Bit Makers

[AZFarrier]

I was wondering if any one knows who makes authentic bits. I know Doug Kid does but is there any one else? I have a 59 Bit with a low port. I need to get it modified to a high port. My horse won't respond well to the bit and I'm forced to use my roping high port Correction bit on him ( non authentic). I'll send it to Doug but I would like to compare shop first. I beleave you all understand.

Thank you

Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

[VaTrooper]

Re: Bit Makers

Andy,
I dont know of anyone else making a reasonably close bit but original high port bits are fairly common on ebay.

[AZFarrier]

Re: Bit Makers

I know but the origionals are narrower then the repros, 150 years of evolution of horse breeds, beleve me I've explored that already.
Thanks for your reply

Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

[Ted Barber]

Re: Bit Makers

i got my tack from Dave Carrico. I do not have his info now, but that is who.
Ted Barber
"Looking for a Ky unit that may let me borrow a mount as mine died last year and now I live in Ky, not michigan"

[AZFarrier]

Re: Bit Makers

Dave Carrico huh! I'll start searching around to find out if he's still in business.

Sorry to hear about your horse, if you lived a little closer to me I'd sell you mine for $5.00 with change back.:wink_smil
Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

[VaTrooper]

Re: Bit Makers

Ted,
Carrico's goods are not historically accurate. Unless he does higher quality stuff as a custom type order (which I dont think he does).

[AZFarrier]

Re: Bit Makers

OK let me expand this out. All I need is to have some one correct the port of my bit. The bit is accurate, all I need is a higher port.

Thanks

Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

[VaTrooper]

Re: Bit Makers

Doug can alter it for you.

[AZFarrier]

Re: Bit Makers

Thanks. I already shot him an e-mail. Thanks for all your input

Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

[J.H.Berger]

Re: Bit Makers

Find a blacksmith, he shoudl be able to cut the port out and weld a higher in. Not authentic but it should work. Weaver used to have high port bits but they have discontinued them. Besides that they were just bent round stock and not the drop forged version like the originals.

[T.Kern]

Re: Bit Makers

OK let me expand this out. All I need is to have some one correct the port of my bit. The bit is accurate, all I need is a higher port.

Thanks

Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

OK I'll bite, why does your horse need a larger tongue relief? Severity of the bit is not in the port, as there a relatively few nerve endings there, but in the length of the cheek in relation to the position of the curb chain that forms the fulcrum.
Often it is not a higher port one needs but a different length bit or better training to lighten the horse. The manual goes into fitting bits to horses mouths extensively. The tongue , the channel, and so on. The manual would be a good place to start for many people when it comes to fitting.
I should say Poinsettes manual, as too many people still know of cookes, a manual which should be thrown on the trash heap of historical novelty items as it serves little if any purpose in historical interpretation and should just be forgotten.
Todd Kern

[AZFarrier]

Re: Bit Makers

First off, I got a reply back from Doug, he will take the bit in trade. Second. I've had this horse for about a year and tried several bits on him. I normally use a high port correction bit on him for Team Roping. He responds well to the bit, now I used my 59 cav bit for roping and was not able to achieve the same results. Recently I attended the 1st Annual Las Vegas Farb Fest (not much out here so I'm forced to take my mounts to Farb Fests for training). I used both bits and found that I had more control and less fight with him using my roping bit. Of course I have more work on him, but he's progressing.

Thanks

Andy Miller
1st CAL Cav
Arizona Rangers

[VaTrooper]

Re: Bit Makers

Unless he has changed it the bit Doug was reproducing was a 63' pattern. But still its the best option I know outside of an original.

[Haggis]

Re: Bit Makers

Hi Andy,
If I may, let me add to Todd's excellent suggestions. Unfortunately, for most folks, the bit is just a hand brake, the harder the horse is to control, the bigger the brake needed. But bits are best used as communications devices, not mechanical pain inducers. IMHO, going back to the snaffle, gettin soft lateral flexion and then working on rating/stopping your horse with your seat is a better solution. Then when you have that, a proper fitted military curb bit will allow more subtle communications. I'll bet you find you don't need the correction bit, he'll be easy in your hands and quicker to respond to your feel.
This is an investment of your time, there are no shortcuts to doing it right, IMHO again.

For the historical perspective: from Nolan's System For Training Cavalry Horses -1962:
"The jaw-bone of every horse is covered in the same way; whether a horse be light or heavy in hand, cannot, therefore, depend upon the quantity of flesh between the bit and the jaw-bone, though many suppose this to be the case; but the fact is, it is not the horse's mouth that is bard, but the rider's hand that is in fault.

Many and various are the bits in use, originating chiefly with the trade, and partly the inventions those who, unable to control their horses, sought assistance in bits of different sorts. For instance, when a horse carries his nose up, a bit with long cheeks was recommended, which, by adding to the power of the lever, should assist the hand to pull in the horse's nose by sheer strength. In this case, if the horse has never been taught to yield to the pressure, of the bit and to bring his head in, he will set his jaw against the bit to alleviate the pain he suffers, and thus adopts a way of his own, which he will ever after recur to in similar circumstances.

Other bits again are such instruments of torture, that they either deaden all sensation in the horse's month, which becomes numbed, from the excessive pressure stopping the circulation of the blood, or they drive a horse frantic with pain, and no power the rider can exert with his legs, can bring the animal to face such a bit; the horse, therefore, remains behind the hand, and hand and leg cannot work together.

A light bit is therefore strongly recommended, and in the following lessons, it will be explained how to use it and obtain obedience. In the United States service, the snaffle in connection with the bit, was a few years since discarded from the bridle, and though after the horse is trained the snaffle may be dispensed with, in the following lessons its use will greatly facilitate bringing the horse on, and is believed to be almost essential.


Just my thoughts on the horses behalf.
Alan McFadden
5th Texas Mounted Volunteers

[Coley Adair]

Re: Bit Makers

Todd,
"I should say Poinsettes manual, as too many people still know of cookes, a manual which should be thrown on the trash heap of historical novelty items as it serves little if any purpose in historical interpretation and should just be forgotten."
Care to elaborate on that statement?