charlie's bitting journey

Believe it or not, we're rapidly approaching the 4 year anniversary of owning Charlie Murray! Wayyyyy back in September 2016, I met Charlie at After the Races - where he'd been for about a week following his final race the month before.

I didn't get to ride him during that first meeting but felt confident enough in his disposition that we'd be ok. And, spoiler alert, we've been ok haha.

pc Austen Gage

It's been a crazy ride ever since -- with both of us having to do a LOT of learning lol. Charlie obviously had to learn to be a riding horse instead of a race horse. And we all know about all my own many imperfections and shortcomings as an adult amateur trying to figure this whole eventing thing out.

So I figured it might be fun to spend today reviewing where this journey has taken us through the specific lens of bitting.

Herm Sprenger loose ring KK Ultras, one in Aurigan alloy, the other is maybe just silver?

Charlie's first set of gear and equipment were virtually all handed down from Isabel -- including his loose ring Herm Sprenger KK Ultra bits. I discovered these bits with Izzy, and have more or less stuck with them ever since.

They're simple and straight forward and in my mind are a "neutral" sort of bit, from which you can figure out if anything else is needed. For Charlie, they were an excellent starting point.

heavy silver eggbutt snaffle

At an early clinic, Stephen Birchall suggested something different: a big fat single jointed snaffle, which I found on eBay for like $20 using the keyword "heavy." The idea was to make the bit a nice friendly place for Charlie to go by using something fatter and more stable.

But ya know... a clinician only makes recommendations based on what they see that day -- vs a regular trainer who sees a bigger picture. My normal dressage trainer C disagreed with this bit choice since it enabled Charlie's leaning habit. Thus, we returned to the KK Ultra.

Myler Correction bit

Time went on and Charlie plateaued in his flat work. Which, ya know. He raced until he was 7. He carried his body and used himself in the same way for a long time, plus he's just a big old lumbering giant. So that spring, Brita suggested the bit that helped her OTTB Wick have a breakthrough.

The Myler correction bit is a LOT of bit, and inspired a fascinating reaction in Charlie. I doubt he'd ever worn anything like it before, tbh. This clearly wouldn't be for "every day" use, but we probably rode in it every few weeks, 4-5 times total. Just like with Wick, it helped Charlie have an "aha" moment about how to shift his longitudinal balance - after which I could get the same feeling with the loose ring KK.

Herm Sprenger KK with Universal cheeks + leather curb strap. pc Megan Kiessling 

Meanwhile, Charlie's tendency to lean and pull was becoming increasingly apparent as we dove into the 2017 competition season. Getting run away with at Jenny Camp - Charlie's first proper Intro xc course (that basically amounted to a sliiiightly watered down BN) proved that.... the loose ring snaffle was probably NOT our xc solution LOL.

Herm Sprenger KK with Universal cheeks + curb chain

So I found the exact same Sprenger KK mouthpiece bit, but with some oomph via the Universal elevator cheek pieces. I put two reins on this bit to start, and later added a leather curb strap.

Still got absolutely run the fuck away with in this set up at Fair Hill (we ran the intro here even tho Charlie'd already done his first BN bc.... I was worried the BN at Fair Hill would be too much -- esp with Charlie's WATER ISSUES), so we replaced the leather curb with a chain.

This would continue to be our jumping setup for a long while.

Myler Comfort snaffle

And in the meantime, we always ended up coming back to the Sprenger KK Ultras for dressage after every other experiment. That is, until the winter of 2018 when I decided to try Charlie in a Myler Comfort Snaffle for the flat.

I can't remember exactly why we tried this... but probably bc we again felt a little stagnant in the work. Honestly, tho, the stagnation had more to do with my skills in training the horse than in him having the wrong bit. But we stuck with the Myler for more than a year anyway.

Myler Comfort in action

Notably, over time I found myself using the dressage bridle with Myler bit more and more often in our jumping lessons and at-home schooling, reserving the KK Universal elevator bit for xc outings or competitions.

Eventually, I made a second jumping bridle with the plain KK loose ring on it. When Charlie ended up going very nicely in it, I decided to ditch the Myler altogether for dressage too.

mechanical hackamore

Then in late 2018, after struggling with Charlie's sulking and getting behind my leg at Plantation, I experimented with jumping in the mechanical hackamore.

Typically that bridle was reserved for trail rides or conditioning work (trot sets, etc), but actually I really loved the feeling Charlie had in it. He had complete respect for the brakes, didn't lean on it, and always gave me the feeling of wanting to add more leg -- generally a successful recipe. Only downsides were that it wasn't great for flatrwork or steering.

mechanical hackamore + Sprenger KK Ultra. ooooooh boy did this setup inspire some hate mail!

So I continued the experiment in the spring of 2019. I wanted to try using the hackamore in competition, but felt like I still needed a snaffle particularly for the warm up and turning questions.

To do so, I picked up a different style of mechanical hackamore with thinner shanks that wouldn't interfere with the snaffle cheeks, and used rein converters to hang both the snaffle and hackamore from a single crown piece.

hack-a-snaff in action

And oh my word, some of you fucking HATED this bridle haha. Hahahahaha.

The snaffle on it's own? Fine. Hackamore on it's own? Fine. Put them together, tho? Honestly you'd have thought I was literally trying to kill poor long suffering Charles, and probably some puppies too, based on the judgmental and hateful comments lol...

getting runaway with in the hack-a-snaff. pc GRC

But ya know. Fuck that haha. Bc it turns out -- while this get up wasn't our permanent solution, I credit it (much like the Myler Correction bit from above) as a game changer for Charlie.

We rode in that bridle a grand total of three times: twice at home, and once in competition -- where, yes, I still got runaway with and had to do an emergency circle after nearly dying at the water LOL.

back to the Sprenger loose ring KK

And you know what? That was the moment Charlie finally realized that, despite his years as a race horse, the game was no longer about getting home as quickly as possible. Suddenly, from there out, I had a ratable, adjustable horse on course - in any bridle.

Which, naturally, opened up a whole new world for us haha. Suddenly, we were getting better results even in the loose ring KK for jumping -- like at the above jumper show.

Sprenger Universal KK, single rein + no curb strap. pc Amy Flemming Waters

And at this point, I decided to simplify things with the elevator bit. We ditched the double reins and the curb chain, and honestly never really looked back.

Sprenger Universal KK, single rein + no curb strap. PC Austen Gage

With Charlie's growing education, it became easier to ride him faster while trusting that the brakes would still work. Whereas before, I'd always wanted to ride him a little too under the pace since it was never really clear if I'd be able to stop him once he got rolling.

basically just recently realized i never shared these pics <3 <3. pc Austen Gage

For me, the biggest proof of concept was when we finally started completing full xc courses without needing to circle to regain control or balance at any point.

And esp in the derby we did last winter (source of these previously unpublished pics by Austen!!), we were finally able to ride more forward without ever really flattening out or anything.

the bestest horse ever, and his little antlers too!! pc Austen Gage

So far this year, we haven't actually ridden in the KK Universal elevator at all yet. The couple times I've gotten out for xc have been in the loose ring snaffle or hackamore, and we did all the jumper shows (Oldfields here and AOPF here) in the snaffle too.

I'm curious to try a rein converter on it now to dampen the curb more while still using a single rein. Hopefully will have an opportunity soon to experiment. We shall see, I guess!

It's interesting looking back at what effected change in Charlie, and what didn't. He isn't a horse with many opinions about mouth pieces (for instance, single joint, double joint, etc) but cheek pieces make a difference. Likewise, he is a quick learner but simultaneously kiiinda dull, lol. It's taken some fairly "loud" adjustments to clue him in.

But once he "hears" me, he figures it out and listens better the next time. This aspect of Charlie's trainability gives me hope that I'll be able to continue shifting focus away from the brakes and toward more and better forward riding on my part. 

Or at least.... That's the idea LOL.