Hackamore Questions

Skippys Mum

New Member
Nov 25, 2007
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Scotland
Hi there,

I currently hack Arnie out in a Dr Cooks. Although he is happy with this arrangement, its occurred to me that I am possibly not! He has started pulling his head down and yanking the reins out my hands. He is getting very heavy in it. I believe this can be a problem with Dr Cooks.

I tried hacking him in a hackamore and he was much much nicer. No pulling (although this is not a braking problem, he stops fine - even from speed) and much more pleasant trot. The only thing was, no matter how much I adjust it, the shanks of the (English) hackamore touch his mouth. I wouldnt even go so far as to say rub his mouth but they touch when I am on a loose rein. Tap tap tap, and its starting to irritate him. Its okay when I have a contact but I prefer to hack on a loose rein.

Any ideas on different styles of hackamore to avoid this? Does the "S" hackamore touch the mouth?

Or, any suggestions for any other bitless solution to the heavy in the hand?

Due to past mouth problems he is not happy bitted and although I am trying to reintroduce a bit for schooling I prefer bitless for hacking.

thanks
Kirsten x
 
I have started using an english hackamore on Murphy, it does go near his mouth (but he is such a big brute he wouldn't notice), only thing you can do with them really is to adjust the noseband wider so it's not anywhere near his mouth, but if your horse doesn't have a huge wide head like Murphy then it probably won't work.

I bought the S hackamore for Shay so it wouldn't be anywhere near his mouth, I did try him in the english hackamore but he didn't like it as it was near his mouth. The english does have slightly more leverage then the s hackamores.

Shay started to pull down into the crospull bridle before I swapped him to the hackamore, another alternative would be the happywheel/LG as there are no shanks to rub.

English hackamore on Shay
DSC00145.jpg


S hackamore one hole too low
DSC00304.jpg


You can see how it's just above his lips in this pic
meandshaytakenbysam.jpg


I did lengthen the noseband on the S hackamore to move it back but completely lost my brakes and steering when I did that (I ended up being dragged through the woods at high speed:eek:)
 
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