Crisis of confidence

I have realised of late I have been following fad after fad with Sofie.

·         First it was the going barefoot decision, which seemed to result in me reading endless stuff on the internet and believing all of it.

·         Then I dabbled in natural horsemanship to deal with her behaviour issues rather than using my normal methods.

·         Then there was the enlightened Equitation way of riding – I instantly bought and read the book and thought everything I have learnt thus far is wrong.

·         Recently I have changed Sofie’s saddle to a leather tree FlexEE having read about the daemons of traditional saddles (daemons being that the stirrup bars are too far forward for a decent position, and that the tree can interfere with the horses movement).

·         And now I am fiddeling about with her bit and considering bitless.

 

Sofie Modelling some of my recent fad buys

 

There is a phrase:

barefoot, bitless, treeless, clueless

 

Is this what I have become?

I used to be quite straight forward in my horsemanship. Horse is misbehaving, be sure it knows what you want it to do and make that the easiest option. If it doesn’t do it – tell it off. I always kept gadgetry to a minimum – snaffle bit, standard gp saddle (and sometimes forwent the saddle when it didn’t fit). Horses had shoes on the front, and on the back it they needed it. Plain shoes, none of this fancy nonsense. Riding was effective if not pretty. I never doubted myself.

Even when Tonto was really challenging I never looked to fads for answers - actually that is not true. I did once have a behaviourist out, but soon gave that up as I didn’t really have the time to draw little circles all over my horse daily and I didn’t think this would prevent him from charging down strangers in any case. I suppose I did develop some strange habits with Tonto. I learnt how to use my body language to communicate with him, and took to singing to him when he got scared. But other than that I was pretty conventional.

I guess what has suddenly woken me up from my fade chasing is that I have just ordered a Pelham bit for Sofie because the EE book suggested it. I have always hated Pelhams. I hate over-bitting your horse. The EE book tells me that a well-used Pelham is kinder than a snaffle.  This is going against everything I have known and I do find it hard to believe that the long held wisdom that the snaffle bit is the soft option is, in fact, a lie.

And now I am in a state of turmoil. Is bitless the answer? Do I actually know anything about horses? Who is the right person to believe?

Oh I do miss the old days, when my old instructor was around. To me he was the Yoda of horses. Have a problem, ask him, that was definitely the right way to do it.

Now I have to weigh up different view points and make my own decisions. Growing up is pants.