Wonder bits ~ The truth

Found this and thought I'd share. What are yall's thoughts?

The "Wonder" Bit

For the most part I agree. I do not agree, however, that it should be used to get a horse's head up. There are much more effective ways to do that than to slap this contraption in a horse's mouth.

That's the point of the article. To tell you it has no head-raising action ;)

I've always wondered at these bits... as in, why people would bother with them?

Darnit people! What happened to good ol' snaffles??

*Shakes head* The wonder bit is no wonder at all.

Every now and again I put a western saddle on my guy and do some games for sheer fun, and a break for Scout. I see a TON of these bits on the "hard-core" gaming horses, and I always wonder whether the horses actually need them, or if people just use them because it's a "gaming" bit. The horses fly around the patterns with their heads up (jerking tie-downs: if it's designed to get their head up, why tie it down????), ears pinned, eyes rolling, and a hearty yank at the last minute by the rider to stop them.

Maybe a decent bit in the right hands and for the right horse, but like the American TT, I've seen it marketed to the wrong people too many times.

^^Agreed. IMHO, they are basically a TT with gag action. No wonder at all people have bit evading, head tossing, hard to handle horses in these types of bits.

Yeah.. Why can't people just make normal bits??

This is somewhat off topic, but when I read some of the article I remembered something a judge at a local horse show told me. I had a horse that loved to put his tongue over the bit, but as soon as he did, he freaked out. So I routinely went through classes with an almost out-of-control horse. At the end of one class the judge came up to me and asked what type of bit I was using and I said a snaffle. She then said that because of fact that my horse kept putting his tongue over the bit, I should use a gag bit with a certain piece on it to stop that. I said ok, because she gave some advice and it was the polite thing to do, but as soon as I left the class, I gagged. The thought of a gag bit still makes me want to gag. So I told my RI about what the judge said she said, "Yeah, we're not doing that." and I agreed that nobody was ever going to make me ride in a gag bit.

bumpity bump

Another fail at a so-called 'good' bit... You just can't win..