Combination bits have been getting very popular in barrel racing for the past few years. I've never used one myself, i tend to stick to simple snaffles, but I'm curious about other people's opinions of them. I've heard some people say that they complicate cues because of too many points of pressure, but I've also heard that they are softer and clearer to some horses.
What do you think about them?
** Please don't go off on some silly rant. I'm not switching my horse's bit, I'm just curious about opinions.
Bliss2012-04-21T11:05:03Z
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Most of the bits they sell for gaming and fast work are pretty harsh, whether they hurt the nose, jawbones, lips, bars, tongue, or all of the above. If I was king of the world, I'd melt them all down and use the metal to make a cage for their designers and the users who just want to use something stronger instead of teaching their horses how to respond AND allowing the horses to work in comfort, so they aren't having pain reactions that their ignorant owners then punish them further for! (How's that for a long, drawn-out sentence?)
It's punishment on top of pain on top of suffering, with most of the 'gaming', 'speed', and 'cross-country' strong bits and gadgets out there.
Good for you for knowing how to work *with* your horse instead of using more complex, harsh, and painful tack.
I fail to see how this contraption could be described as at all nice by an educated individual.
http://lwbits.com/Combination-Bits.html
All any horse -- that is in showing -- *needs* is a simple snaffle. If a horse can't be ridden in the pattern (of any discipline) without a bit then something is wrong.
The nose is a very sensitive area, very. There is very little -- if any -- bone structure over the muzzle where the the bosal on this bit sits. Some horses will have more, or less, structure in that are depending on age, but it is very thin and easily injured or even broken entirely.
They are confusing bits, not simply because there are so many points of pressure and the additional use of leverage! but most employ pain as well.
http://lwbits.com/images/145.jpg This one is not so bad as, say, twisted wire bosal with twisted wire bars and gag rings plus curb chain... But it's not nice either, again, because of the sensitive area of the nose which it acts on.
To someone that doesn't know how these things work, that USES one, they obviously have no idea what a horse in pain looks like when being ran in one of these.
Scroll to the end of the page I linked first. I fail to see how anyone, anyone at all, finds it acceptable to put that mess on a horse. :( Ignorance is bliss (with a lowercase B) I suppose.
There is probably no other bit Western or English that is softer on a horses mouth and more widely used than the snaffle bit, combination bits like the correction bit work off of pressure, the more you apply the more it hurts the horse.