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I’m pretty simple when it comes to my tack I use for training. No gimmicks, nothing fancy. Just good useable stuff that will last. If it wasn’t for Chris all my stuff would be be pretty darned ugly. She makes sure she buys some stuff that got a little pretty to it. And she can look at stuff that is a relatively new design and see the practical applications.

When it comes to bits I’m about as simple as they come. Never seeing much difference between a 9 dollar and a 90 dollar snaffle, my horses get made in a 9 dollar snaffle. I’ll do a little work on smoothing them up and such, but if it’s got the features I want then it’s good enough for me. My shank bits are the same designs you could probably find in a 1950’s catalog. Most of them being some type of snaffle/flexible mouthpiece. I’ve had the pleasure of riding a few horses that could truly carry a solid mouthpiece bit but as far as I’m concerned they are few and far between. Horse has to be very advanced for a solid mouthpiece in my mind.

But at the horse fair Saturday I met with Dave Robart. Dave is a trainer and bit designer. Seems everybody these days is a bit designer so that didn’t catch my eye right off. I went and watched one of the clinic demonstrations he had and liked what I saw in his methods and philosphy. So that meant it was time to hunt him down and challenge him.

I had intended on getting after him right away…”so what makes your bits any better than the others?” But when I got to his booth he enthusiastically grabbed one of his bits and said “try this out!” So we went about talking bits. And I liked what I saw. Hard for me to explain but basically the bits are made to swivel and pivot making the “pinchless”. My first impressions weren’t too much concerned about pinching but I really like the way the bit allowed you to really work one side freely from the other. Overall they are very well constructed with nice fit and finish.

So I bought one of his snaffle. It was around 37 bucks which these days is really a good price. Of course for me 37 dollars for a snaffle bit might as well be a wheelbarrow full of money. And he does give a 100% money back no questions guarntee. So I figured I couldn’t lose.

So Sunday I tried it on my “tough cases”. Ginger is a 3 year old mare that has been a challenge for me with her head tossing at times and resistance to the bit. She is just such a darned nice filly that it really bothered me. Parker is a TWH that came to us by way of a boarder who didnt pay their bills. He was started by a young “trainer” in a nylon halter. Which can be ok but thats basically what he kept him in. So he had to be restarted with the snaffle like an unbroke colt.

Well Dave isn’t getting his bit back. I really like it. Both horses seemed to make very big improvements right off the bat. Even Brandy, who works very well in any old snaffle bit, seemed more comfortable.

I talked with Dave about his shanked bits, which are also impressive. He suggested his “reiner” bit as a good next step up from the snaffle. So I’ll be ordering one from him to use on our “shanked” horses.

I still don’t believe in magical bits. All the magic has to come from the rider and horse. But I can see where maybe if I was a little more open minded about stuff things might get done a little quicker.

We went to the Northern Illinois Horse Fair last Saturday. I went for basically one reason, to talk with Tommy Garland, a trainer from Va. The reason being is I’d seen him a few times on RFD-TV a while back and he demonstrated some of his techniques for tying a horse around in the round pen.

I’ve said before I’m not much for ground work. I do enough to get the colts where they handle and all that but don’t really work any groundwork program. Basically get them where they’ll do a few things colts need to do…handle their feet, lead, tie, get in the trailer, stuff like that. But that said, I do like working them in the round pen when they’re checked up. It really seems to help them get the idea and makes it a little safer first time I swing a leg over em. Helps the more advanced horses get their softness and some collection a little easier than can be done from the saddle.

Anyways, I got to talk to Tommy and we were pretty much in agreement on the things we do. But he deigned a halter/bridle rig that we bought that is really working out great. It’s basically a leather halter with browband like a bridle. The neat thing is it has rings and straps for the bit which makes it so you can snap the bit on and off in about a second. It’d be really great for trail riding if you had to stop and tie the horses. Just unsnap the bit and you got a halter. I hate seeing people ride with a halter under their bridles. This rig takes care of that.

The nicest thing that sold me on it is I can snap my check lines to the haltler part, through the bit and check up the young ones. This way they feel most of the pressure on the halter part (which they already understand real well), but still feel the bit some as they work things out. Right now I’ve got 4 colts that need to be started . This is going to help me out a bunch.

The rig cost me a 100 bucks. That made me cringe. But turns out it’s been worth every penny to me. And it’s really built well so should last a lifetime.

I didn’t pre-register for the show since I was waiting until the last minute to see what level we could get to and if it would be worth even entering. On the way over to the clinic I had pretty much decided we weren’t going to show. We had the basics down pretty well but were far from a finished show team.

Brandy had done everything I asked of her. Her ability to learn things is amazing. Truth be told, she probably has 60 days riding on her. And only about a month of serious, consistent riding. She’s that good. Anything we lack in the show pen is my fault.

Heidi gave me the encouragement to show. She said just use it as a training class. Go ahead and ride her in the snaffle two handed and get her some arena experience. So she got us signed up in the rookie class.

Illinois isn’t exactly reining country. Least not around here. Barrel racers and pleasure horses is most of what you see. And those people that wear black outfits and ride saddles that look like saddle pads with stirrups. So I’m figuring be me and the other 4 folks from clinic and maybe one or two more in the class.

Well we ride out of the indoor arena and see trailers and horses….lots of trailers horses. 26 entries in rookie class alone. We draw number 16 so we got some time to look around, warm up and see some runs.

I’m not much for the warm up pen. Always got some trainer or parent barking out orders like a marine drill sargent to a some young rider. Reminders and some encouragement  to overcome show day jitters is one thing but training day was yesterday. And do they think I’m gonna go over and give em a few bucks because they holler loud enough for me to hear their “expert” advice? If you ain’t settin a horse get the hell outta the warm up pen. Thank you I feel better now.

Ever heard about the power of positive thinking? Great concept and works real good. Goes right out the window when they call our number. Will she balk at the gate? Spook at the banners flapping on the fence? Figure all these folks are here to see a rodeo? Decide this nice big arena be a good place show me she ought to be entered in the Kentucky Derby?

She walks in like she’s done it all her life. She feels confident and ready. She’s come here to play. When we stop in the center she feels relaxed. 4 left and 4 right. A little sloppy but we stop dead center both ways. Large, small, large right, Large, small, large left.  We run the large circles fast…she’s got good balance at speed and felt like she was relaxed enough to stretch out so I turned her loose. Felt good. She slowed a little bit for the small circles but we’ll need to work on getting a little slower  so it looks better.  We hadn’t worked on it too much so I was happy.

Heidi told me in the clinic to go ahead and drop her to a trot for a few steps if I thought she’d need it to change leads. But Brandy’s always been a good natural changer. One of the things I noticed when I bought her. And she didn’t really need to be trained to change…she wanted to to be in the correct lead. Just had to show her the cues I’d give her when we we’re gonna change directions.  So we went for it and she popped em off like an old pro. I knew we had it when I straightened her just before the change…I could feel her get ready for the outside leg to tell her when.

I blew the rollbacks. I hesitated too long between the stop and the turnback. I don’t know why. She’s a good rollback horse. I still don’t know why I did it and I feel like I let her down. And I did it on both of them. Why did I do that?

The stop and back was good. Probably woulda been a plus move if she was in sliders. Slacked the reins for the stop and just a light shake for the back up. Tucked her head nice and came back straight. I liked it.

Our score…59.  We won. No we didn’t win the class. But we knew what we did and how long it took us to do it. We trotted out of the arena, both of us feeling good. That’s what it’s all about. The numbers will take care of themselves with more time. Ain’t no ribbons or trophies for what we done. But there’s horse treats and iced tea back at the truck.