The Leather Experiment

Peebs is very picky about his bit. I know this but occasionally I still want to try something new. I had been perusing the sales page on Riding Warehouse and saw this:

For $30 bucks I figured why not try it. Peebs goes in a smooth, single jointed full cheek snaffle. He's not a fan of rubber snaffles, but I thought he might like a leather bit. It's not as hard or inflexible as the rubber bits I've tried. 

And he did like it. He was soft in my hand for flat work and didn't protest it all. Jumping was a different story. To be fair, we've just started jumping again after a couple months off so trotting x-rails is beyond exciting to him anyways. But with the leather bit he was flat out running through my hands to the fence and on the landing side. We did a couple hard halts after the fence, which usually reminds him that he can't run away but he was still heavy and pulling on me. 

"Me, be strong and heavy on my front end? Fake news"-Peebs, definitely

 

In one of our flat rides after we started jumping again, he kept getting heavier and heavier in my hand at the canter. I was having to have a really strong feel of his mouth, and continuously half halt to keep him put together. I switched him back to the metal snaffle. And while he wasn't as soft in my hand in our trot work, he did listen better in the canter and wasn't diving on his front end. And when he tried to get strong after a jump, he listened and came back to me. So for now, he's staying in the metal snaffle. I'm glad I tried the leather bit and it'll stay in my bit collection. Maybe he'll be able to go in it in the future, or maybe at some point I'll try it on Cinder.