How tight is your horses noseband? It has become common practice for many horse owners to use crank or flash nosebands to strap their horses mouth shut. So much so its actually quite difficult to find a normal cavesson noseband bridle in tack shops - bridles now seem to come with a flash noseband as standard. At most dressage competitions you will see horses wearing extremely tight crank nosebands so that they cannot open their mouth at all. Opening the mouth, teeth grinding and crossing the jaw to avoid the bit are all signs of stress and tension in the horse, so dressage riders are trying to hide these behaviours as they may well be marked down. Extreme tightening of the noseband may force the mucous membranes lining the cheek against the molar teeth and is thought to increase the bitted horse’s compliance and responsiveness to rein pressure, perhaps by sensitising its mouth (Randle & McGreevy, 2011). Recent evidence suggests that horses wearing tight nosebands undergo a physiological stress response, are sensitised to bit pressure and may have reduced blood flow (McGreevy et al., 2012). Consequently, on welfare grounds, the use of nosebands that constrict with potential to cause injuries should not be permitted in training or competition. In a brilliant initiative the International Society for Equitation Science have developed a Noseband Taper Gauge which they suggest should be used at all competitions to ensure nosebands are not restrictive. A steward could use the gauge to uniformly check all riders comply before entering the ring. You can find more information on the ISES website here: equitationscience/restrictive-nosebands
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:04:53 +0000
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