Find out how a bit can support or hinder your horse’s performance!
Master level bit fitter, Florence Wetzel of Try My Bits joined us on Sunday, January 31 2021 for an entertaining and informative evening lecture on bit and bridle fitting. Our Texas GMO friends from Brazos Association for Classical Horsemanship in College Station and Bryan also joined us. We had a lovely crowd and wonderful questions to share with Florence.
Florence is one of only four certified LANTRA bit and bridle fitters in the United States. She represents Neue Schule bits and has worked to find the right bit with riders and horses throughout the US, Canada, and the Netherlands for the last 5 or more years. She’s fitted bits for dressage, hunters, jumpers, eventers and fox hunters. As a longtime competitive rider herself, Florence brings a wealth of horse knowledge and passion to each fitting.
Florence dispelled many myths of bit fitting like the need to see your horse foam while at work or that a shorter shank on a curb bit is more gentle. Contrary to popular belief, the foam often indicates an ill fitting bit and the short shank speeds up the reaction when the curb rein is used. She also told us that in the nearly 1,000 horses she sees every year, nearly 50% of them go around with bits that are upside down and about 70% of them are in ones that are too big for them.
If you missed the meeting, you can enjoy it here
To participate in the virtual bit fitting clinic, you will have to do a little homework. However, doing it this way will be a lot less expensive than if Florence came to you. The charge for the virtual fitting is $35 and each trial bit sent to you is $15. You will also have longer to try the bits and decide on which ones work best. She will need about 30 seconds of video of your horse trotting and cantering in each direction under saddle with the current bit on your bridle and 3 photos of your horse’s head (left, right and center) with the bridle on and 1 photo of the bridle with the bit(s) on it. You will then have a discussion with Florence over the phone to decide which bits she should send to you for trial. You will then have 10 days from the day you receive the bits to decide which ones to keep and or send back. This will allow you to try a bit multiple times, and use it when you ride with your trainer.
You can download the fillable form and send it with your photos to Florence directly. Her email address is on the form. Please also add your phone number (sorry for the oversight) so that you can make arrangements to send the videos via WhatApp.
We are so glad that BACH could join us and we’re excited about more upcoming activities to share with them. They are a similarly sized GMO and we hope to partner with them and others across the country to offer our members more programming because it’s always fun to do stuff together!
We look forward to many happier horses and riders!
To schedule a fitting with Florence please download, fill out and send this form to Florence directly.