Interested in Roman Riding?

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Hello

In my opinion, best to use a modern bit similar to an original, than use a replica of a roman bit. There are often very severe, as work published by Hyland shows.

Sorry for my lack of participation. I have been in Wales researching the Roman gold mines and enjoying Caerleon!

Sadly I am going to be one of the very few people who disagree with Ann Hyland on many issues and will probably be in a minority of one until my research is honed and as water tight as I can get it before exposing it to RAT. But some points to consider:

1. Many of the Roman bits found are the precursors of modern bits - the snaffle as shown by Ammianus in the above post and the fulmer (has straight bars on the outside of the horse's mouth and prevents the bit being pulled through the mouth). As horsemen, the Romans understood the advantage of a jointed bit in a horse's mouth but I am yet to find a shaped snaffle (and I imagine I probably never will)

2. The alleged "severe bits" Hyland warns of are only really severe if you do not have an independent seat and rely too much on your hands to control your horse. This is where I have my reservations about saddle design.

3. To my knowledge, all of Hyland's experimentation (including with the Newstead curb which looks pretty horrific)was done on horses who have benefitted from modern dentistry. My research so far shows that the skulls of Roman horses (found in context) show NO indication of rasping and other tooth care we take for granted today. Any horseman will tell you how bad a horse's teeth can get without constant care, and the Romans probably had this to contend with hence the move to "severe" bits. There was a lot going on in horse's mouths and perhaps this is why we see the development of the bit so called the hackamore (which, in my very humble opinion) is a misnomer and misleading.

So, just a few things for you to consider.

I am in the forge next week and hope to start producing some trial bits of my own. Current copies of Roman bits are in stainless steel and I think we need to go back to the iron...

Edited to apologise for all my spelling errors!!