Running Martingales and Bit Mechanics
What are Running Martingales?
The running martingale has 3 attachment points - under the girth, around the neck, and then the reins go through the two rings. What the martingale does, is when the horse raises their head beyond a certain point, and there is tension down the reins, the two rings act as a bit of a pulley system to help bring the head back down again. So they can be useful for horses in training, or re-training, where they have a tendency to completely throw their head in the air and bolt, causing the rider to have no contact or hand to bit communication. This could be dangerous.
Running Martingales and Snaffle Bits
When the horse’s head is not overly high, the martingale should not be impacting the bit mechanics’ or horse’s way of going at all.
With a snaffle bit, the action goes from a backwards and slightly upwards action because of where the hand is in relation to the bit. To a downwards action onto the bit in the mouth and through the bit and bridle onto the poll. As soon as the horse lowers their head, the downwards pressure should release instantly and the normal mechanics resume.
When the martingale is too small, or too restrictive, the downwards forces can be applying when the head is much lower. When setting up a martingale, you can have a play around with the length and lifting the reins on the bit’s side to see at what point the martingale would engage in relation to the head.
Running Martingales and Gag Bits
Now, a big impact with bit mechanics that martingales can have is with gag bits. The primary action of a gag bit is to draw upwards in the horse’s mouth encouraging them to lift their head. They do also have the conflicting action of applying poll pressure but the primary action is to encourage the head upwards. So, if we then add a martingale into the mix. When the horse does what it is being asked for, and raises their head under rein pressure, the martingale action will then engage, applying additional pressure on the reins to pull the head downwards. The additional pressure on the reins enhances the pressure on the bit which causes the bit to increase the lifting action, encouraging the horse to lift the head further which then causes the martingale to apply even more, and you end up in a not-very-nice loop of confusing and conflicting requests for the horse. Running martingales, or any martingale that has this downwards pressure on the reins or the bit, should be used with snaffle bits only.
