Day 26 – 30 Day Horse Challenge – Biggest riding pet peeve

I'm going to try to finish this challenge thing up.

I would say my biggest riding pet peeve  is more of a people pet peeve. I hate when people think they know it all, or that their trainer knows it all, and they close themselves off to new things. In general it's always much better to look things up for yourself and decide what you think is right.

And as a more nitpicky thing, I hate when the keepers aren't properly fastened on a bridle. I don't really notice/care when other people do this, but if I notice something about my equipment isn't quite right I get really annoyed with myself.

Speaking of bridles and equipment, the clinician recommended that I start riding Midnight in a flash because he likes to almost poke his tongue out and she said it is a lot easier to prevent tongue issues than it is to fix them. I think that makes a lot of sense, but always feel kind of bad tightening the noseband and flash. There is still space for a finger between the bridle and his face, but it really made me realize how NOT anatomical a traditional bridle is. A horse's face is not a perfect circle like a noseband so there are inevitably pressure points.

I'm semi-toying with the idea of buying a Micklem (have you noticed my wish list is growing?) but I'm not really sure if it would make a difference. I still need to keep it fairly tight so he doesn't poke his tongue out, so I'm not sure if getting one would just make me feel better without really mattering one way or the other on Midnight's end.

Thoughts? To Micklem or not to Micklem when you have a horse with borderline tongue-sticky-outy-ness?