Experimenting

Not expecting much riding at all this week, but yesterday I decided to ride Jetta since I got a new bit in the mail.

Despite lots of working on this issue, Jetta continues to do what I call "burying herself" when we jump basically just hanging on the bit. She's ok at home but when we go to another arena or show it is worse. It takes way too much energy and strength to keep her up off the bit so I've decided to bit up a little. Three options: loose ring waterford that we use for cross country, segunda D-ring or pelham.

Our normal Myler

The waterford is what we use for cross country and while she goes really well in it, I think it would back her off the jumps in an arena too much and I think it's better to "save" it for xc. Next option, the segunda, which is what I just got in the mail from ebay.

The Segunda

I wasn't too optimistic about this bit. It seems like there's a 50/50 split on this bit for it either working or not working at all. I was pleasantly surprised though. We had a little bit more brakes and no leaning on the bit. Hmm, this might work. I set up a jump just to test it out and it seems like it might be our magic bit! Jetta didn't resist it either - I wouldn't want to use something that would cause her to toss her head or gape her mouth.

The pelham

I decided to try our third option anyways. Took some finagling to get it on, I've never used a pelham before. Once all set up we started off and schooled over the jump a few times. I was afraid the leverage would cause her to bury herself even more but actually it was just fine. She didn't carry her head any lower than normal and didn't try to pull on it. We may have had just a little bit more brakes, but she did not approve of this bit. Every so often when the curb came into play she'd toss her head. Don't like! Too bad, but maybe something we'll use in the future, though I'm kinda glad since jumping with two sets of reins might be a bit too much for me, though I'll admit I think Jetta looked pretty snazzy in a pelham :)

Looking snazzy and very unimpressed

The real test will come when we have a lesson with KO in December. We'll see how well the segunda works then. For now, we'll continue schooling at home in the Myler and only break out the segunda for shows and clinics. Is it bad that now I want to get a schooling bridle for the Myler so I don't have to switch bits back and forth? (*cough* I already have 6 bridles for this one horse...)