Dennis Moreland Tack wants to know, which would you use and why? In this article we are talking about style of snaffle (rings) only and not mouthpieces. Assume all 3 styles have a common or plain snaffle mouthpiece.
Loose-ring Snaffles, D-Ring Snaffles and Egg Butt Snaffles http://www.dmtack.com/pcategory/horse-bits/snaffle-bits/ are the 3 most common bits used to start horses in the bitting process. A snaffle has a broken mouthpiece attached to 1 of these 3 types of rings.
Snaffles have no leverage so work off 3 points of pressure in the horse’s mouth: the bars, the tongue and the palate. A curb is attached to a snaffle only to help prevent the snaffle from being pulled through the horse’s mouth. When the reins are pulled, the mouthpiece takes the shape of 2 sides of a triangle or an upside down V. The bars of the mouth and the sides of the tongue feel the pressure first. If both reins are pulled hard enough and at the same time the point of the V will put pressure on the palate. Putting pressure on the palate is not what snaffles are designed for!
The most direct line of pressure comes from the 2 fixed ring snaffles; the D-Ring and Egg Butt. When a direct rein pull is made (let’s say with the left rein in this example) the ring on the other side or right side puts pressure against that side of the face which helps the horse to realize it must move away from that pressure. These fixed ring snaffles make it slightly easier for a colt to learn to give to the pressure of the pull than a loose ring snaffle does.
Loose ring snaffles have a smaller area of pressure when a direct rein pull is made. The mouthpiece in a loose ring snaffle slides all the way around the rings. A fixed ring is just that, the mouthpiece is fixed in 1 place on the ring.
Dennis Moreland Tack produces handmade Loose Ring, D-Ring and Egg Butt Snaffles with a wide variety of mouthpieces to choose from. To find out more about our snaffles call 817-312-5305 or visit: http://www.dmtack.com/pcategory/horse-bits/snaffle-bits/
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