Yes, I ride my horse in a kimberwicke. Sue me.

I ride my horses in the absolute softest bit I can get them to go in. My entire bit collection is made up of various types of snaffle bits, all of which are dressage legal (this means no slow twists, no “wedges” or “triangles”, no two-metal bits, etc.) I’ve been known to foxhunt Red in a mechanical hackamore and a friend once showed Cash in a sidepull. If I could go with no bridle, I’d totally do it.

But when your Paddington blows through strongest snaffle and keeps on trucking at approximately mach one-Haffie, you pull out the only “big gun” you have – a kimberwicke that we used for foxhunting Oberon.

Schnoz pictures are surprisingly difficult when the Haffingon thinks you have treats.

NOTE: Just because Paddy has tiny cute earz does not mean he has a tiny cute nose. Bo’s SIX INCH kimberwick fits him fine. Not even joking.

So yeah. I ride dressage in a kimberwicke. My dressage instructor isn’t too excited about this because it’s not legal, but she understands why I use it. If I use a softer bit, we get into a tug-of-war where he ignores me until I have to use huge aids to get him to listen. The nice thing about the kimberwicke is that I can be very soft with my aids and get a response.

Obviously this is not where I want to be long-term. We need to work on Paddy’s softness and attention to aids so that we can back off to something more reasonable. Of course, for the near term, I need to find a bit that is dressage-legal but still gives me some hope of keeping Mr. Paddykins in the arena. Right now I’m trying a baucher, which seems to get his attention better. My trainer suggested trying a Myler baucher, since it’s a thinner bit and has the tongue relief, so I’ve got that on order. I don’t like using a flash, but that’s another option I’m willing to consider if it will allow me to use softer aids.

I feel of like I’m sticking a band-aid on a known problem – throw in a stronger bit and crank his mouth shut so he can’t avoid aids – but what else do you do with a horse that literally blows through your strongest aids? My goal here is to get some sort of baseline so that he knows when I half-halt, I mean business. Then I can half-halt more and more quietly until I’m barely asking at all. I’m incorporating voice aids too, working on the longe line, so that if I say “easy” under saddle, he slows down a bit. Hopefully between the two we’ll be in a much different place 6 months or a year on down the road.

Have you experimented with bits? What works best for your horse?