Neue Schule Verbindend Horse bit Review

 Here's my review of Neue Schule's Verbindend horse bit.

I bought Niko, my Thoroughbred gelding, this bit and have been riding him in it for quite some time now so I figured I'd do a post reviewing the bit.Just before we get started I would like to say that no matter how good or bad I make the Verbindend sound you need to pick the right bit for your horse, so just please remember some bits are better for some breeds of horse/equine, it's important to do lots of research before running off and buying a bit just because it's shiny and looks like gold.

If you take a look at the photo above you should see three things, one my bit is a little dirty (shame on me) two the rather curved shape of the bit and three it has that handy little lozenge thingy, which will stop too much nutcracker action going on. Back to the shape of the Verbindend now due to it's shape when in the horse's mouth it makes a channel for the horse's tongue, the idea being to prevent tongue evasion which I can say it's pretty good at, but, if your  horse is the type to stick his tongue out this bit isn't always going to stop it, on the other hand if he is sticking his tongue out because he hasn't got enough room in his mouth with a big bit in there this might do the trick.

Because of the Verbindend's kind of odd shape it actually doesn't take up nearly as much room in your horse's mouth as you might think it would. With all this talk of shape maybe it's got you wondering how harsh will this bit be on my horse, well to be honest the bit really isn't bad and your horse can understand what you're asking with just the slightest rein signals, no it's not a wonder bit that can make your horse's mouth suddenly sensitive if he's dead in the mouth but it's likely to be a step in the right direction.

Now to the sizes, Niko's Verbindend is a 12mm bit with 70mm rings it's a good size for Niko but you might want to consider other sizes depending on your horse/equine's mouth size and breed. Okay now down to the standard stuff you all want to know, the bit is good for sending clear signals, I believe it's comfy for the horse when fitted properly, it's not a overly harsh bit but don't kid yourself it's still metal, it's great for transition, the Verbindend bit in general is a good bit and in the size I have it it's completely dressage legal.

The one downside to the Neue Schule's Verbindend bit is it's made of a very soft metal that makes the horse salivate sounds good right? Well not really because the metal is too soft so this can happen, see photo above. I would like to say that this only happened when Niko my TB was first getting used to the bit and he had previously only been ridden in a straight rubber bit, so please keep that in mind.

All things considered I like the Verbindend bit and would recommend it for many horses. Just remember to check out what types of bit are going to suit your equine best.

Bentaiga’s Beautiful Tack

  
Just a short post today about some truly beautiful tack. Take a look at this saddle, as you can see a lot of work has gone into it’s creation but I think it’s safe to say the work paid off, this is probably the fanciest saddle I’ve ever seen.

  
And take a look at this double bridle, it too is very fancy even the bit is crafted with beautiful designs on it, and personally I rather like the horse head bust the bridle is displayed on too.

Very small photo I know but I think you can probably get an idea of how nice these stirrup irons are too.

If you liked the tack you saw here why not check it out and lots of other beautiful tack here at the Bentaiga website.

The Little Things

 

Today’s post is just a lot of different stuff that wasn’t really enough to make into posts of their own so I’ve put it all in just the one post.

So to start with the weather has turned pretty nasty, in the above photograph you can see what I pulled out of a water bucket the other day, luckily it’s warmed up a bit since then and now it’s just rain, rain, and more rain.

 

Due to all the rain there’s lots of mud and our feed supplier almost got stuck. We now know why it is as bad as it is, the ground is well less than ideal, because it has only a small amount of earth on top of heavy blue clay so the water has no where to drain away to.

  
Here’s Tipper trying on a new bridle I bought, it was meant to be a full size but it is in fact Pony sized, it only fits Pip which is a bit of a annoyance considering it isn’t the correct style for Pip’s breed, but I am still happy with it because I really rather like rolled leather.

I’ve had to take a break from riding because of the ground being so slippery. In other news I took Niko’s stable rug off to put on his turn out, and was pleased to see his weight. I fuss over the horses and ponies weight non stop, I am always checking them over, manually as we do not have anywhere to weigh them, and we don’t use tape. But anyway back to the point about Niko, I was really happy as he looked just about perfect to me, obviously he has been out of work for a while so he hasn’t got enough muscle but he is still looking good.

Anyways that’s all from me now.

My New Saddlecloth

  
So as I mentioned in my last post I just got a new saddlecloth as a late Christmas present, and here it is! It’s a LeMieux Dressage Square Front Rolled Edge, as it is a dressage cloth white is the obvious choice but because it will only be used for everyday riding my one is in brown.

 

Here it is on Niko, and yes I know my saddle needs a clean, speaking of cleaning, because the saddlecloth has a lambskin rolled edge it requires special care:

Only machine wash on a “wool cycle” at 30 degrees or hand wash.

Prior to washing pour a quantity of human hair conditioner over the lambskin & rub to ensure coverage – this prevents matting of wool maintaining density & softness.

Stain removing sprays can be used on cotton areas if saddle stains occur –do this as soon as they appear.

Use non-biological liquid or powder.

Do not use fabric conditioner on the wool.

Always turn upside down & air dry naturally – NEVER speed dry on radiator or in tumble dryer.

Gentle brushing can be done after drying if required.

Or at least that’s what it tells me to do.

  
Anyways with such a nice new saddlecloth and a thoroughbred just waiting for a run I decided to take Niko for a good run in our big Paddock, it has dried out a lot with the nice weather. Here are some shots of us:

Because the saddlecloth has a lambskin edge and is made to accommodate high withers it is a great fit for Niko.

In other news the farrier is coming tomorrow, so everyone can have a nice trim up. Well that’s all from me today.

My Newish Dressage Saddle

Hello everyone I am back for now, I have been reading your posts so sorry to hear about the bad news some of you have had and happy to hear the good.


Now on with the post, I have just recently agreed to the purchase of this Thorowgood dressage saddle from my riding instructor. They are selling it with a saddle cover, girth, stirrup leathers, stirrup irons, and a pair of roller spurs.

I like this dressage saddle because it is a lot comfier than my old saddle and it puts me in a better position, I also find it a lot easier to get my legs around the horse, my old saddle makes it very hard to get close to the horse.

The saddle is regrettably synthetic but at least that means it is easier to clean, I guess I’ll just have to wait for a Bates Innova Dressage Saddle, but for now I am happy with this saddle.

And finally before I go, hello to my new followers and thanks for following hope you enjoy my blog.

I Can’t Think Of a Title for This Post

Sadly due to unforeseen circumstances my instructor couldn’t make it, and believe me when I say unforeseen. So I will just show you some more of the things I bought. Here is Niko’s nice new Bartl girth sleeve, it really is nice, it’s so soft, it is quite warm which is perhaps not so good but come to think of it I did go out on a hack and did a lot of cantering and there was no sweat on Niko’s girth area, anyway I was happy with it.

And I brought this Bartl noseband cover which is very soft, I got both of these in black as they didn’t have the girth sleeve in natural where I was buying them and I wanted a matching set. I was very happy with the noseband cover as well, I had a noseband cover before which was good but I wanted a Bartl one after having used one of their grooming mitts because I realized just how soft Bartl sheepskin products are.

I also brought this new numnah not as interesting as the Bartl stuff but still nice, I like its piped edges.

I really like that it has Velcro straps, I have only used numnahs with straps that you have to slip the leather into before and I found the Velcro straps were easy to use and allowed more freedom, I could adjust the straps so that the numnah sat well on his back but was also very secure.

I still have a few more things to show you all but that will have to wait for another post.

In news regarding my instructor and my lessons I will if all goes well be having my lesson tomorrow and they will be riding Niko as well, like we arranged before. Then afterwards my instructor will take me back to their yard and they will ride Spike and then show me how they get there horses ready for shows, so let’s hope nothing else goes wrong but you never can tell so I will just have to wait and see.

A Minor Set Back

I have had to stop riding Niko as recently his saddle has been rubbing him I tried him in a different more padded numnah but still no good, so I’ll be getting this funny little thing ugly I know but it is only going under the saddle anyway, it’s been designed for horses with high withers or a poor top line, Niko has both high withers and sadly a poor top line too due to my incompetence in the saddle I am unable to get him working from behind and so have a lot of difficulty building his top line, anyway I am hopeful this will do the trick and stop the rubbing as there is very little point in getting a new saddle know as I now he isn’t going to be staying this shape for long.

In other news I am having another lesson tomorrow so I am hopeful that all will go well, I will let you all know how it went in my next post.

Finally Clean

I have finally got my saddle all cleaned up, shame it show’s up all the other damage a lot more, last time I cleaned my saddle I had quite a lot of difficulty getting some parts clean , but this time it has been no problem with Chesfield’s Multipurpose. The amount I go on about these products anyone would think they were sponsoring me, but no they aren’t I just really like the products.

Anyway back to the saddle, it’s now nice and clean with a healthy dose of saddle soap to keep it soft and supple, next I plan on getting my bridle clean and then shortly after I will give my saddle another clean, I think it’s probably best if I keep on top of my tack cleaning this time, easier said than done for some.

A Confession

I have a confession to make, sometime ago I said that cleaning my saddle was my next task but it never got done. But there is a reason for this, my father bought a harness and bridle for Pip. As you can see in the photo Pip has tried on the bridle but has yet to try the harness.

Now you are probably wondering why this stopped me cleaning my saddle, so I will explain. It is very, very, dirty so instead of cleaning my saddle I did a bit of the harness, sadly at the moment everything in quite busy here so I am having a bit of trouble getting anything clean.

Here is another photo of Pip wearing the bridle with blinkers, I think he looks pretty good, of course he won’t be doing any work in his new tack, he is way too young to be driven, but it will help him to get used to wearing all that sort of stuff, I might try it on Murphy as well.

Anyway that is it for now hopefully I will be able to find time to blog a bit more consistently.

The Joys and Horrors of Tack Cleaning

All the riding us equestrians do is bound to have an affect on our tack, and not necessarily a good one sadly, yes I am of course talking about dirty tack and as you can see my tack is just that.

After a hard day of work our horses and ponies are happy to sit back share a drink and relax, but sadly no such luck for us we get the job as responsible equestrians of making sure to keep our tack in good condition, with sadly means cleaning it.

Recently I used the Chestfields Equine Product Multi Purpose ,I did not use it on my saddle as I want to take a while over cleaning that to try and get it looking nice, but I did use it on Murphy’s leather headcollar and I am happy to say it worked a treat. I was very happy with how quick it was to get the dirt off, I then used saddle soap as normal, and it all worked very nicely.

But then I have this great lump of leather to clean, not a lot of fun, I really like cleaning smaller stuff like headcollars and bridles, but then when it come to the saddle it is not so nice I really hate trying to clean my saddle but that is my next task and I must get it done soon, I am hoping that Chestfields Multi Purpose Product will help a lot but only time will tell.

New Tack Old Tack

I have now got my saddle back. It is a bit of a tatty old thing as you can see in the photo, you can also probable see it is VERY dirty! But I am still happy to have it back, I have been doing a lot of cantering, because I was not doing so much when I was riding bareback, and I think its got to be my favourite pace on Niko, I prefer trot on Madeline, but anyway I am getting off track or should I say off tack.

So here is the next piece of tack, this is a great new bridle, it has a padded nose band, and a padded brow band, so hopefully it will be more comfortable than Niko’s old bridle, well even if it isn’t he can’t have his old bridle back, because it met a sad end, at the hooves of Madeline.

At least my favourite reins were not destroyed with the other tack, and here they are my favourite plaited reins, they are great and not as big as lots of other reins, so are very easy to use. Plus I really like the way they look, they are a bit tatty on the inside, but they were very cheap, so I am very happy with them, and they have served me well so far.

Thank you all very much for all of your comments on my last post,

Sherri, let’s hope Bold Hawk sees it the same way, I would like him too enjoy his time with us, after all a happy horse is a well behaved horse.

Abby, I love quotes and here is one for Spotty and Bold Hawk, “You don’t throw a whole life away just ‘cause he’s banged up a little”, ( Chris Cooper ) from the movie Seabiscuit, I think this is right just because Spotty has arthritis and Bold Hawk dishes, doesn’t mean they can’t be great.

Allhorsestuff, thanks for telling me about the blog I took a look at it, and I am now following it, it’s a very interesting blog and has some lovely horses, so thanks again.

Connie, yep let’s hope, but even if he doesn’t have much talent at least we can get him looking good, with a nice shine and hopefully build up his confidence a bit while he is with us.