Thursday 16th April

I was a little worried that after 2 days off Xaile might be a bit wild.  Not a bit of it.  Actually he still felt really tired.  Not having made any decisions yet on the bit front I rode him in an English double.  I think this may have been a mistake as I'm not at all sure it was comfortable for him.  I've only used those bits a few times and I'm fairly certain he doesn't like them.  When we go back to using an English double I'll work on finding him something he likes.   

I decided to see if he'd go off just the snaffle so I knotted the curb and put it up his neck.  Well this was clearly a bad idea.  He got stuffier and stuffier and eventually ground to a halt just before A and refused to move.  Peculiarly as soon as I picked the curb rein back up he was back to my normal lovely Xaile.  Very weird.  It's like his curb is his security.

A have now decided that as of tomorrow he will go in a snaffle.  I've been advised to put it with a drop nose band as this can help reassure horses who are used to curb chains.  So now it's just a question of finding my drop which I haven't used for well over 10 years.