21/06/2025
SPADE BIT:
They say it's a bad bite.
And they don't even know how it works.
They say it annoys the horse's mouth.
And they don’t have the slightest idea of how it was designed and developed over millenniums just for a horse’s mouth.
They say it doesn't make the right reunion.
And they call a bent head of a horse "reunion".
They say it’s hard to hear your mouth.
When the old vaqueros instead, called horses in swords... velvet horses, horses with velvet mouths...
They say these are too stiff mouths.
And then they use correctional, twisted, grazing bits.
Or worse, nylon buns.
They say.
They say because they don’t know, saying nonsense is free and simple.
I just give up at times.
But I am often indignant.
Because there's nothing worse "than an amateur without humility".
However they are ... THEY SAY.
The founding fathers, sacred monsters of so-called "Natural Horsemanship" like brothers Dorrance and Ray Hunt... they rode their horses in SPADE BIT.
Not my opinion, it's a fact.
As Buck Brannaman says "riding a horse with a nylon, leather or anyway without a buckle does NOT mean being natural or lightweight." It simply means NOT knowing how to use the FEEL correctly, so in the first stage of approaching "equestrian tattoo" and "communication" students are taught to work with the cage. Often, however, out of laziness, ignorance and incapability, many stop at this stage searching for a "natural relationship" with the horse... well many of the horses with problems that I find myself "treating" at my clinics are the ones that are mounted ONLY with a cage. Hard, deaf, insensitive, reduced in that state by incompetent hands of ignorant knights. Mounting in a cave is fine and we do it too but it's not enough. It is enough for those who do not want to know, who just walk on a field. I feel sorry for them and especially the horses who are forced to put up with this... but people always talking without knowing.. they say they say... but they have no knowledge... "
For those who besides saying want to know... If they have the ability to read ... here it is:
The Spade Bit.
By Andrea "Drew" Mischianti - all rights reserved (c) -
Biting a horse is the LAST stage of a long educational journey through the use of jaquima (bosal) and two reins. Until about 1920 (in California) in the making of a cow horse and a ranch horse, the use of swords, chileen and half breed was considered a must, not an alternative. The SPADE BIT is an ancient bite. It was brought to Europe (Spain) by the Moors who inherited it even before, much before Ancient Romans. The Spanish then introduced him to the New World. The use of the Bitsword has been perfected over MILLENNIALS to become a true equestrian art form. Today unfortunately few people know the training techniques and the mechanical functions of this bite. Most of the people who criticize Spade Bit are people who don't have the technical knowledge or the patience and dedication to learn them. The California high school training method has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. Use of Spade Bit is essential from previous stage... Jaquima (bosal). As long as the horse is not perfect with the jaquima, you can never bite. The bite is the LAST passage and many ignore how delicate and delicate the transition to Jaquima is. Vaqueros once took great pride in working with their horses in this traditional art form. In some parts of the US Northwest it is still like this. They called them horses with velvet mouths, to define the refinement and sensitivity of communication between the rider's hand and the horse's mouth. And the horse’s mouth was considered a sacred territory to be preserved as a treasure and treated with care and respect. A lot of attention is still being paid to the position of the head, which must be the final part of a perfect ARCH between the two ends of the horse. This perfect arch represents REUNION. Meeting is not a horse's head between the knees, it must not be translated as submission nor as blind obedience. A horse with its head too bent CANNOT see where it's going, can't control a head of cattle and it's not a good show. Furthermore, more often the head bends, less engaging the hind, but this is a "detail" that escapes many, who insist on "bending" their horse in two without respect and no sense of balance and harmony that a horse needs to work together with its rider. with finesse and beauty. The SPADE BIT is designed to fit perfectly into the horse's mouth, allow for proper salivation and send the message of the required maneuver through a subtle and undetectable SIGNAL given by the movement of the chains attached to the Romal reins. Cricket inserted inside, together with the copper, makes the horse "play" and makes the bite more pleasant in the mouth. There is no such thing as direct and hard action. A signal is sent from the reins. Getting this message understood is hard work as most people use GRAZING BITS working with a much more decisive action on the horse's mouth. Working on the LEVE not the SIGNAL. In a recent discussion with our friend BUCK BRANNAMAN ( better known as the Horse Whisperer... ), we've declined every bit of bridle horse art, talking about GRAZING BITS, Buck, simply said"... all these ppl don't think. It would be enough to translate the verb thank you. Burn. Grazing. Eating the grass... They would understand that these simple bites were originally meant for herders who left their horses to graze next to the herd... With all the respect for the pastors, proud people and long traditions, the Vaquero’s job is something else. "
Spade Bit isn't for everyone. You need gentle hands, feel and knowledge. The two-reins transition takes about one or two years, depending on the horse. There must have been a great job in Jaquima at monte. It is a slow and articulated process that goes through phases of intense work and long moments of rest for the horse. The idea of riding your own horse every holy day as a basic rule of training is embedded in this education system. Vaqueros provide horses with the opportunity to spend long hours or days outdoors, doing nothing other than being horses, to SLOWLY mature the techniques learned in the previous session, then at intervals build a learning program together. The key to everything is hidden in that "Slowly". Word that scares the most and stuns the minds of the fast and furious, subjected to market rules imposed by races for ever younger horses and grooming and training times that don't take into account the morphological and mental characteristics of foals. We are different. We are in no hurry. We will never be rich by money but by ourselves..... time is a friend, not an enemy and no one has calendar-bound anxieties. With today’s economic dynamics, this may seem like an absurd concept, but we don’t want horses that are ready to race as soon as possible, rather healthy and happy work and life partners and we have great satisfaction and pride in continuing a millennium tradition that made the Vaqueros an elite of knights famous the world over.
The rest of the world keeps running, where we go, haste is replaced by finesse, training is called manners and the horse's mouth is a church.
This aristocratic way of riding makes us different and often misunderstood, but it's not that this worries us any more, because the pleasure of riding a Bridle Horse is so sublime that it makes us deaf to the noises in the background.
