overcheck bits

[blewis]

Looking for opinions, I purchase and awesome gelding who was shown country pleasure, I was only able to show him a couple of times this year but noticed his head seemed lower that most of the horses we showed against. It is not low enough to go Western and he is not built with a high head set . My question is the person I purchased him from used the overcheck bit I am not sure I want to do this to him but I am not sure we can compete unless we do. Pros and cons please.

 

[disneyhorse]

Depending on what shows you want to do, you may need to put on an overcheck (or side check). It can be adjusted loosely though.

While you don't need to use one, the horse might have been trained to rely on it and that will take additional training to "unlearn."

There are pros and cons to using one, but it depends on the individual horse, as not all horses are created equally.

Depending on what shows you want to do, you may need to put on an overcheck (or side check). It can be adjusted loosely though.

While you don't need to use one, the horse might have been trained to rely on it and that will take additional training to "unlearn."

There are pros and cons to using one, but it depends on the individual horse, as not all horses are created equally.

 

[Annabellarose]

A tight(er) overcheck might help hold a horse's head higher (artificially and temporarily), but I would think that it would only be able to help hold its head higher "out" and not higher "up" (or "tucked", which is probably the look you are going for, yes?)? To work on a higher headset, your best bet is probably going to be asking the horse to round its back and move up into the bridle (which takes a lot of time and a lot of work and a lot of body condition). I thought that this was an excellent video (and I thought he was entertaining too, ha!):

 

[blewis]

He has an overcheck already and you are correct it is only putting his head up not tucked. All the previous horses I have had had a natural high head set. Thanks for the video I will see what we can do I am not a fan of another bit in his mouth.