As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
My Grampa was probably the most fascinating man I have ever met. I remember him fondly for his genius, his common sense, his abilities, his shrewdness and his stories.
He was a hard man, but as I have grown up, he was right about everything he said and if I would have been more of a hard ass like him, I would never have had the problems I had in life.
He was a man of hard times and made a living any way that money would come. One of his vocations when my dad was a kid was trading horses. Grampa would acquire the real horses of the American West which survived Indians, blizzards, wolves and disease. They were tough animals and stubborn as hell. I grew up riding and training horses of that line and appreciated a 'horse with a little life in it".
He told me about a man who showed up on his place one time and waded into the pen of horses. Needless to say those horses were wild which Grampa never bothered in telling the story, but it is the inference when he said, "That man wrapped a rope around the bottom jaw of that horse, but I never saw what he did, but when he pulled on that line, that horse came and walked right out of the pen".
When I read these experts now talking about the harsh bits and condemning the Indian War Bridle, I know they have never been around horses that try to kill you. I read of their telling about how Indians trained horses and simply laugh at their bullshit, because you can find the reality of Indian training on horses, in it was breaking wild animals, that they would ride into the ground once they had ridden them into the ground and that is how they broke a horse, because they dominated them.
Indians were cruel and enjoyed being cruel. That is not a condemnation of them, because their method did break a horse that they never acted up again.
I remember Colonel Dodge relating a story of a Comanche on a stallion he had just got a hold of. He had a Spanish metal bit and the horses mouth was dripping blood, and the buck had spurs on, and would jam them in, the horse would go wild, and the Indian would scream in delight. It sounds cruel, because it was cruel, but it was also a man on a horse that would have killed him if that horse had gotten a hold of him.
The Mustang was a wild animal and required harsh measures, because kindness was not something they responded to.
Americans horses were different completely and as they crossed into the wild horses, it was as Teddy Roosevelt stated, a better horse was made if the cowboy gentled them in over time. See in Teddy's day, a bronc buster appeared, bucked a horse out twice, and handed over the reins and said it was a broke horse. What you got was a horse in most cases that bucked each morning and if it got a chance in the day, it would hammer you as you made a mistake.
The bronc buster never rode those horses into the ground as the Indians did, and that was the mistake with the horses Teddy Roosevelt had. You have to psychologically dominate a horse, and once that takes place, it obeys like a puppy. Bucking horses out just makes them tired. Working with a horse gets them used to behaving to please you.
The long winded version of this is about the Indian War Bridle which is a fantastic implement when utilized on trained horses. You have to understand what most bridles are. The horse has sensitive points on the nose and under the jaw. That is why in steel bits, you see jaw straps and nose bridges, to get pain and pressure onto sensitive points to make the horse not run away with you.
My horse was a descendant of the plains horses. He was as my brother said, "A hard mouthed son of a bitch". I actually bent bits on him. He loved chasing cattle and had the habit of pumping his head to get his head free so he could run.
I could start out with 3 foot rein behind me, and after one circuit around the herd, I would look down and there would be 3 inches of rein in my hands. He was a character.
I rode that horse with a lariat though on his neck when herding cows out of corn, but I was never dumb enough let him run as he would have made things interesting.
It was in this, that I always wanted to know what an Indian War Bridle was to ride him as it would have been perfect, as he was perfect for that kind of bridle. I always rode horses with twine string getting them out of the pasture as you train a horse to neck rain, and they understand pressure and the nuance of the rider.
You don't have to crank around on horses and hurt them. It is just common sense. Teach them pressure and when they submit the pressure stops and they never get hurt. The experts always are the ones where the horse is conning them, and then they are over reacting and harping to others to not over react.
I have several halter bridles, that are slip ropes or halters. You have a horse that knows you and you know it, it is about all you need.
It basically is a bow line, a loop over headstall and the slip line is the one which puts the pressure on. I only neck rein as that is the thing the horse understands. Pressure on neck means turn, and then the other pressure on the nose and mouth stop.
I figure the line my Grampa told of that man used in the corral, was a wrap around the lower jaw. If he was using an old leather honda, a knot there instead of a splice would put extra pressure to teach an unruly animal to forward ho.
The old west was full of some definitive methods. The traders used to gut shoot a stud with a 22 to get control over a herd he had, or they would throw them and wire their nostrils about shut so they suffocated. Once again these were stud horse which would crush your bones with a bite or kick your skull in. The wranglers used cruel methods, because experience taught them that there were not any second chances.
The War Bridle though is best in a leather strap for the loop. Leather does not have the problems that cord or rope has in freezing temperatures. It takes some intelligence to ride with a War Bridle as you can not let too much slack in the reins happen or a smart horse will learn to spit the loop. I like a leather loop that you can slide a tightener up. That though means good leather, leather you take care of and do not throw in the tack room so it stays pliable as that is what is a cherry loop. Get a big enough hunk of leather though and it will serve the same purpose and that you can leave in the tack room.
That is about all there is to say on the subject in an interesting and educational way. Only time to share my favorite picture of what goes into animal's mouths.
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