First ridden-bits

[jay25]

Hi, just a quick question, what bits do you have in your first ridden ponies? and are they always rode in these, or do you vary them??
any opinions appreciated :-)

[lynnbar]

First ridden ponies should be in snaffles..

[Deleted]

we use french links as or Dartmoors need the extra room in their mouths, hanging snaffle or a simple eggbutt. Its not what the current fashion is - its what type of bit suits your pony & it goes best in.

[sarahp]

I always use a double jointed snaffle too as a first try, I find ponies normally seem to go better in those than a single joint. Not keen on wilkies though which are not snaffles anyway in action but gags.

[hunter]

im not keen on wilkies either ,but believe it or not my god daughter received a birthday card from the bsps and the pony on the front of it is in a bloody wilkie !!!!!!!

[heidi1]

Ours is in a NS loose ring lozenge snaffle for the bulk of the time but always for showing / flat work. He has a bit of a varied life and my 7 yr old daughter has discovered a liking for cross country and hunter trials so I do tend to swap him to a NS lozenge hanging snaffle for this just to give a little more support with control / steering if she needs it. He came to us in a Wilkie which I abandoned.

[nici]

Our little Welsh A is ridden in a loose ring French link snaffle. My daughter's C (not strictly a FR pony as Cs aren't allowed in the class whatever their size, but my daughter is only 9) is ridden in a loose ring double jointed happy mouth with roller. Both have perfectly good brakes in their bits, so I see no reason to swap and change.

Just backing another A at the moment. He also has a loose ring double jointed happy mouth with roller, just because I happened to have it spare in the cupboard. He's done a lot of inhand showing in a straight plastic bit before coming to us, and has accepted the happy mouth readily. It's early days but he seems settled in it so will probably stick with it while he's with us.

I like to start ponies with loose rings and double joints, whatever I have available in the right size, and work from there. My daughter's Shetland, now out on loan, really disliked loose rings and set his neck and refused to bend when ridden in one. He was happiest in a single jointed hanging cheek - took a while to discover that as it's not normally a bit I'd use.

[sarahp]

Any of mine bitted for IH showing go in a double jointed snaffle too, they always seem to hate those hard straight plastic bits!

[catkin]

My main priority with a first ridden is control and safety. So, I would choose a bit with this in mind. I would (dare I say it) choose to ride a pony in a stronger bit than a snaffle at home if that meant the child had control and was not lugging the pony around. As for which snaffle, yes, double jointed is my bit of choice, probably a fulmer for a small child as I find this helps with steering/communication. Fylde do a lovely double-joined one with neat sides. This is not an ad for them, but I have failed to find such neat ones elsewhere. On the bit changing part of the question, again, so depends on the pony, but yes, I do change depending on circumstance and training stages etc.

[jay25]

Thank you all, I am trying to get away from a single joint wilkie with not much success
tried French link, loose ring single joint and eggbutt and neu schule double joint with lozenge with loop ring sides, but he is pulling her around in these, fine in a wilkie though
didn't know if the Tom thumb wilkie will be any nicer for him.

really not sure where to go with this, as my daughter had lost so much confidence, now has gained and really doing so well with him, I don't want her to be unnerved by him pulling on a bit more than he was.

[redrobinson]

I use a lozenge snaffle now. It has the biggest rings you've ever seen. But! My sec A boy is so much happier .... I went down the Wilkie road because I was advised that was best for all FYFR ponies...wrong! Xxx

[sarahp]

There are two ways of looking at your question. First from your child's point of view, in which case I'm totally with catkin in that control and safety for the child is the first priority and you need to find a bit to achieve that. I can remember when my daughter was small that she did hacking, flat work etc in a snaffle but we changed to a stronger bit (in our case the no longer fashionable Kimblewick, a long time ago and less choice of bits then) for hunting and XC. Second from a FR showing point of view when the pony is being judged on suitability as a FR. In the latter case, surely the judge (catkin?) would ideally want to see the pony going kindly and sweetly in a snaffle, and one requiring a stronger bit would be noted as less suitable?

[catkin]

Good points as usual SarahP.
To the poster, if your pony goes well and the child is happy with the wilkie, I would stick with it. Some judges don't like them, some don't mind and none of that really matters if the pony is going badly in something else anyway, particularly if your child is losing confidence.
SarahP, PoniesUK M&M is the only FR class that you may use anything other than a snaffle, so this doesn't come up much. Very, very few judges put ponies down in the permitted snaffles that are stronger. My personal driver is way of going. Then if I had two equal ponies I needed to split, I guess I might go for the one with the softer bit.

[sarahp]

Where do wilkies come in the rules of societies though, as they are not snaffles? Neither FR nor showing rules are anything I'm really up in.

[catkin]

Sorry, my previous post was incorrect. All societies say any suitable bridle for M&M FR. Wilkies are accepted by all the pony showing societies as snaffles.

[sarahp]

No comment!

[ilovenatives]

How about a hanging cheek snaffle , these give a bit more brakes for a FR jockey

[jay25]

I was thinking about the hanging cheek, possibly try double jointed first . . . . ??

[millieperfectpony]

Always a snaffle first ridden ponies shouldn't need anything stronger