is the correct bit, as a horse with a sensitive tongue will finally begin to work into, and accept the contact."  Um, yes, yes that was my experience!  (And yes, it's USDF legal.  May not be USEA legal based on quick inconclusive Googling).

It also has to be shipped by carrier pigeon from South Africa and will take a month to get to me.  Cue tears of sadness - I'm seriously considering giving him a month off until it gets here, I'm not sure I can go back to the way he felt before.  I'm not sure he wants it either.

Also the cheapest bit she sells at $90 so, yay!

Next up: bridle fitting!