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The Friesian Horse
The Friesian Horse is normally very sensitive and super intelligent and eager to please but can easily get discouraged if we do not pick up on the cues they are giving us
Their conformation being more of a carriage breed than a riding breed makes for a higher head carriage and a short coupled body frame and a sort of parade stance
It is very easy for them to bring the head up and then fold their jaw to the windpipe closing off the triangle between the under side of the jaw and the under side of their Neck which then makes it hard for them to relax and take the rein forward and also for us tenses the area under the saddle and makes them quite bouncy to ride Causing a circle where we the rider can be a little unbalanced and tense and find in difficult to ride them forward and they on their part cannot relax and take the head further down and forward
Their mouths are usually quite neat and pony like and they are often short from the corner of the lip to the end of the nose and although do not have large bulky tongues because of the small bone structure around the mouth they have very little room for a bit, they are also sensitive so anything sitting badly or plates and joints in the middle of bits that touch down in sensitive areas will cause them discomfort often resulting in a receding head carriage and a busy mouth
From the Bit point of view the Horse has no room between the top of its tongue and the roof of its mouth and the tongue rounds up into the roof of the mouth so what ever we put in there must be really comfortable and fit the inside of the mouth perfectly
The horse uses the tongue as a feeler and reaches out into the Bit to see what it feels like and if comfortable the Horse can push forward into the contact or if not comfortable it finds a way to avoid contact and that can be in a polite fairly mild way or if very uncomfortable with the shape of a bit and very decided way that we call this resistance to the Bit which is just the Horse placing its face or arranging its mouth to try to make its self more comfortable
So now to bits I have two that I have found to be very successful used on Friesians either the Liberty Eggbutt Snaffle Harmony Eggbutt snaffle all of these mouthpieces encourage the Horse forward into a comfortable contact and have no pinch to the action all of these mouthpieces are very round and should feel like a perfect hoop on the roof of the mouth and a perfect hoop of the tongue side so nothing to put the Horse off from wanting to go forward into them
Their conformation being more of a carriage breed than a riding breed makes for a higher head carriage and a short coupled body frame and a sort of parade stance
It is very easy for them to bring the head up and then fold their jaw to the windpipe closing off the triangle between the under side of the jaw and the under side of their Neck which then makes it hard for them to relax and take the rein forward and also for us tenses the area under the saddle and makes them quite bouncy to ride Causing a circle where we the rider can be a little unbalanced and tense and find in difficult to ride them forward and they on their part cannot relax and take the head further down and forward
Their mouths are usually quite neat and pony like and they are often short from the corner of the lip to the end of the nose and although do not have large bulky tongues because of the small bone structure around the mouth they have very little room for a bit, they are also sensitive so anything sitting badly or plates and joints in the middle of bits that touch down in sensitive areas will cause them discomfort often resulting in a receding head carriage and a busy mouth
From the Bit point of view the Horse has no room between the top of its tongue and the roof of its mouth and the tongue rounds up into the roof of the mouth so what ever we put in there must be really comfortable and fit the inside of the mouth perfectly
The horse uses the tongue as a feeler and reaches out into the Bit to see what it feels like and if comfortable the Horse can push forward into the contact or if not comfortable it finds a way to avoid contact and that can be in a polite fairly mild way or if very uncomfortable with the shape of a bit and very decided way that we call this resistance to the Bit which is just the Horse placing its face or arranging its mouth to try to make its self more comfortable
So now to bits I have two that I have found to be very successful used on Friesians either the Liberty Eggbutt Snaffle Harmony Eggbutt snaffle all of these mouthpieces encourage the Horse forward into a comfortable contact and have no pinch to the action all of these mouthpieces are very round and should feel like a perfect hoop on the roof of the mouth and a perfect hoop of the tongue side so nothing to put the Horse off from wanting to go forward into them
Iberian Horse
Cob
