{"id":5893,"date":"2019-10-14T13:04:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T18:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/?p=5893"},"modified":"2019-10-14T20:31:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T01:31:21","slug":"bit-and-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/bit-and-spurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Bit and Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Fancy is the age to graduate from a snaffle bit and go into a curb bit.  I have been setting up the Wonder bit as a snaffle.  Today I changed where the rein fits on the bit and poof, she is wearing a curb bit.  Yee Haw!  I self-graded  C- to C at keeping my one hand grip on the reins. It\u2019s very tough to cast aside one entire arm.  The used arm gets upset as it is being asked to perform precision light handling of the horse\u2019s mouth through the reins.  The unused hand feels slighted, hurt and rejected.  It asks.  \u201cWhy are you using all that effort to keep my elbow bent and me still? Why aren\u2019t you letting me help with Fancy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People think we neck rein, but that isn\u2019t how we tell the horse where to go.  It\u2019s complicated.  Here are the body cues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Belly button is the pointer with shoulders held even.  Shoulder dipping is a natural but forbidden position.<\/li><li>Eyes or what we call FOCUS.  Look where you are going.  \u201cLaser Eyes\u201d.<\/li><li>Seat position.  Which cheek has the weight when asking for a turn?  Seat position weight back when the front legs are cued to move.  Seat position weight forward when asking the back legs to move.<\/li><li>Calf presses against the horse\u2019s side<\/li><li>Inside foot pressure against horse\u2019s side<\/li><li>Heel  pressure against horse\u2019s side<\/li><li>Foot position on horse\u2019s body. There are 4 different spots to press the inside of your foot or your heel.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Can you imagine what the horse thinks about all this when the human\u2019s cues are sporadic, too much pressure, too light pressure, and different for the same move?  It takes a while to build a communication system with your horse!  Many humans don\u2019t have a trainer to coach them on building a complex communication system and both horse and human suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long long ago, my father and I was watched Mr. Smith ride his high level dressage horse.  After he did amazing things, I asked him how he \u201cdid all that\u201d.    Knowing an eight year old child would never understand, he replied, \u201cOh, just a little bit of this and a little bit of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope Mr.Smith and Mr.Todden (my trainer as a youth) are watching me and smiling as I go through Horsemanship Kindergarten AGAIN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/-\/e\/B009H9RDGO\">https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/-\/e\/B009H9RDGO<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"October 5, 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BumgQJ8fdAw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fancy is the age to graduate from a snaffle bit and go into a curb bit. I have been setting up the Wonder bit as a snaffle. Today I changed where the rein fits on the bit and poof, she is wearing a curb bit. Yee Haw! I self-graded C- to C at keeping my one hand grip on the reins. It\u2019s very tough to cast aside one entire arm. The used arm gets upset as it is being asked to perform precision light handling of the horse\u2019s mouth through&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5893"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5966,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5893\/revisions\/5966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}