Noseband Negotiations

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. As with aid organizations yesterday, food banks prefer cash. “Rather than paying retail prices … This means that when you donate a dollar, you’re able to put more meals on the tables of families than if you donated food you’d purchased at the store.” Feeding America: Donating food to a food bank? Consider cash instead of canned goods., Thoelke, November 12, 2021.
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After our adventures with the hackamore noseband, we played Goldilocks. [A Negative Result Still Counts As Data]

Too loose. Since he didn’t like the thick noseband on the hackamore, I tried riding without any noseband at all. Rodney thought it was weird. I swear the vibe I got was, ‘Ooooh, look at me. I’m running naked in the rain.’ It was all too hippy-dippy for either of us.

Too tight. Back to our regular noseband. I would have said I ride with a loose noseband. However, when I watched him chew the bit, I saw that his jaw came in contact with the lower strap. Not tight, but touching. Rodney does not react well to constriction, even the suggestion of constriction, particularly around his face.

Just right. I loosened the nosestrap another hole and lengthen the overhead strap so that the nosepiece sits farther down his nose. I discovered that “two fingers” is loose to the point of floppy. He seems to like it.

Could such a tiny change make a difference? On any other horse, I would say no. Rodney has always had his knobs on 11.

Eurodressage: On the Ignorance of Noseband Tightness and Vague FEI Noseband Rules, Rottermann, 2018. Good photos of the different ways you can position fingers under a noseband. I am using the measure of two stacked fingers.

The Horse: Noseband Tightness Study: The Two-Finger Rule Is Just About Right, Lesté-Lasserre, 2019. The physics of the horse’s nose anatomy.

Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine