feelings on the bosal??

[Jo Ellen]

my recently adopted arabian has only been ridden with a bosal by the owners of the horse rescue i got her from. i purchased one but i'm not so sure that i like it. i have asked several people about alternatives and they all give me different thoughts. she is riding us around fine when someone takes her lead, but when i try to just ride her with the halter and reins she is pretty reluctant and does her own thing. she is quite gentle and i'm not worried about her throwing me or anything, it just seems she doesnt wanna budge without someone leading her. any advice would be appreciated!
jo ellen

http://home.new.rr.com/jvan/mystery3edit.jpg

[Just.Jump]

If you've got light hands, this shouldn't be a problem. If you want something gentler, try to stick without a bit. A cross pull is a bit more direct than a halter is, this one has two adjustments (rope or padded nose) so it could imitate a bosal. http://www.dianathompson.com/dth.s.pull.pg1.html

Does the bosal cause her discomfort/unwillingess to work well? Otherwise I would stick with it. There aren't alot of bosal alternatives unless you go into hackamores, which I dislike quite a bit. If she doesn't like other bitless bridles, I don't see the need to bit her though.

[Jo Ellen]

thanks for your quick response on the bosal. she seemed to ride fine with it at the rescue but i think i was sold a headstall that was too large for an arabian and thats part of the trouble. when myself and a friend tried it on her the other day i just knew it wasnt right. i called the tack shop owner and she said she may have sold me the wrong size and i could exchange it. do you know any good suppliers of strictly arabian sized tack?
jo ellen

[laura jeanne]

Jo Ellen, your horse is beautiful! What is her name and how old is she? She looks very sweet.

[Just.Jump]

A bosal bridle should fit pretty much like any other bridle, but the cheekpieces have to be long or short enough for your mares preference. Some horses wear them low, some in the regular noseband area, and some a bit higher. I would go with regular noseband height. As for the rawhide/leather/nylon (I would go for rawhide or leath, rawhide is obviously the stiffer choice. Nylon can rub and burn) nose piece, I would measure your mares jaw circumference and take that it to the tack store with you so you can be sure youre getting the right size. It shouldn't be very snug, it should have a nice hanging angle. As for the bridle itself, I would go for just cheek pieces, as most bosals don't go for the browband or throat latch. In fact, I like to see just the cheekpieces, there's a fair amount of pictures proving you don't need throatlatches and browbands. Most browbands are just for looks in western anyway :rolleyes: Quarter horses often have somewhat tapered jaws as well, so you shouldn't be too troubled to find a good bosal in whatever western tack stores you have. I'm assuming your in America, so I don't know if you guys have a lammles or a welsh's store chain anywhere, that's all that's in Edmonton.

This one is fairly snug, but the horse looks comefortable. It's also very thin though, so as a rule of thumb, thicker nosebands need to be loose enough so that they don't dig into that bony flesh. This horse is gorgeous *drool*
http://rawhideandroo.homestead.com/files/Bosal.jpg

This shoes a more classic bosal fit, a thicker rawhide nosepiece that fits alot looser.
http://home.zonnet.nl/countryweb/headstalls_files/image008.jpg

Glad to see another western rider on this board, we're pretty rare!

[Jo Ellen]

Thanks for your interest in my mare. She is an approximately 10 year old Arabian. I got her recently from a rescue and retirement farm here in Wisconsin. She was found wandering a dump since last summer and the rescue spent probably 6 months getting her back into shape. They named her "Mystery" because they really dont know much about her except that she is well trained and has excellent ground manners. I decided to keep her name as it is appropriate, and because after all my visits to the rescue to meet the horses, it is all i can think of her as. Its shocking to me that someone could just abandon or lose such a gorgeous creature. After spending many months rather undernourished she has no health problems whatsoever, and is in great shape now as you can see from her picture. I have been lucky that she is so well manored as well since she is my first horse.

I am extremely green at the whole horse ownership, but have learned a great deal in a short time. I have confidence in dealing with her and she is responding in turn. I am so excited to have wandered upon this site as the posts here in the forum are very informative to me. I am sure i will be asking several things that will make you seasoned horse owners giggle a little but that is how we all learn, right?

I really appreciate the pictures of the bosal and the fit of it. I think that i will tighten mine up a little bit and try again. I do know i need a new headpiece as i mentioned in a prior post so i will go with the measurements this time. Thanks again for your interest and help!

Jo Ellen

http://home.new.rr.com/jvan/mystery4edit.jpg

[leviskipperette]

aww shes a cutie! what a dished face she has! ive got a ten year old arab too, shes a bay though.

Just.Jump--- me too! i ride western :D