# Jerking on your horses mouth. RANT!!



## dixieandboo (Jan 19, 2014)

I went with my FFA Equine Judging Team to our competition and while watching our western pleasure class a horse fly landed on one of the horses in the ring showing and like a normal horse he turned his head to get it off of his shoulder. He did not break gait, mess up in any way and his rider yanked on the reins and he tossed his head and started acting up. She started pulling on his mouth, kicking him with her spurs, and jerking the reins. He started acting up the more she did it and the more he acted up the more she pulled on him. After the show I heard her complaining about how he was acting and her trainer was telling her why he was acting that way....because she was jerking the reins and kicking him. She got mad and walked off and the trainer went with her. Her horse was tied and I noticed blood around his mouth where she had pulled on him so much. It really made me mad to watch her do this and not be able to say anything. I know that if I had done that with my horse he would have said "Ladies first." and I would have went flying. Has anyone else been in that situation?? Where something makes you mad and you can't say anything.


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Surprised that happened at an FFA sanctioned event. It would not have gone on very long here. The rider would have been excused from the ring and the FFA sponsor would have assigned a penalty.

In fact, as judge, can you not have the ring steward excuse the rider? Did the judging coach discuss this with the team?


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## dixieandboo (Jan 19, 2014)

No. If I knew I could I would have.


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## LemonZeus (Oct 6, 2013)

Wow. If I were that horse, I would've dumped her butt so fast. Glad the trainer set her straight! I hate watching riders like that. 

The coach for my equestrian team is all about being in a horse's face. I had ONE lesson with her where she kept telling me not to be afraid to take more contact. After I rode, she hopped on and showed me how to "collect" this poor little Arabian. He had that snaffle pulled up to his eyeballs :-( And that's how she trains everyone on the EQ team to ride. Later, I was at a show one weekend watching a teammate doing one of the walk/trot classes. The horse she drew was actually amazing, gave to the bit beautifully and I had won second on him a few classes back. My teammate got up in the horse's face, like she had been taught, and it did NOT tolerate it. Horse threw it's head up and backed straight towards the wall. I thought for sure it was going to rear, or hit its butt on the wall and bolt. It was terrifying. She finally let slack in her reins, and the horse carried on like nothing had happened. Coach consoled her for not winning a ribbon, saying it wasn't her fault. WHAT.


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## Janna (Apr 19, 2012)

This reminds me. 
I wish my phone would let me post a pic of this bit I recently acquired with a saddle I got. 


It's bent so badly. And it a stiff, heavy bit too. 
So I'm thinking someone either tied a horse with reins and it freaked out or they were yanking the hell out of it's poor mouth.


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## 40232 (Jan 10, 2013)

I used to be a rider that was all hands, no body. It was how I was taught by 4h leaders. My horse, being the saint he is, never threw me like he should have. Now, he is hard mouthed and carries his head low with his nose behind the vertical. It has been terrible trying to convince him to travel with his head in front of the vertical and up. That's what seesawing, jerking and excessive picking do to a horse. Thankfully, he hasn't shut down from it all.

Recently I began to be around a trainer daily. Her way is draw reins every ride, twisted wire bits, and "inside leg, outside rein, HARD". Fortunately, I've adopted my own methods of soft hands (working on it) and using mostly my body. I would not want to ride like her, and the students she's teaching. 

IMO, it's how each person is taught. I was taught to be a crappy rider, and that's what I became.


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## MN Tigerstripes (Feb 20, 2009)

That's pretty common around here, jerk on their faces to get them to "give" to the bit and "collect" themselves. If they're being naughty (naughty, not BAD) they'll pop them in the mouth a bunch of times to get them to "give" and the like. 

I'm not perfect by any means, but I won't use that training method on my horses.


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## Chasin Ponies (Dec 25, 2013)

MN Tigerstripes said:


> That's pretty common around here, jerk on their faces to get them to "give" to the bit and "collect" themselves. If they're being naughty (naughty, not BAD) they'll pop them in the mouth a bunch of times to get them to "give" and the like.
> 
> I'm not perfect by any means, but I won't use that training method on my horses.


Agree-I'm surrounded by Western pleasure trainers who actually teach their kids to do this along with a lot of other nasty things. One girl at our barn who was taught by 3 abusive trainers over her short lifetime, sits on her horse at a dead stop talking to her mother and jerks her horse (hard-with a high port bit) every 2 seconds as a habit. It's sickening to see.:-(


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## DraftyAiresMum (Jun 1, 2011)

My best friend and I attended my barn's first schooling show of the season at the beginning of this month. We were appalled at how many western riders (there were only about three English riders) were all over their horses' mouths in shanked, ported bits. 

There was one girl that was loping her horse (a gorgeous little red roan) in the warm-up arena and was leaning so far back as the horse loped that she popped the poor thing in the mouth at every stride (she was literally leaning back at almost a 45-degree angle). I saw the same girl taking lessons from the barn trainer a couple of weeks ago and she was doing the exact same thing in front of the trainer and the trainer wasn't correcting it.

There were also tons of people kicking their horses to go faster, while simultaneously pulling the reins back to their chest. There was one girl (in the lead-line class!!!) that was so bad that her horse almost reared.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Disgusting. Everyone should keep their phones ready to take pictures of this abuse and post them on the web, pretty much everywhere, along with any names of the owners and riders.
SO STUPID!! I reminded me of the time that I was sent to gallop off with a message on "Corporal", (Arabian, 1982-2009, RIP). My commander gave the message, then 10 seconds later said, "WAIT!" I leaned back and halted my Arabian with this bit:
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTAwWDUwMA==/z/n3cAAOxyaTxTP0za/$_35.JPG?set_id=880000500F
Corporal flexed and slid to a stop ONE STRIDE OUT. It was muddy and I could feel him slide onto his hocks. It was an awesome stop.
BUT, it's NOT the bit--it's the rider's hands and how you are always riding. Corporal was always hot, to the end, but, when I rode at the walk with this bit, the reins were always slack. When we were delivering messages I would choke up, but use light contact.
Early on, when I was first training him to a curb, he would sometimes throw his head up, so I knew if I ever intended to ride him with a snaffle and get a decent stop, I would have to be gentle.
Never drew blood or hardened his mouth, even with this bit.
I am disappointed to hear that this crap STILL goes on in the show ring and worse, that it is tolerated. =/


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## TurkishVan (Feb 11, 2013)

I hate people that do this. 

I try to have the quietest hands possible. It's always been more important to me than anything else. 
A few weeks ago, I went in to watch a woman at our barn ride. She's always talking about how quickly she's advancing up the levels in dressage. Her mare was already trained to higher levels when she got her, so I just supposed that that sped things up a bit. I was utterly horrified by her riding. She was holding the reins so tight and so short that you could see the muscles bulging in her arms. Her mare kept going down from a trot to a walk, then trying to stop, which was understandable, as that's what the woman's hands looked like they were telling her to do. Apparently not though, as every time the mare tried to transition down, the woman would give her hard whacks with the whip. I'm not talking light to heavy taps, I'm meaning that she started out with big, loud whacks. Seemed a bit disrespectful to the horse. The mare worked through that for a while, but eventually stopped. Then the woman took her legs- I kid you not- about 2 feet from the side of the horse, and spurred her hard and repeatedly. The horse gave some half-hearted bucks, but shouldered through it. I was astounded by her behavior, and even more surprised that the other 3 people watching did not see any problems with it. In fact, they were cheering her on. When the mare finally performed the requested action, the woman smiled and said, "My horse loves me!" That mare looked freaking miserable. Then, to make matters even worse, the woman's instructor told her that her "reins weren't tight enough" and that she needed to shorten them even more. I could've died with shock! 
I truly believe that it's only so long before that horse comes over on top of her. And honestly, I wouldn't blame that mare one bit.
It makes me even angrier when these types of people try to discredit your riding skills because you don't use excessive force.


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## Saddlebred11 (Mar 27, 2014)

I love my trainer. She may take things the slow route but it gets done right. She doesn't rush things, for example it took me three years to canter. BUT it happened at the right time for me. I was balanced enough and was ready. 
I have never seen her or her children get in a horses mouth, or mistreat a horse. And they ride and train saddlebreds, you have to know what is helping the horse and at what point it becomes a bad habit.
I hate it when I go to big nice shows and people stop and start to back up by see sawing. Like why, why??


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## beverleyy (Oct 26, 2011)

I cannot stand people like that. I try to touch the horse's face as little as possible, I don't like lots of contact and neither do my horses. I don't disagree with contact, but if I can get the same result with little to no contact, if not a better result, then I most definitely will. 

What I do hate to see is a rider yanking on their horse's face, being all hands. There's a "trainer" in my area who is well known. The only people who look up to her are her students who've been with her since the beginning. The students are oblivious to what's being done wrong as it is all they know. The horses go around completely hollow, heads in the air, mouths gaping. The reins look like they could snap at any second. When I was in my teens I took a couple lessons with this trainer ...my hands actually hurt - badly - at the end. I am not the only person who's found this with this particular coach. It's just disgusting and sad. =(


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## Copperhead (Jun 27, 2012)

They say good training will put a spectator to sleep.

I have to admit, on a horse that is as hard as a freight train to stop, I will have to get that horse's attention SOMEHOW and that usually means a few good jerks every ride. Though typically by the third ride or so they calm down and start to react better to softer aids. I'm retraining a mare who has a speedy, inconsistent trot and has some "move faster to evade" techniques. We're in our 4th ride in and the trot is so much better, I don't have to yank...and her "move fast" technique is being redirected with halfhalts. Once they learn that there is an immediate release for a correct response, they come around really fast.

My trainer once told me that training is a quiet, private conversation between the horse and rider. A spectator who doesn't know how to read subtle language will fall asleep because they don't see much happening. We have turned spurs, bits and whips into main forms of punishment and forgotten what they were actually meant to be.

Don't get me wrong, I'll crack a horse hard for kicking at me. But thats not what I meant. People consider this equipment as tools for punishment. That was not their original design. Its a shame...and a lot of the reason why I don't like to go to shows.


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## TurkishVan (Feb 11, 2013)

Copperhead said:


> We have turned spurs, bits and whips into main forms of punishment and forgotten what they were actually meant to be.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I'll crack a horse hard for kicking at me. But thats not what I meant. People consider this equipment as tools for punishment. That was not their original design. Its a shame...and a lot of the reason why I don't like to go to shows.


I agree. I had to get after myself because I wanted to tap my mare with my whip when she was acting up. Never a good idea to use a "forwardness" aid as a form of punishment. You have to really focus on your reactions. I've gotten to the point where I almost always let bad behavior slide, and by this I mean I don't punish them, I just make them work harder until they're behaved. 
Too many people take a gadget or gizmo and use it as a training aid, but they use it incorrectly. I posted a thread on side reins, and my distrust of them with a new instructor. The main reason I don't like using these training aids is because I'm not completely competent with them, and I don't know what the "right" way of usage is. And if I'm not sure of the "right" way, and if I'm not seeing or hearing anything helpful from someone that "claims" to know how to use them, then I'll refuse the training aid. 
Just yesterday I was given a new bridle with a crank noseband. I asked someone else at the barn how to put it on (I've never had one before!) and they demonstrated. I put it on snug, but not really tight. The girl I'd been asking came over and said, "Oh, well you'll have to punch some more holes in it. I get mine MUCH tighter than that." All I could think was, "Good god! What has your poor horse done to you?"

So many people think they're doing the right thing, because that's what's accepted, or what they were taught. That's why I'm so picky about who instructs me. The first thing you learn is usually what sticks with you the longest!


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## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

It's depressing to read what riders are actually being taught.
Most of these people should be riding a motorcycle instead of a horse.


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