Information About Our Website

Dear fellow model horse people,

As many of you know I run a website (www.chestnutridge.co.uk). This site is hosted by an eCommerce provider called 'Tiger Commerce'. I found out a few weeks ago that they have been acquired by another eCommerce provider ekm Powershop.

This means that all of our software will be moving from the Tiger Commerce platform and onto Ekm Powershop. This should be happening within the next few weeks. Although I have been assured that this shouldn't effect the website there is a chance that it may and I apologise in advance if it does.

I am hoping that this will work out to be a good relationship and that ekm will help to enhance the store further, however, if costs increase then I unfortunately will have to make some tough decisions about the future.

I will of course be keeping people updated!

In other internet related news my web provider (Waitrose) is becoming part of John Lewis. To cut a long story short the result is that we may have to move provider. This may mean no internet down time at all but will more than likely mean months without internet access...we will see how that one pans out but me and my Windows Phone may be getting rather acquainted (again).

Hope all is well,

Catriona x

Macclesfield Live Show

Yesterday was the first real live show of the season so I thought I would share a selection of pictures with you and let you know how the show was. It was in Macclesfield and ran by Claire Ashworth who did a brilliant job :)

Tables of ponies - these particular ones are Debi Jennings and Debra Hulse's



Rachel and her table



An absolutely beautiful resin with a mohair mane and tail (I think this guy is owned by Claire Ashworth)



Line's of ponies



The OF Spanish class. My two are the Caliente and Pecos (I decided Pecos should get at least one day out)



The OF British Native class...the Pony Family Stallion is my boy:



One of the beautiful new windswept AA's



The OF Paint Horse class (the two littlen's are both mine):



My beautiful Hattie who got first place:



A very nice 5-gaiter:



An adorable little Donkey and CTF Champion:



A beautiful resin Vanner and overall reserve to reserve champion:



A very nice mohair custom



The Custom Spanish class, the PS Chips, Esprit and grey Andalusian Stallion are all mine:



Custom stock - the Palomino Zippo on the far side is my boy. He won his class:



AA Other Light Horse:



CM British Native (you can just see my two little small guys):



A better shot of British Native showing my CM Heredites resin and two custom Stablemates:



Custom Glazed China Reserve Champion:



A very cute little Shetland:



A little AA Cupid with a bird:



A wonderful custom mohaired mane:



A very nice custom Arab:



My new purchase of the day an Animal Artistry Mule who then got Reserve AA Champion:



The custom Youngstock class, the Andalusian foal and the cantering Stablemate are mine:



The Overall Championship:



An English ridden entry:



Another English Ridden entry:



A couple of jumping entries:



A lovely Western ridden entry:



Native American costume:



There are hundreds more pictures on Facebook but I thought I would share some at least.

Bitless v Bitted Bridles...A Discussion

This is an extract from my 2010 dissertation. It is the full discussion. I hope you enjoy :) Although I lost the full research (thank you computer) I can forward you on the first draft upon request.

The results of this test showed that only one horse had insignificant results which was Tango (P>0.1) he was also the only horse to show an improvement in scores when the bit was removed. All other horses showed a significant decrease in scores when the bit was removed; Pipkin (P<0.01); Pepsi (P<0.02); Poppy (P<0.05) and Hattie (P<0.025). Using this test overall showed that there was a significant decrease in scores when the bit was removed (P<0.025).

The overall test scores and average scores would indicate that using a bitted bridle is to be preferred to a bitless bridle (P<0.025). This is contrary to previous research performed by Dr. Cook (2009) which used a similar method to analyse dressage scores of horses that had never before been ridden in a bitless bridle against their bitted scores. The changes in results may be due to several reasons. Firstly the method used in this experiment is different from that used by Dr. Cook (2009). In his paper he performed eight tests with each of the four horses riding just one bitted and one bitless test in an arena in front of a crowd. The horses had been ridden previously that day and were ridden by different riders. Rider stress level has been shown to influence a horses stress levels (Peeters et al., 2010) so they may have influenced how the horse performed. Previous riding may have warmed up or tired the horses influencing their results (McGreevy and Murray, 2009). In our testing we repeated our results to ensure that we got a more accurate score (Hawson et al., 2010). The variation in scores shows that by not repeating his results Dr. Cook (2009) may have led to misleading results (Halo et al., 2008). Our horses were also not exercised previously and ridden by the same rider to eliminate other factors as much as possible. We also extended our testing over a six day period whilst Dr. Cook performed both bitted and bitless tests straight after one another. The bitted test may have warmed the horses up meaning that they went better in their second test (Murray et al., 2007).

            Our results indicate that the only horse to show an improvement in dressage scores was ‘Tango’ but that this results were insignificant (P>0.1). The history of this horse would indicate that he would improve in his scores whilst being ridden bitless as he had been hard to bit and had a history of bit aversion (Cook, 2003). Interestingly, the rider indicated that they felt a lot more comfortable riding him bitless as appose to bitted even if this was not reflected in the results this would be contrary to previous research (Wolframm and Mickleright, 2010) which indicated a correlation between rider perception and horse performance. A great  acclimatisation period (BHS, 2008) to the new piece of tack may have shown an improvement in his scores. This could suggest that the use of bitted bridle may be suitable in some situations. If a horse has an aversion to the bit that cannot be treated using traditional methods then the use of a bitless bridle may be recommended. However, not all horses are suited to the use of the bridle as shown. Some horses actually exhibited a lack of control (Poppy) and dangerous behaviour such as bucking (Pepsi) whilst being ridden in the bitless bridle. It is therefore concluded that claims made by the company that “By giving up the use of the bit, you don't sacrifice any control - but you DO make it less likely that the horse will bolt, buck, or bite because of mouth pain” (Jahiel 1995) are not entirely reciprocated in real world results. It is concerning that a product is marketed to the public as such when preliminary research has shown such behaviours occurring. A call for further larger scale research is clearly necessary to see whether the results found in these tests are true for more horses

            One of the marked differences between the bitted and bitless bridles is that the bitless bridle appeared to provide more continuity of scores than the bitted bridle even if these scores were lower. For the dressage rider the need for continuity is essential as they want their horses to perform at their best on a regular basis (Hawson et al., 2010). It may be that after an initial time to adapt to the bridle the horses may improve their scores up to the standard of their bitted tests and show more constant results which would suit dressage riding. However, the horses that tended to vary in test scores in bitted tests did also do so in bitless ones (Pipkin) showing that it may not entirely be the bridles but the horses themselves that are showing either consistent or varied results. More research on a larger number of horses would draw more accurate conclusions about this point.

            This would be supported by the fact that both Pipkin and Hattie showed an improvement in scores as testing progressed. Horses need an acclimatisation period when introduced to new tack and the period used in this testing may not have been long enough (BHS, 2008). It may be that if testing had progressed these horses would have shown an increase in scores and they may have reached the level of their bitted scores. However, Hattie showed an improvement in her bitted scores as well as testing progressed so it may be that she was simply benefiting from the increased schooling time or that other factors influenced this improvement.

            Submission is often cited as one of the more important marks in terms of welfare (Hawson et al., 2010). Cook (2003) suggested that bitting may be a welfare issue as it causes the horse unnecessary pain and discomfort which under the Animal Welfare act of 2006 is too avoided. For this reason we looked at the submission scores individually to see if there was an improvement if the bit was removed as has been previously suggested. However the results indicated that the opposite was true. As with the overall scores Tango was the only horse not to show a decrease in scores when the bit was removed. It would appear logical that a horse that does not submit to the bit and shows an adverse reaction to it showed better scores in submission when said bit was removed. It is unclear to see that whether removing the bit creates welfare issues as it increases scores as has been suggested before in the converse sense.

            Three out the five horses tested showed an improvement in bitted submission scores as testing progressed whilst only two out of the five showed an improvement in bitless scores. This improvement may be down to increased workload or other factors as well the bridles themselves so it is hard to draw any conclusions from it. What is clear is that for the majority of the horses as their workload and schooling increased over the week their obedience increased.

            Interestingly the two horses that reacted the worst in terms of scores and rider opinion when they had their bits removed (Pipkin and Poppy) actually improved on their impulsion scores when the bit was removed. It may be that given more freedom around the mouth they felt they could carry and use themselves better creating more impulsion behind. It is true that many riders interfere with their horses mouths too much which can lead to subsequent bitting problems. So the removal of the bit may actually lead the horses to feel more ‘free’. This may subsequently cause a decrease in scores as young independently minded horses decide to disobey their rider.

            The rider’s opinion is a very subjective measure of how the horses did and is therefore not to be taken as solid evidence for or against the bridle. One of the largest pieces of research conducted so far into the use of bitted and bitless bridles used this kind of subjective evidence (Cook, 2003). Our testing showed that it did not necessarily tie in with actual scores. This may show either a problem in dressage scoring or an indication of the difference between how a horse looks and how a rider felt the ride went. Before evaluating the results at the end of the week we asked the rider if they could write down in which of the two bridles they felt each horse would score higher in. This is what they wrote:

Pipkin – Bitted

Tango – Bitless

Pepsi – Bitless

Poppy – Bitted

Hattie – Unsure

The rider only got one of these results wrong indicating that the way the horse felt probably did relate to the scores the horse got. How the horse feels to ride is of course very important to the rider (Wolframm and Mickleright, 2010). Our rider noted that in the bitless bridle Tango felt particularly safer and that she did not feel comfortable riding him in a bit. Whilst with Poppy and Pipkin she was not happy riding them bitless. This shows that clear conclusions on whether one method is better than the other are hard to draw as horses are very individual and some may react better to one thing than another.

            The rider also noted initial problems with the design of the bitless bridle that meant it was maybe not suited to the smaller English ponies. She noted that with reins attached your were holding them past the normal point on an area without grip so you felt as if you had less control over the horse and that the reins were slipping out of your hands. A different design of bitless bridle such as that from the Nurtural Bitless Bridle (Nurtural Horse, 2011) may have created different results but this is hard to tell without actually performing testing. Apart from this design there are also numerous other similar designs of bitless bridle which each one making its own separate claims. Independent testing of such products is the only way to establish a fair base line so customers can choose what is right for them.

Cross Country Set Up

My cross country set up is now complete and ready to travel to Macclesfield Live on March 10th! I'm looking forward to showing it as a lot of effort has gone in! It's not going to do amazingly well but I would still like to get it out there!

First up the complete tack set:



As you can see it looks very nice on CRS Perfection!

The Bridle


The bridle is a grackle bridle with a D-ring snaffle bit. The bit is made by Rio Rondo and most of the hardware is also Rio Rondo hardware.



The small plates on the side are just cut off the outside of those sheets of etched buckles you get. A nice bit of recycling there! All the buckles are fully working and most also have keepers.

The front of the bridle has a little piece of sheepskin underneath to create a soft piece of padding for ponies nose:



Here you can see the other side. It's not fully sticky waxed down yet but will be by showtime!



The Boots


This was really daunting. I've never made boots before so I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out! I opted for open fronted tendon boots and bell boots on the front and full tendon boots behind. I decided that Ideal might need a little encouragement to get over the jumps :p




The front boots are made out of leather. The tendon boots have working buckles and a sheep skin lining. The bell boots do up with sticky wax as velcro would have added too much bulk to the boot.



The rear boots are also made out of leather and do up with sticky wax for the same reason as with the bell boots.



As you can see the straps go round and then have a flap to cover them:



This is a good close up of the buckles on the front boots:



The Girth

Another new area for me! I figured he should probably have a stud girth (he does actually have some little hand made studs that will be sticky waxed on at the show).

Breyer saddles don't have proper girth straps so I had to add in some proper one's so that I could attach the girth:



The girth itself is fully padded with felt and then stuck down around the edges. I cut a buckle in half to make the D ring so I could attach the breastplate. The padding was just two layers of leather so that allowed me to put the straps on for realism and to make the D-ring go through the leather:



Breastplate


The final item of tack was the breastplate. I make these all the time so nothing challenging here. It's pretty simple and has a little piece of sheepskin as the centre piece:



Working buckles and straps attach it to the saddle:



The Jump & Base


This isn't particularly complex! The base is several pieces of cardboard layered up to create a small ditch dip under the jump. It has then been covered with scatter to create a realistic finish:



The jump is made of logs stolen from the log store. There is a larger log on top, two offcuts to keep it raised and smaller logs either side of the 'ditch'. There are cuts of wood to act as pegs to keep it up:



The final details were added by creating the signs either side of the jump. Nothing special here just cocktail sticks and coloured card!



The Rider


The rider is a Breyer 'Megan' that has been partially adapted. The shirt was made by me and is literally held on by sticky wax! She has had a strap added to her hat and little spurs made out of wire:



To finish the detailing she has had a watch sculpted and her hands painted black to look like gloves. I also made her a little medical band by getting a piece of paper and covering it in selotape and adding a strap to attach it to her arm:



So finally....here are some pictures of the finished set up! I still need to get some photoshow shots of it but this should do for now!









As you can see the jump is pretty low as this is quite a low level set up! Hence the open fronted boots and the lack of martingale and over girth!