The Hackamore
The hackamore is a bridle without a bit that’s operating by exerting pressure on the horse's nose, chin, and poll. The hackamore has several names like the hackamore bit or just hackamore and there are different types of a hackamore. Now and days it is a popular tool because of the direct contact with an instant release. That means that when communication is responded to, the contact is instantly removed. And because of that, the hackamore is not designed to be ridden with constant contact. The hackamore intended to be used as a secondary aid to support seat and leg aids. At first, your horse needs to respond on your seat aid, if it doesn’t you use the leg aid and finally the reins.
The types of Hackamore.
There are two types of hackamore; the mechanical and the non-mechanical. But we add there one to it; the multi hackamore.
The mechanical hackamore is provided with shanks, The shanks connect the noseband and chinstrap. The shanks, connected to the noseband and chinstrap, are attached to the cheekpieces of the bridle. The reins are attached to the shanks.
The mechanical hackamore work by primary pressure on the nose, with cues, direct up the cheek piece to the poll area. The shanks are available in various shapes, sizes, and lengths. The amount of pressure depends on the length of the shanks.
The non-mechanical hackamores have no leverage because they have no shanks. They give only pressure on the nasal bone of the horse. This type of hackamore is not explained in this blog-post.
The multi-hackamore is a type of mechanical hackamore with varying degrees of leverage. The flower and wheel-shaped shanks are indicated as multi-hackamore, because of the multiple options of attachment of the noseband, chinstrap, and cheekpieces.
BAROQUE AND ACADEMIC HACKAMORE
| These types of hackamore describe the style of the shanks. The baroque hackamore is a mid-length shank that is curved and movable rings at the ends. The shanks are decorated with engraved flowers and are a narrow shank with a length of 16 cm but act like a 14,5 cm shanks because it's curved. The Academic is also knowing as Music shank. And is a shank of mid-length approx. 14-14.5 cm. This shank is in various designs. |  |  |
| Baroque | Academic |
FLOWER HACKAMORE SHORT AND LONG
| The shank is called after its appearance; flower. The flower hackamore is available in a long version with 8 rings and a short version with 7 rings. The flower hackamore is short. The long flower shank is 12 cm length and the short version 8.5 cm. The flower shanks have multiple options and there for a multi-hackamore. |  |  |
| Flower Short | Flower Long |
STAR AND PIN-WHEEL HACKAMORE
| The Star and Pin-Wheel hackamore has 6 slots and multiple options. The Star and pin-wheel are short shanks. The Star has a length of 8.5 cm and the pin-wheel 5 cm. The Star and Pin-Wheel have multiple options and therefore a multi-hackamore. Stübben has given their pin-wheel shank the name of flower hackamore. |  |  |
| Star | Pin-Wheel |
LOVE HACKAMORE
| The Love hackamore is a short and narrow shank very suitable for ponies or just if you want a small shank. The length of the shank is 10 cm and a width of 5 cm. |  |  |
ENGLISH HACKAMORE (NOT AVAILABLE IN OUR STORE).
| The English hackamore is a strong type hackamore with shanks of approx. 15-18 cm length. Some shanks are slightly curved backward, which makes these shanks less serve than a straight shank. In our store, you will not find shanks with these lengths. The baroque shank with a length of 16 cm is less strong because of the curved shanks. |  |
GERMAN HACKAMORE (NOT AVAILABLE IN OUR STORE)
| The German hackamore is very strong and mostly provided with shanks approx. 20 cm in length and slightly curved. The chinstrap is mostly a curb chain that is considered as harsher than a leather chin strap. The ends of the shanks are connected with a thin metal bar, this is to maintain and secure the structure of the shanks. These kinds of hackamores are not available in our store! |  |
Fitting the hackamore
All hackamores are placed on the nasal bone of the horse. The fitting of the hackamore is very important and especially the noseband. If the noseband fits too high; sensitive facial nerves can be blocked. And If the noseband is placed too low and ridden with too much force, it will have negative consequences on the nasal bone, breathing, and cartilage. We recommended that the noseband be placed two-three finger widths below the protruding cheekbone, and shanks must be placed with a minimum of one finger thickness below the sensitive protruding cheekbone. Make sure that the cheekpieces of the headstall are not be placed too close to the eyes. |  |
The most common reasons why the cheekpieces are too far towards the eyes are:
- The noseband is too tight (lengthen the noseband and short up the chin band)
- The noseband is fitted to high (lower the cheekpieces)
- The browband is too tight (remove or replace the browband for a longer one)
- The cheekpieces are not attached correctly (attach one hole further away from the noseband)
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