Y6 Polished Steel Custom forged Snaffle

$135.00

In stock (can be backordered)

By popular demand, I’ve had this particular bit replicated for my customers. Each one is hand made with this particular oblong shape and precisely curved mouth. The rings and the mouth measure exactly the same.  I’ve found this bit to give the horse the best feel of any of snaffle I have tried.  Polished Steel 5″ in width.

In stock (can be backordered)

Description

When I was a child on the ranch we learned to build the gear we needed. We would steel leather from the abandon old harness in our barn. The one thing that the old harnesses had that was hard to find anywhere else were these particular Snaffle Bits.
I learned later they were made by a foundry that had been around sense the 1840s on the east coast. They were just a simple ring snaffle, no copper, no fancy whistles or bells, and they didn’t have any endorsement from a famous champion horsemen. But they worked, and I still have them and that’s all I use.

Why do I use them?

When I was traveling around the world starting colts the majority of the time I would be using whatever gear the clients had, whatever they would be using. D ring, Egg but, stainless steel, copper, different shapes and sizes, and what I discovered was none of these new and improved gave me as good of feed as the old tried and true. I had to wonder, was the “new and improved marketing scheme” products any better? No.
So maybe this design that a company had produced over 150 years ago had a good idea. Did they maybe follow a function that was around before them? What did these people that made there living, and fought wars with horses known about bits. They’d only been doing it for how many centuries?

What makes them better?

I’ve found the straighter the mouth piece the more bite it has. Too much curve didn’t feel as good. The smaller diameter is more severe and the larger diameter made them duller. And most importantly horses like plain iron that rusts, “sweet iron“ to give it a warm and fuzzy label. Actually, it’s a little bit like Goldie Locks, there was too much and there was too little but somewhere in the middle was just right.
If we look at the difference of this bit we see:
1. The rings slide freely through the mouth but don’t pinch.
2. The curve of the mouth fits the mouth of the horse.
3. It will rust.
4. And most importantly, the diameter of the mouth itself is somewhat oblong, making it lay flatter on the tongue.

Where do we find them?

The old harnesses slowly disappeared and the old bits sometimes showed up in antique shops, but they became scarce and nobody was building “the plain and simple”.
So by popular demand, I’ve had this particular bit replicated for my customers. Each one is hand made with this particular oblong shape and precisely curved mouth. The rings and the mouth measure exactly the same.

After who knows how many horses I’ve pulled around over the last half century I’ve found this bit to give the horse the best feel of any of them.

Martin Black

As Tom Dorrance would say “sometimes it’s so simple it’s difficult to understand”.

Additional information

Weight 2 lbs
Dimensions 12 × 6 × 4 in
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