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Like Carl, I like non-jointed mouthpieces. I have gotten the best results with them.
I still sometimes bring out a single-jointed or three-piece mouthpiece bit, particularly when I am working with a new horse and trying to reach a greater understanding with him. I always eventually go back to the solid mouthpiece, however. I have a few bits that have a solid mouthpiece with a bit of an arch shape – a mullen-mouth. Some horses like it better, perhaps because its shape allows more room for the tongue.
I have some snaffles with solid mouthpieces and some curb bits with solid mouthpieces. I use them both, but I do use the curb bits more often. I seldom opt to use the leverage on a curb bit, but instead hook straight on and use the bit like a snaffle. However, the leverage is there should I choose to adjust my lines and take advantage of it.
Unfortunately, bitting can be a trial-and-error thing. Your hands, your methods, the horses’ temperaments, the shape of their mouths… Really, we can only tell you what has worked for us. I don’t believe there is a “best bit” out there but my favorite is the military elbow bit with a straight mouth. I like this one better than the Liverpool because my fidgety horse can’t get ahold of the bit shanks when they are swept back like this, but it is essentially the same bit.
I use a stout and wide leather figure-8 hobble on their front cannons. I introduce this piece of equipment during the early stages of groundwork and harnessing, in the corral, as part of my overall “accept restraint” training. I rely on it to help teach the horse not to fight if they are trapped or entangled. I consider it a life skill that any horse needs to know. It just happens to carry over very usefully to horses in harness.
If I’ve got a green horse in my team and I need to do something to the equipment or harness that puts me in a potentially dangerous spot, I will hobble the green horse but not the seasoned horses, since I am right there.
If I need to be away from the lines and out of sight of the team, I will hobble both horses in a team and leave them hitched to the wagon or equipment, with the lines tied to the standard or in some similar fashion.
Potential problems include the very important fact that horses CAN run with their forelegs hobbled. I try very hard not to ever let a horse learn this fact, but any packer will tell you that most horses can gallop quite handily with his forelegs hobbled. I have not had a horse try to leave while hobbled and hitched, but I’m sure we can all envision what sort of mess could result if a hobbled team tried to take off while hitched. Best-case scenario is that they go down in a heap sooner rather than later.
I have had one badly spoilt horse gallop across the round pen with his front legs hobbled, and aim for the fence with the intent of going through. This is the only horse I’ve been forced to train without the benefit of being able to teach him to tie beforehand, so I’ve come to the conclusion that training to tie really ought to come before training to hobble. This particular horse still has not learned to tie, is not hobble-broke, and is still a work in progress. The only job I trust him on currently is harrowing. Lots and lots of harrowing. He is going to have to learn to tie before he can progress any farther in his training. But that’s another matter.
If there are flies or gnats, the horses can’t stamp their front legs to chase the pests away. They can fidget themselves cockeyed because they can shuffle backwards a few inches at a time but they don’t typically come forward at all. So if one is being bothered by bugs and the other isn’t, you’ll come back and find them cockeyed.
And then there’s user error. Once, I had them hobbled while hitched to a wagon for a lunch break. After lunch, my brain was somewhere else and I climbed aboard and was just about to gather the lines and ask them to go when someone else pointed out that I still had my “parking brake” on. That stuck with me for a while. I don’t think anything bad would have happened if I had asked them to move while hobbled. I think their heads would have come up and they might have given a hop before I remembered the hobbles. Not the end of the world but also not great for team morale.
