Charles Wilhelm has become known as one
of the country's top Trainers for both
horses and people his approach to
training focuses on educating the horse
owner alongside their ecin Partners so
they can form a strong bond and Achieve
an amazing
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partnership okay uh most of the time
when we preschool of horses I use a
Snapple bit and there's always a big
discussion about one wrinkle two
wrinkles three
wrinkles and and uh and I've heard it
all over different country and uh and
I've learned to what I've learned is to
fit it to the horse's
mouth and this is something that most
people don't realize every horse has a
different Siz mouth than the other one
look at the lips on this one this
it's probably better for the camera over
here this is probably a medium mouth I
got a horses in here that the corners of
the lips are right there but yet they
got a medium jaw I have a small mouth
and a medium jaw so if you got a horse
that has a small mouth you may end up
with one or two
wrinkles okay that's not the criteria
now this is my opinion
is that uh I when I put a snaffle in a
horse's mouth I want them to learn to
pick it up on their own into their mouth
they adjust it and loose this is the
horse's mouth and they just suck that
right up there in their with their
tongue and pick it and hold
it that would be
ideally okay uh and you talk to a
dentist that would be ideally but uh PA
maybe 30% of the horses will do that but
we can try right we can give them the
opportunity doesn't mean they're going
to do it but that would be ideal that
when they start packing them themselves
that means that's a real acceptance that
they take that and own it
okay so I'm going to show you how I
adjust it now I also use an all hores
what I call a
cavison nose band
uh most people like in the English World
they really tighten it
up okay uh I don't not like tighten it
up but I do like it firm if you notice I
I got it tight but I got a couple
fingers there and the reason is and I'm
not going to do that until I put this
snaffle in because I want it to open his
mouth so he can put the bid in the
reason for that is I want to tell horses
except the bit they're going to open
their mouth you pick up on the rains and
they're going to open their mouth I mean
any new horse that has never had a bit
in his mouth it's going to be gapped
open the tongue wants to come over the
top of it okay so I got it on there
loose for
now now I'm going to show you how I
Bridle a horse and the reason I go
through all this cuz I can't tell you
how many horses I get in here that says
I can't Bridle my
horse I put my hand over the neck just
like it would the halter except this
time it's going to come right between
the two ears I'm going to present the
bridal to my right hand if you notice
that the bit is just at the nose here I
take the
Snapple and I lay I want the bit to lay
just like this
okay because that's going to help me
present it okay this has got a a a
snaffle hobble okay okay so do this
first bring it
up see how she pulled her head away well
she can't escape because I got it
blocked with my right hand and this
Bridal she can't go away so I can start
blocking evasion before he even starts
then I take my right finger here open up
the mouth and pull it
through easy slightly with my right hand
all right then I take one ear
forward now this got ad justed you know
I should have lengthened this to be
honest with you I I always try to judge
it and then bring the other in or over
it that's the way I do it some people
like to bring the ear
back to me it doesn't matter because I
play with all of my horses
ears and they learn to accept any kind
of
pressure okay the chin
the throat latch I like to leave a
little bit of
room about like this here so I can put
two or three fingers in there so that
way when they Flex they don't get U uh
not choke but it doesn't make it
comfortable uncomfortable so they won't
want to to flex at the pole all right
this is the pull between the axis and
then the first vertebrae this is so they
Flex like this all
right
now this is just barely making a wrinkle
so I'm going to make it a little bit
longer so it's Dro down in the mouth and
then I'm going to show you how I do this
see that's almost too far see so I'm
going to take it up one I got I'm going
to take the adjustment on the top
because I have three adjustments on
mine now this is how I'm going to tell
when I open the
mouth I can see where the bid is
laying okay it's not dangling down in
here in the front teeth and it's not
back there into the rear teeth set of
teeth if you look at the corners of the
mouth it's about and when I open up the
mouth it's about a half inch to an
inch I don't want it see any distance
more than an inch then it'll be too far
down and you can see how it's dropped
down in fact I'm going to try it by
releasing it one more hole droing it
down remember I went back
up I'm going to make sure cheek pieces
are
even all right oh hold on sweetheart
sorry about
that all right I'm going to open up the
mouth see the corners see it's about U
3/4 of an inch I wouldn't so with that
that I'd be happy with that because that
encourage the horse to pick it
up and that would be
ideal now if I were starting the horse
and putting a snaf in the first time I'd
probably pull it up into its mouth to
discourage the horse the horse's tongue
to go over the top
okay and to me that's that's that's
ideal fit right
there now we can take and
tighten uh the nose band
and I'm going to do it by shortening it
so it comes up
here I I can put three fingers in there
and here again all that is is when they
open their mouth they kind of bump into
it and kind of to close
it and and then the other important
thing is make sure that it's adjusted
here sometimes I see these Bridal come
down like this
well that's pretty much discomfort for a
horse all right you want it just between
the eye bone and the bottom the air so
it lays in there
comfortably the the the strap that's on
here on the snaffle is what we call a
snfa hobble uh I have these made for me
and uh they'll fit anywhere from a 4
and2 uh to 5 1/2 in Naf okay the the
idea is that when I pull on this ring
and it leans up against this bit that it
help encourage it not to pull through it
kind of blocks it otherwise if I didn't
have it on there and she'd laid on it
really laid on it it could pull
through uh the only two bits that work
pretty good is a large o-ring at least a
3 and 1/2 in or a full cheek snaffle uh
like we talked about in the other
segment um I usually don't start using
these uh this offset d uh until later on
when they're pretty more broke in the
face and I don't have a lot of
resistance we hope you've enjoyed
watching Charles wilhelm's ultimate
Foundation
horsemanship remember to find out more
about Charles and to see how you can get
the most out of your relationship with
your horse visit Charles online at
Charles wilhelm.jr