Bits, The Snaffle
Bits are as ancient as is our association with the horse, either for guiding the chariot, the plough or for riding. Thousands of years have passed and in many ways very little has altered in their designs. We begin with the snaffle. A joined bit seems to have been the first design often with fulmer sides which were attached to reins. The very erly bits used in bronze age England, were snaffles with a link in the middle. Curiously this design of bit is now hugely admired and used in dressage and many other disciplines. they have many names but are all very similar. The bits in this photograph are all my racing snaffles. These are often hollow to make them lighter, and have rather wide side where they join the ring. They are mostly loose ringed. I rode racehorses in these for many years, until I went to work with Monty Roberts. I watched him riding and examined the western bits and began to change my mind about bitting, talking to Monty and starting to understand what a horse needs in his mouth and how we should apply or not apply pressure and how the chin strap works.
Then I met the Myler bit. Which I will talk about in another post. The second one down was my preferred bit, the lower two were from Chantilly. They were very light. The top one is a standard snaffle bit. Anthony Mildmay, a great Horseman once said that a real horseman has snaffle hands. This may beso, for the snaffle is a very difficult bit to learn to use. Firstly it’s action is that of a nut cracker. If you pull really hard on it the bars of the snaffle with press on the molars of the horse. The middle of the bit will go up into the horse’s mouth unless you ride with a running martingale. The horse will take umbridge at the pain and pull harder to get away from the discomfort. The horse will also try to put its tongue over the bit to lessen the discomfort. So it is in fact a very unpleasant bit and very hard to ride well with it, especially at speed.