Harbridge

[carrimclaren]

Hi

Just thought i'd ask if anyone uses/has used a harbridge to help school their horses and whether it helped or not?

[larri]

Yes.....and Yes! :D

[carrimclaren]

lol that good eh :)
I've only used one on two schooling sessions and she's going forward wonderfully in it and isn't leaning as much but just wondered about other people's opinions on them as a training aid.

[BallouBaby]

what exactly is a harbridge? What does it do?

[carrimclaren]

harbridge (http://www.tds-saddlers.com/ProductDetails.asp?PCLinkID=3423)

This probably explains it better than i could :)

[BallouBaby]

Ahh.. so its kind of like drawreins, but kind of not.

[Zingy]

It's not like draw reins in that it cannot fix the horse into an outline. It encourages the horse to lower it's head, round it's back and step through more behind. Result - more engaged and a better outline. I normally use it loose enough so that it doesn't pull the head down in any way. The only bit you need to concentrate on is keeping the impulsion so you get the desired effect. Without the impulsion it won't work properly, but you won't do significant amounts of damage.

Draw reins on the other hand pull the outline into place more and concentrate purely on the front of the horse. In my experience it's much more difficult to get the engagement and most people don't bother because the head looks pretty. Draw reins are very difficult to use well and it's very easy to do a lot of harm.