Small Bits vs Bigger Bits

Texas Horseman and clinician Craig Cameron is our guest today on an archived interview with the late Howard Hale.

 

You do a lot of clinics, Craig. See a lot of different people, and what are some of the things that they're doing with the bits that you think need to be maybe changed?

 

"I think they're trying to take that old shortcut there, you're going to try to get a bigger bit to try to make it happen, but most folks are asking for way too much, way too fast of not only the horse, but of themselves. I think an understanding of the bit, in other words, we're going through the mouth to try to get to the feet. So I'm not trying to see how much bit I can use, I'm trying to see how little."

 

"And as I go up in bits, see, it's not so I can pull harder, it's actually so I can be lighter with my horse. And again, that's the old Vaquero style right there, see how little it takes, not how much. If I could only have one bit in my barn to use on my horses, what would that be? If I only had one bit, I believe I'd just have to go with that old snaffle bit."

 

"I think that's the old true training bit, and I've known some great horsemen that never used a snaffle bit, but they were really good with their hands, they had the experience. But I think for a lot of great trainers, and anything from intermediate to advanced to beginning riders, that snaffle bit, when you learn how to use it."

 

Craig Cameron with the late Howard Hale on today's Horseman's Corner.