Quiet hands

Earlier this year we started playing around with different bits for Otter to go in for dressage to see if we could get him to stop (or at least reduce the amount) grinding his teeth.  It’s something that he has more or less always done.   He does seem to have some triggers for it – stress, making him work hard/learning new things; at our first show I got reamed out by the dressage judge for it.  I’d pretty much given up on it as something that is just him.  My new trainer wasn’t quite as willing to give up on it (since she particularly hates the noise), and so the bit trials began.

Before I moved down here, we always used a copper double jointed loose ring.  He was soft-ish in it, and was foamy at the lips. But, like I said, my trainer wanted to see if we could find a bit that might make him happy enough to stop grinding his teeth.

So we tried an Albacon boucher.  The bit itself was a little big, but it was the only one we had at the barn and I didn’t want to shell out big bucks just to find out that he hated it.  I tried it because I had good luck with my mare in that bit, plus any little bit of incentive to help him lift his forehand is a good thing.  He was quieter about his grinding in it for a few days, then went back to his normal self.  I kept riding him in it for a while longer to see if he would settle down again, but the bit being too big kept bothering us – it would be really uneven in his mouth at the end of a ride. 

More or less what our current bit looks like

So one day, I decided that I was done with the boucher (might have done this while my trainer was out of town) and put him a bit that we used to jump in – a full cheek Dr. Bristol.    Immediate difference.  So we have been riding in the full cheek for a few months now and he has been going great and other than a few outliers (like schooling the day before Holly Hill when he was a tense, angry man), he is getting quieter and quieter about his grinding. 

Switching gears for a few moments, I have always had “busy” hands – flexing, bending, basically always asking for more.  It’s something we have really been working on, and it is getting better slowly.  I’ve been learning that if I keep my hands steadier, and use my seat and legs to ask for bend and balance, I might not get an immediate softening, but when he does soften, he is more likely to stay there and then I end up using my hands a whole lot less. 

Back to my lesson the other day, we were working on a new skill for Otter – shoulder-ins, and while he had been quiet for most of the ride, he started grinding occasionally and quietly towards the end when he was getting tired.  My trainer made a comment about the noise, and I replied that he has been a lot quieter lately.

To which she replied “That’s because your hands have gotten a lot quieter.”

And that’s when the lightbulb went off in my head.  He was quieter in the full cheek, and to some extent the boucher, than the loose ring because they are more stable bits and so reduce some of the “noise” that I make with my hands.

Duh.