I have a horse in training that is inspiring me to speak out about this. The first time I went to lift up on her reins, while adding leg, to bring her body together and round her back up, her first reaction was to bring her head up and brace on her bit like it was going to bite her. She has always been very supple in her body, and very flexible and willing to move out everywhere else, but this head is such a distraction! A month later she is much softer in the bit so she brings her head in nicely when I lift up, but as soon as I let go she proceeds to put it back in this forced looking, arched neck, head straight up and down bobbing motion. I really hope I can get her to relax and stretch her head out a little, but only time will tell. The point is, I know this problem came from draw reins or a martingale and it drives me crazy!
Not only does this horse have a forced looking headset, but she is also prone to anxiety at shows. I’m hoping this will be better now that I can communicate with her through the bit without her overreacting. But previously, the first time the owner went to pull her in some circles at a show to get her attention, she barely had any control because the horse didn’t know what to do if she wasn’t working on the rail with her head down; something she could not perform at the time due to the amount of people in a warm-up pen. A trainer would be able to work around this more easily, but a crowded warm-up pen is intimidating to a non-pro rider and it would help if their mount felt secure no matter how far he/she is from the rail.
Not only do draw reins/martingales make a headset look forced but they make it impossible to have that perfect connection with a horse. The connection that says, when I lift up a little bit here, you move your body just a little bit over here in a soft, supple way. A connection that can help you achieve true unity with a horse. It seems to me that trainers aren’t looking for this unity at all; they are looking for cookie cutter horses to move around the exact same way as everyone else.
Yes, it is possible for many trainers to achieve a ‘winning’ look with many horses and take the short cut of using draw reins or a martingale. Many horses have a calm demeanor and will put up with an incredible amount of nonsense. But even these horses will have problems down the line if they are sold to someone who wants to try something different with them. If you get that soft connection with a horse through his entire body, including his face, from the beginning, there is nothing that horse can’t do in his life, barring all physical limits. I have a client who has another mare, this one much older; you can tell she has been doing western pleasure her whole life. She holds her head in the perfect spot and moves around the rail at a great stride and consistent speed. Good job previous trainers, you taught her how to do western pleasure better than most! Oh but wait a second, when you take her off the rail to do a horsemanship pattern, she throws her head in the air and when you barely take a hold of her mouth she acts like she has never felt a bit before in her life.
There are such huge holes left with these training ‘tools’! It’s the easy way out to get a horse trained a specific way faster. As a whole we need to stop taking short cuts. There is no other being, human or animal alike that we would allow such abrasive technique on! We take our time to train our kids, why wouldn’t we take our time to train the 1,000 pound animal we put our kids on? Yes, it is harder to get and it will take longer, but in the long run it will create better riders and much better horses. We would have safer riding, a better understanding of these great animals, and a happier horse!