Straight bar mullen and myler bits

My friend also wanted the variation on the Rocking S -
It needs to be explained that Mark recommends this bit which he has found useful but he does not "sell" it to everyone regardless.
He told me that he thought I wouldnt need one for my share horse. Or at least to ride her for a bit longer before paying money. We had already removed the nose-band and he predicted the bit would be stable if I altered my feel along the reins as he had suggested. And it was fine. It is on my shopping list tho if I ever buy a family horse which would be ridden by several different people.
 
Jim's an ID, so a big boy too. Also a bit of a hot head in his youth so bitting was fairly important if I was to stand any chance of staying in control!

Anything with a double joint was totally unacceptable, he was so unsteady in the contact (if I could find a contact at all) that he looked like a headshaker. Single joints were more acceptable but it was still hard to get him steady in the contact rather than overbending & dropping behind it & brakes were iffy. he was very happy in a nathe mullen mouth but I wasn't - for all the good it did I may as well not have bothered with a bridle!

A myler single joint snaffle worked well for a while but I still had unreliable brakes out hacking. SO tried a myler Pelham with a low port comfort mouthpiece & he was really happy in that as long as I used two reins & fitted the curb chain snuggly. Then, for schooling, I tried a myler full cheek mullen & that turned out to be his dream bit - he'd finally work forward into a contact happily & consistently & yet I had better brakes than in anything else - still not foolproof, but if he really runs I don't think anything short of a brick wall in his path would work & at least in this I could usually turn him sidewards &contain the speed.
 
I know how you feel Mary Poppins ... Bits are a right minefield. I just googled the rockin s snaffle, it looks really harsh. Not sure I'd use it! Besides the fact it's not dressage legal so to me would be pointless as I endeavour to do dressage.

I'm in the middle of finding D's favourite bit. So far I've ended up at nathe or HM straight bar loose ring snaffles. The nathe has a slight port, and the HM has the traditional HM bobbles along it (unsure what good they do really though!), but rather concerned at how much control I'll have when jumping! I have found that HM do a loose ring with a copper lozenge in, but if it's jointed bits she dislikes, then I've wasted my money. If it's metal bits, it may work. Who knows...
 
In what way is the rockin s harsh? The floating D rings evenly distribute any pressure making it milder and more consistent than a regular snaffle.
 
It looks as though you'd get rotation from the ring your cheek pieces would slot thru, then I can't work out whether you need two reins for the normal ring, but then you have the ring sticking out at 90 degree angles from the face which surely must be odd for both horse and rider? And there's the whopping great port in the middle which in the pic looks arrow but high, which would cause pressure on the roof and pinch the tongue.
 
That's not how the raised port one works. It doesn't have nutcracker action but lays back and opens up in the mouth.
 
That's what mine is, but with full cheeks. Because of how he is I'll only ever ride him in a cheeked bit, it can make the difference between me holding him & losing him. Keep an eye on ebay, sometimes they come up there.
 
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