[Cowgirl2135]

How do you guys like the German Martingale? I hear Famous reining trainers loves them. How does this work?

The German martingale is designed to teach your horse to give to the bit, flex at the poll and maintain good vertical and lateral head position. This equipment is ideal for helping a horse to learn proper head position for stops, spins and collection.

[Cowgirl2135]

People????

[KonKata]

I'm not too fond on the use of gadgets. When used right, I think that they can benifit a horse a great deal. But I've seen more poor uses than good uses and I'm starting to get the feeling that gadgets are just a quick fix for people who can't spend the time to get things right the hard way. This isn't in every situation, mind you. But I've seen a lot of good horses ruined by the misuse of gadgets because the person behind it was uneducated and used it simply because "My horse's head won't stay down". Things like this aren't made to fix something a person doesn't know how to. It creates more problems that way and the problems it creates are more difficult to reverse than the first problem at hand.

Just a quick note on why I don't like them :P I think if they're used correctly, they can be an awesome learning tool for the horse. But unfortunately... a lot of the time they're not.

[Zoomarsgirl]

We used it once on a green pony at the barn. I don't see what's wrong with it, as long as you don't rely on it, and it's only temporarry. I hate when people say 'I HAVE to ride him in the martangale' you shouldn't rely on it, and you should use it as a tool to help with your horse's headset, not some attachment that will control your horse for you.

[Bailey-Boots]

"how does it work"

The white rope that goes through the bit and attaches to clips on the reins will prevent the horse from getting its head too high. When you pull on the reins it will apply bit pressure and also take some of the slack out of the rope. The rope will only become tight to a certain extent (basically it will correct the horse when its head it up too high or its nose it pointed out too much.)

I would prefer to ride in this than to use draw reins. the take and release on this is far better than side reins or draw reins in my opinion. this gadget it will be correcting the faults of head carrage, you should not be able to over correct with it. if the horse becomes overbent it will be because of the direct rein action, which will infact cause the rope to become slack. (so not being caused by the gadget)

I have the Abbot Davis Balancing rein, which is a similar design.

[Cowgirl2135]

Can anyone tell me how it correctly fitted?