Research on the academic curbs

If both legs of the mouthpiece rise to the middle, they leave more space below them for the tongue, this is called the "freedom of the tongue". If this freedom is too high, the mouthpiece can touch the palate which irritates the horse greatly. And if on top of this a nose strap or cavecon is too tight, this situation gets even more severe, as the horse cannot open its mouth wide enough to avoid contact.
Is the freedom of the tongue to low, the movement of the tongue and the ability to play with it, as the old wished, is impeded.

A snafflecurb must have a slobber-chain for preventing the upper shanks to fall into the cheeks of the horse by limiting the width for the lower ends of the lower shanks.

A curb has two side-parts, called shanks, the mouthpiece is fixed between them. The shape of these shanks determine many of the effects of the mouthpiece.

Pulling at the reins leads to a rotation of the mouthpiece and brings back the lower branch and forwards the upper branch.

But even with reins hanging loose the curb can be working: the weight of the lower branch gives a little pressure on the curb-chain, if the horse has its nose into the air, until the horse has lowered the nose enough to be able to hold the bit with his mouth or until it is gathered as much as intended by the rider, in relation to the width of the mandibles to the throat, or to the lesson. The by many riders demanded always perpendicular front line is in many cases not possible nor called for nor making sense., and in some cases even a front-line of 45° (or even higher ) is the optimum. The French use the word „ramener“, which is mostly translated with "to bring head and neck of the horse to a beautiful poise", which sounds less rigid.

A good posture of head and neck is important for the physical and mental health of the horse. For each of the different types of horses the best posture is differently and accordingly to the form and strength of the hind quarter, the forehand, the type of the neck, the Ganasche, the mind of the horse and not according to the present work task of the horse.

La Broue says it thus: „The horse shall hold head and neck in its middle and most beautiful posture”. The emphasis here lies on “its”! For an English full-blood during a race it may be the best, to hold “its nose into the wind” or “Wear the nose as high as the ears”. But in the academic art of riding we want to achieve a strong collection on the hind legs, to achieve the best possible turnability (on the hind legs), that means sufficient bearing power in the hind legs and the possibility of a great freedom of the shoulders (from weight).

A well schooled, full-grown horse adopts during a calm collection a good posture by its own, here the French word “ramener” / “r’amener” suits better, because it means “fetching towards” : this the horse can do on its own, without any effect by a bridle. The German word „beizäumen“ (= bridling towards) does not allow this utilisation.

A young horse (as the 5-6 year old ones are called in the academic art of riding, even younger should perhaps not be troubled with any curb) , can learn to achieve this posture faster and better, if an appropriate bridling is used. The best for this is a curb, which during the heyday of the academic art of riding in the utmost cases was a snaffle-curb. Contrary to every other bridling, a curb lifts up the nape of the horse (elevating effect) and simultaneously brings the nose downwards, which in the ideal case leads to a beautiful, evenly arched upper neckline.

The German word „Beizäumung“ (= bridling towards) on the other side has the advantage to mean solely the impacts of the curb. These effects we can divide into:

1. the auto-curbing (self-impact = automatic effect) happens without any action of the bridle-hand and occurs solely by the leverage of the longer lower branch, fortified by the weight of the reins

2. the active bridling towards by the rider’s additional pull at the reins

Is the curb build in a way that it effects a too strong auto-curbing, an uprighting/erection of the forehand is impossible, or only a false one by strongly working the spurs (the latter leads to double discomfort for the horse: it has to endure the spurs and the pressure of the chin-chain, too, and additionally is often leading to a false kink in the horse’s neckline). Also, bringing the horse to collect its forces by a too strong curb will lead to a collection on the forehand. In extreme cases the horse then will bring its nose close to the ground, creating in effect a gradient of collection near zero.

The auto-impact of a too strong curb impedes: a far-reaching out in all gaits (the famous spacious walk of the Knabstrupper for example), and also a sufficient load-discharging of the forehand (which means that a beautiful,relaxed school-halt, the Terre-A-Terre, a beautiful school-canter and a beautiful lifting of the forehand are impossible); and the desired maximal gradient of collection for the specific horse in the specific lesson cannot be achieved.

Is on the contrary the build of the curb rather too weak, the rider can counteract this weakness by pulling at the rein precisely that amount of pressure on the chin-chain he thinks necessary at the moment, to gain the sinking of the nose he wishes for (= tilting of the front line of the horse’s head) should he feel, that the auto-curbing is not sufficient.

The most important goal for us in the academic art of riding thus is to find a curb, which allows the maximal gradient of collection: if then it feels to weak, we can always add curbing-impact by our hands. Maxim: “Better too weak than too strong”!

Reasons for choosing a too strong curbing bridle on the other hand can be: the rider has not much confidence, and wants, being a beginner, rather not the maximal uprighting (and accepts as a backlash having to drive the horse much more); or he might want to attach the reins to his belt and ride with free hands; or he wants as a western-rider to put the horse on the forehand, with a consecutively sinking down of the head, to get it out of the lasso’s way; or he wants to train a war horse for the fighting in the turmoil to achieve a low school: here it is important, that the horse doesn't loose its equilibrium, if impacted by other horses, which easily might lead to an overturn of horse and rider; also a low posture of the horse's head allows all-around hits with the sword much better: these horses are trained only in the low lessons, for example the Terre-A-Terre, which lets the horse stay near the ground always, but they are never trained in the elevated schools, so that they won't accidently execute these of their own volition during the fighting.

Contrary to that a war horse for fight duels one against one needs to be high schooled and gets a weak curb: important is for these being able to execute a good sword-passade, at which's end follows a swift, precise turn, to attack the enemy again: for this the horse needs a high elevation of the forehand, which in this case is not nearly as dangerous, because the only two riders and horses can far better observe the other, and an impact of the horses happens far more seldom; here even a Capriole, where the horse is completely in the air, is not as dangerous for loosing the equilibrium. As La Broue  writes, with an excellent rider-horse pair also the jump forwards off the hindlegs in a Courbette  can be a big advantage in a duel. The horse's head is not in the way so much, as the rider can position his horse far better to the only enemy (which hopefully happens to be the sword-hand side!).