Chain in mouth when showing ?

[titch]

Most colts or stallions like to try and grab the chain in their mouth when showing in hand and I always remove it. I was horrified recently to see a stallion with the chain in his mouth and saw blood coming out of his mouth. I thought oh dear he must of grabbed the chain and accidentally cut his mouth. After wiping away the blood with a cloth passed from outside the ring the chain remained in the horses mouth. Surely if a person cannot hold a horse with a bit then should they really be showing it ? It goes back to training !

What do people think ? Should it be allowed or not ? There's so many different rules for ridden i.e. In warm up Nps no spurs or draw reins but surely a chain ripping into a mouth should be banned ?

Opinion ?

[kayjayem]

sounds horrific! Did you mention your concerns to anyone - show committee etc?

[titch]

I didn't as didn't know if it was breaking the rules. That's why I'm asking on here. Someone else watching said that this always happens so I presumed it was allowed as they show a lot more than I do. The poor animal looked so scared. If it's not acceptable to have a chain in the horses mouth then next time , which I'm sure there will be I will report it. I doubt anything would get done though as I didn't think people were allowed to interfere from outside the ring but someone did !