Back on my Noseband? Why noseband? soapbox. Here is an article that expresses some of my opinions. Personally, I do not use nosebands at all. Jim Wofford: The Times They Are a-Changin Scientific studies show there is no place in horse sports for tight nosebands. One Noseband for All? Nosebands are one of my many irritants when coaching. For example, flash nosebands are ubiquitous in the eventing world. Almost every horse I see is wearing one. Flash nosebands are inherently ill fitting; a flash is basically an inefficient figure-eight noseband. So they are invariably overtightened, causing a pronounced indentation in the flesh of the nasal bone and, occasionally, small sores on the lips. In addition, these nosebands can interfere with the horses normal swallowing mechanism, producing the very resistance they are intended to cure. Not every horse in the eventing world needs or goes well in a flash noseband. Yet when I ask riders whether they have tried other nosebands, or even no noseband, they look at me as if I had just stepped down the ramp of the mother ship. Obviously, it has never occurred to them to try something else. After all, everybody tacks up their horses this way, so it must be correct. Sigh. In the past, I have spoken out against the use of overly tight cavesson nosebands on pragmatic rather than scientific grounds. My reasoning was that both the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) and U.S. Equestrian Federation rules consider it a good sign when a horse softly chews the bit, and judges reward this behavior during the dressage test with favorable marks. A good working definition of classical training is that we do not ask the horse to do anything he does not do in nature. Clearly, strapping a horses mouth shut is unnatural and will not produce classical results in terms of acceptance of the bit, softness of contact or self-carriage. Naturally, we want the best possible score for our horses, but by cranking the noseband as tight as possible, we actually prevent them from accepting the bit correctly. Given all this, you can understand that a recent series of articles at eurodressage got my attention and led me to scientific studies regarding the effect of tight nosebands on equines. The researchers findings; that tight nosebands are abusive to horses are not surprising. However, new scientific knowledge means that we now can prove something that was merely alleged in the past. If our current practices are proven to be abusive, even unintentionally, then we must immediately adopt new practices based on the latest findings. What surprises me is that this is not happening: Riders and trainers are not changing their practices in response to new information. We do things a certain way because we have always done them this way and it is too much trouble to learn new techniques. This attitude is prevalent in the horse world and is a huge barrier to improving the health and training of our horses.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 02:30:59 +0000
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