Bosal Basics - The Bump, The Bar, & The Knot

Lil Roen is showing a horse this year in a bosal. He's been showing for a few years with a friend of mine, but this is his first time using the bosal. He asked me to give him a tip or two in the Ask the Trainer forum a week or so ago. So here you go Lil Roen.

The size of the bosal is important. The distance between the nose and the top of the bosal is what we call the bump, or down pressure. As with most things, choosing a size depends on the user's preferences. You will bring your horse's nose in if the bosal is loose enough and the rider bumps the nose with it. It will get irritating for the horse if the bosal is too loose, or sloppy which will make it bounce around quite a bit. A direct pull on the nose of the horse with a bosal will usually get the horse to move his feet back. The bosal is not like a bit where the pressure gets a softening effect. The softness of a western pleasure horse comes from the training in a snaffle, not from the bosal.

The bars, or the part of the bosal that are tied to the reins and the part that touches the side of the horse's jaw, are used to turn the horse's head and will help steer the horse. How you fit the bosal on the bars depends on two things: how the individual horse responds and how you as a rider want the horse to respond. A bumping or jerking action will usually produce a quick movement of the horse's head sideways. But, if your horse is really supple, or rubbery, then the horse may not follow his head when the rider bumps on the bosal; he may just bend his neck.

As a side note, I used to break all my horses in a bosal that was really loose around the nose and the bars. I would use it like a bumper and knock the horse's head the direction that I wanted to go and the horse would follow his head and all was good. After a while when I started to ride more supple horses with longer necks I found that the horse could easily bend his neck and not have to move his feet to follow his head. This can be a little scary like driving with a crazy steering wheel.

The knot is the third element of the bosal. The reins are tied onto the bosal with a special knot. If the knot is big enough, when you pull on the bosal the knot bumps the horse under the jaw and it will help to stop your horse.

As for deciding on the overall fit that's right for you and your horse, it's really all about personal preference. I personally like a bosal to be tight fitting around the horse's nose. This makes the bosal a part of the horse. It won't bounce around on the horse's face, which will irritate most horses. A tight bosal also makes the horse respond very quickly. If it's loose it will bounce and move with your horse's steps; if it's tight it will move with the rider's hands.

The whole use of a bosal is an article in and of itself. With the pleasure horse the bosal is mostly an accessory to the look - a great picture when done well. To a reiner, working cow person, or a trail rider, the bosal is used differently depending on the discipline. The old Mexican cowboys (called Vaqueros) had an art to breaking a horse; they did it with a bosal. You may want to check out a great article written by Kara Stewart on www.horsechannel.com talking about the Vaquero way of training. It's really cool:

http://www.horsechannel.com/western-horse-training

Wikipedia offers a decent primer on the bosal, which is also called the hackamore. Check out the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackamore

Author - Hoyt Rose, P&H Horse & Cattle Company