[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Most English riding is all about being soft and supple at the mouth, poll and neck, always giving to pressure and seeking a round-necked frame. There is no English situation I can think of (except maybe polo) where you ever want the horse to lean on it, as there is in those western events you named.

But if they are leaning on the tiedown, vs. the bit for an aid to get their butts under them that DOES how keep them softer in the mouth. When a horse is draggin a cow or making as tight a turn as you ask them to going around the barrel at the speeds they do, you have to give them an aid for the right postion. It will be a tiedown or their mouth.

I can't think of an English Event (except polo as you say, and I've seen alot of them with tiedown,) that requires a horse to drag a cow or make hairpin turns at full runs:). Barrel Races and team ropers want their horses soft in the mouth and to give to pressure. The tie down is an aid to help do that.

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

No way does a standing martingale make a horse supple. No way. I have never seen it happen, English or Western. It's a quick fix or a precaution to avoid getting dinged in the nose, but it is absolutely contrary to softening a horse's neck. I suppose you could say that it would keep the MOUTH soft because you're not pulling the horse's head down any more by the bit, but it doesn't solve the problem, it just pulls him down by the nose instead. All it does is limit the horse's range of motion. A static aid won't change a horse's moving response.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh - and the polo folks' horses are often times loons who need a tie-down because they aren't properly trained and the riders just drag them around by the mouth.

I ride out a local polo player's horses when he comes back up here in the spring, and I am always astonished at how poorly trained the poor animals are. The first time I rode for him I asked if he wanted me to work on lateral aids and leg yieldings or bending exercises, and he said, "Naw, just canter them around the field to the right for twenty minutes." !!!!!!!!!!!

[HairOfTheDog]

I agree tie downs must work for those events (barrels and roping, etc)... the pros use 'em, and if it didn't work, it'd cost 'em money. I wonder if part of why they work for those events is that they tie the head from coming back, so that when they rein in for the ~WOAH~ that you need in those sports, the horse's head really has nowhere to go between the rein and the tie down. So you get that sharp response to not very much rein.