Standing Martingales

[acw295]

Tell me all about them please- why do they work? When is it good to use them etc? Are they the spawn of the devil? Or are they useful and of so what are the ins and outs of them? I've no experience of them until now.

I had my 4th lesson today with BD trainer, we are in the early days if reschooling Molly who does her best to resist anything and everything (there is a vid on here of 3rd lesson if you want to see what she's like). I'm also quite crap it is fair to say

Today she was being very hard work (mingled in with odd moments of briliance). Trainer suggested trying a makeshift standing martingale by adapting her running martingale (I don't usually school in this but have it for jumping and hacking as she can get a bit carried away and would knock me out) and the difference was amazing. All we are trying to get it calm, steady trot on 20 and 15m circles withbend and contact - nothing complex.

I'm not in to gadgets - although know that everything has its place in the right hands. Trainer has suggested schooling her in standing martingale - but short bursts only (max 20 mins) until she stops fighting so much as she is exhausting me by chucking her head around and ignoring my rein aids without it.

Will add that she has had a new saddle, properly fitted and the flocking adjusted last month, chiro last week (pelvis and atlas out and now fixed) -teeth up to date etc so she isn't evading because of discomfort. She has just built muscle in the wrong place (upside down neck and very uphill) so she finds it very hard and is determined not to learn to work in a different way. She also has a will of iron when she doesn't want to do something (she's Welsh D) but I don't want to get in to fights with her as she will always win.

Trainer says I ride very softly with her - sometimes a bit too soft, and that I'm in no danger of doing her any harm, but I'm just a tad nervous of using something without understanding it properly.

Sorry, that came out longer than I thought! Comments please

[poppy 99]

I prefer a standing martingale to a running one as running can interfere with the horses mouth. I don't feel I have proper contol and would never ride in a running martingale.

[XxXAmeyXxX]

My trainer gave me exactly the same advice for a similar situation and did the same thing of adapting a slightly too large martigale for him as it is only a tempoary measure so no point in going out and buying one!

The diffrence was amazing, it wasn't on tight but stopped him getting past the point where my rein aids are doing nothing, everything i do can be done 10 times more gentler, schooling is coming on ten fold and I am looking into a gentler bit than a simple snaffle!

Definetly feel more comfortable using one having been given advice from my trainer and had it fitted correctly.

[Toffee_Monster]

Hi Amy
I often did the same with her running to the noseband and it worked well but its not a long term fix.

Have you got a bungie rein ?
I had one and used it for schooling in the early days and she worked lovely in it - its just a piece of elastic which goes from girth through front legs, through bit ring over poll and back down through other bit ring to the girth (use a piece of baler twine to attach clips to)

She woeks lovely in one of those and i would highly recommend it - only about £5 aswell ! If you want a hand i could come over and show you how to use it !

[Toffee_Monster]

Me again - heres a link to the type of thing but i always attached it through front legs

Link here

[acw295]

Thanks all, no-one seems to think it is a totally bad idea or Molly abuse so I think I'll give it a go when we school for the next few weeks until our next lesson (we have a lesson every 3 weeks as tres pricey) but only for short bursts and see what difference there is after that time. I don't want to rely on something like that for long - but trainer didn't seem to be suggesting that - just as a short term way of stopping her evasion.

We were doing the usual trick of circling with me bringing left rein out to my knee - usually that works but Molly was adament she was not going to flex left and used all her weight against me to pull her head right and I was getting nowhere and ended up with such pain in my arms. With the martingale she had to give in a bit so we did start to get somewhere and I was much less tired by it. I know she finds it hard, but also know that she doesn't want to do it either so have to get the balance with not forcing it too much but also not letting her get away with it otherwise we'll never improve.

Nat - may give the bungie a try after the martingale. Thanks