In the old days ...

The Mystery Use of a Noseband

Nowadays many magazines throughout the world repeatedly publish journals in which the different nosebands are shown and their function and fitting explained, but the major literary handbooks of the “old masters” fail to go in-depth on the matter. Either because there were more or less only two nosebands around -- the dropped and the English -- or it was just natural that every bridle was fitted with a noseband and there were no such discussion of “with or without” or “which” like nowadays.
One of Germany’s most popular riding manuals, Wilhelm Müseler’s “Reitlehre”, first published in the 1930s and still in print, explains that nosebands are there to hold the bit straight and quiet and to prevent that the horse opens its mouth and thereby avoids the impact of the reins. He enumerated the most common nosebands, but didn’t mention a word about how they should be fitted or how differently they work on a horse. Did Müseler assume when he wrote his book about 80 years ago that his readers were competent enough to know the use and fitting themselves?

Richard Wätjen (1891 - 1966) on Pluto Kerka
Richard Wätjen, an accomplished German dressage rider and trainer round World War II, distinguished in his manual “Das Dressurreiten” that the correctly fitted bridle is most important if one wants to advance his horse in dressage. He recommended to attach a noseband to every bridle and, judged by the description he gave, he was referring to dropped noseband. For him the aim of a noseband was to make it impossible for the horse to open the mouth, but he warned the readers only to tighten the noseband so much as the horse could still chew.

While these and other old manuals like those of Bürkner, Podhajsky, Steinbrecht, Seunig, Decarpentry or Bürger never really go out of fashion and are all still in print today, there are more recent manuals on the market which became quite popular as well.
In British Olympic dressage rider Jennie Loriston- Clarke’s book “The Complete Guide to Dressage” which was first published in 1987 the author mentioned the flash and the dropped noseband. Loriston-Clarke stressed the ability of the flash to hold the bit straight and advised the reader to pay detailed attention to the correct fitting of the dropped noseband. Loriston-Clarke warned that if the upper part of the noseband is too long it interferes with the bit and applies a constant pressure and this could lead to a tongue problem. With a young horse being broken in the now well known FEI judge recommended using a cavesson instead of a noseband at the beginning.
Surprisingly one of the most popular manuals of the past few years, “Dressurreiten” by multiple Olympian Kyra Kyrklund and Olympic judge Jytte Lemkow, doesn’t mention the topic of nosebands at all.

Caitlyn - Bridle & Rider 08-08-2023 15:13 Comments ( 0 )

Back

No comments found.

Categories

Menu

The Mystery Use of a Noseband

Menu

Categories

Bridle & Ride Comm. V