Bitting is a complex subject that often leaves riders feeling overwhelmed and confused. It involves many opinions, experiences and knowledge from different sources, making it difficult to determine the best approach for each horse.
It is best to ask advice from a professional who knows you and your horse. Perhaps a coach who may recommend and loan different bits to you. The hardest part is taking advice from social media. Everyone has had their own experience and you cannot validate their experience or scenario from advice on a chat forum. Seek your riding coach or bit fitter, they are educated and speak upon lots of experience in order to give you any advice.
For some riders, a change of bit can be promising in solving specific problems. However, reality shows that these problems often don't get solved so easily. The rider must take into account the horse's anatomy and behavior as well as their own riding style when selecting a bit. It is also important to understand how different bits work in order to make an informed decision on which one might be best suited for their horse.
One thing to analyse, is what bit are you using now? Is that bit causing the evasion that you are thinking about after each ride. Perhaps your issues can be solved with the change of another mouthpiece in a simple cheekpiece. Or consider a rubber bit in a stronger cheekpiece. Again, it all depends on what your horse is telling you, how you ride and your horse's confirmation.
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More riders are turning to Google and AI tools like ChatGPT to ask whether their horse’s bit is dressage legal, but the answers being generated are not always coming from official rule books. In many cases, AI is pulling information from Facebook comments, forum discussions and personal opinions, leading to riders being falsely alarmed that their bit is illegal when it may not be. We explore why this is happening, and why official regulations should always outweigh AI-generated summaries.
Designed to stabilise the contact and improve steering, the full cheek bit is a go to for young horses and those needing clearer direction.
"A Pelham is only as strong as its mouthpiece"
Pelham bits are designed for horses that feel strong, inconsistent, or unstable in the contact, where a change in mouthpiece alone is not enough.