I got an email asking for my opinion on the use of nosebands when working with horses. This prompted me to dig out a post from a few years ago that I wrote on the use of gadgets.
It’s not always obvious which is better because sometimes gear that seems to be a better alternative does in fact impose more limitations on a horse’s choices than gear that might seem a harsher choice at first.
A bit is just a transducer – nothing more. That is, it transfers a signal from the rein (pressure) to the mouth, which becomes an electrical message to the brain to perform some type of action.
When you own horses and enjoy training horses, there are a lot of ways to spend your money on training equipment. There is probably a piece of equipment for every training scenario designed to educate your horse to yield to your idea.
Spurs have their use, but I rarely see them being used by the right rider on the right horse. If you need spurs for a horse, it is not okay to use them. But if you don’t need spurs, it’s perfectly fine to use them.
