hi I'm Larry troka and today I want to
give you a couple tips on bridling your
horse uh we have a a curb bit on this
horse today and uh I'm going to show you
the the way I like
to to unbridle him you notice I put my
right hand between his
ears and guided the the bit out of his
mouth so it didn't bang his teeth so if
I was going to Bridle this horse the
first thing I'd do is is is put the head
on my left hand take my right hand put
it between the horse's ears and see how
he drops his head when I when I press
down with that hand all right now I take
hold of the head stall with my right
hand my left hand the fingers guide the
mouthpiece into the horse's mouth and my
thumb goes into the corner of the
horse's mouth to open it okay and then I
raise up on the head stall to bring it
up into his mouth I take the offside ear
move it forward put it into the the slot
take the near side ear move it
forward underneath the head stall and
I've got it now the next thing I want to
check is the adjustment okay the bit is
up snug into the corners of the mouth
it's not tight it's not stretching his
mouth and it's not loose it's not
hanging halfway down his out of his
mouth either it's just up into the
corners and snug now some horses are
going to work work better with the bit a
little higher in their mouth some horses
are going to work better with a bit a
little bit lower in their mouth okay now
the next thing I want to check is the
adjustment of the curb chain and you
know the old rule of thumb is to take
two fingers you know put it you know put
it between the horse's jaw and the curve
chain and that's good enough well that's
not a very accurate uh uh measure for
the adjustment what you really want to
check is the length of travel of the
shanks now these Shanks are moving
between two and three Ines before they
take effect and that's just about right
kind of depends on the bit depends on
the horse but as a rule of thumb that's
pretty good if the shanks will only move
about a half inch before it takes effect
well you know the curb chain is too
tight and it needs to be loosened up a
notch if the shanks you know move so
much that they're coming way back here
well that's too much and you know you
need to tighten up the curb chain now I
get um uh quite a few emails uh from
people that are having trouble bridling
their horse and there's certain things
you can do to make that horse better to
Bridal uh as you saw earlier when I was
when I when I put the the bridle on this
horse when I put my hand between his
ears he lowered his pole okay
teaching your horse to do that is key to
having a horse that's easy to Bridle I
also teach my horses to bring their nose
to me when I want them to so between
bringing their nose to me and lowering
their pole I can put their head wherever
I want it to Bridle them so the first
step in in teaching your horse to do
that is to take your your fingers and
your thumb and you put it right behind
the horse's ears okay and you exert some
downward pressure not a not a not a lot
just enough to make it uncomfortable for
the horse and if he moves his head down
even a a fraction of an inch you release
that pressure and pet him okay and then
you go right back to it put pressure he
drops his head a little bit you release
the pressure and pet him until he
understands that dropping his head off
that pressure is what relieves that
pressure and he gets the reward and
pretty soon you'll be able to just put
your hand up there and he'll just drop
his head as much as you
want same thing with controlling his
nose I'll take my my fingertips and put
it on the The Bridge of his nose just on
the opposite side of his nose there's a
little nerve that runs along there and I
just put a little pressure on that not a
lot I put my hand here to to steady his
head and and I put a little pressure on
his nose when he brings his head just a
little bit I release that
pressure put a little pressure on his
nose he he gives it to me a little bit I
relieve that pressure until pretty soon
I can put his head wherever I want it
with just pressure from my fingers okay
once you've got that then bridling the
horse is a piece of cake okay um now
this isn't going to happen overnight
you're not going to get it done in one
day but if you're consistent over a
period of a week or two you really
shouldn't have any problems