Applying pressure to the chin and nose of a horse are ways to gain added control, and snaffle bits can be used for lateral work. Learn about getting a horse to move laterally with a correction bit with helpful advice from a reining horse trainer in this video on control and leverage in horse bridles.
This would be stage two. It still gives me that lateral control, but now I'm starting to get just a little bit of shank, I've also got a chin strap on there, that's going to add a little bit of pressure to the chin. So you can see that when I start to apply a little bit of pressure with this, kind of the action that I would get out of my horse. So, you'd to give his nose a little bit more and I can have just a little, a little added control. I can put just a few more moves on him as I start to advance into a bridle like that. From there, I start to tighten things up a little bit. The snaffle and the correction bit are both made for mostly lateral work, a lot of left and right. Now, there comes a point when I want to tighten everything up, where I want my horse just start lining it all up and get right in behind my hand. Now we start getting into what we call our grazing bits or little bit more of what we call a finished bridle as well. You notice we're no longer a snaffle, solid mouthpiece, still have the tongue relief; alright. But now instead of each side being independent from the other, it's all connected together. Now I've got the chain strap as well, a little bit more shank, a little bit more leverage, but now you could see that I'm starting to line everything up, get my horse in bit more of a straight line body position. On this particular horse, he's been through all those stages and I could stop at any stage I want to. The horse and you know, the only thing I have to do to go beyond a snaffle and the reason I do is because the rules of my association or the sport that I do say that I need to. Alright. But otherwise, you can do a lot of fun stuff with the snaffle. But I progressed him up to, it's the same version is that low port grazing bit that I just showed you but you notice, it's got a little higher port, alright. A little more tongue relief. Now you think, "Oh my gosh, you know, that looks like it could be more severe". It's really not. Actually on him, this is less severe than that, what I just showed with the lower port and the reason is, he's got a fat tongue. Okay. This horse has a fat tongue, so this gives his tongue more room up in there. Now, I also got a leather chin strap on this particular bridle. It's not a chain anymore, it's back to a leather. Now I can also put a chain or a leather chin strap on any of those, I can put a chain on this. It's just what kind of leverage, what kind of feel are you after with your horse. Alright. But, Sparky's up to this, this is what he feels comfortable with, so this is what I'm going to go ahead and ride him with.
