On Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 01:45:47PM -0500, Karen Thomas wrote: > > >>> no, i mean riding bitless and one-rein stops are different. > > I guess I'm confused. Wasn't it you who brought up that you'd want a bit if > you had to do a one-rein stop? I just think you should be able to stop your > horse, with or without a bit.
sure, and in a perfect world he'd clean his own stall too, as it were (actually he hasn't got a stall, just a run-in :) and his tolt would always be clearly four-beat and we'd never trip on the trail, and he could jump 3' and sidepass at the tolt. i am just not sure that in *this* world either he or i are to that stage yet. meanwhile, i think it would be unreasonable to confine him (as i am the most advanced of his riders) to life in his turnout and the ring only, and a shame to waste the 3600 acres of state forest which are why i moved him to this barn in the first place, but which are sometimes full of unpredictable things. so far we haven't had enough snow this year to run into, say, a snowmobile; he handles bicycles fine, but it wouldn't surprise me if a snowmobile required more serious measures, and i'm uncertain if i'd be able to stop him w/o a bit in such cases. (i'm not that certain i'd be able to stop him with a bit, even, but i could try. we review the one-rein stop about once a month, starting at a walk and proceeding to the other gaits, in the ring; we do it at about the same frequency on the trail for practice.) --vicka
