R.I.P. To French Links
Growing up as a barn rat, I was very familiar with the ins and outs of our fleet of lesson ponies. Roy was the chubby Welsh-cross with a bit of a grumpy streak. Rippy was the tri-colored paint who would trot to the ends of the Earth before finally skipping into a canter. Spot was an Appaloosa who went 0.0001 miles per hour, but had a heart of gold. All three geldings, with various quirks, body types and years and years of training, went around in French Link snaffles.
Fast forward a decade or so and as an adult, I’m still a barn rat. I’ve graduated from those golden lesson ponies and am riding leggy greenies. Trainers who helped me along the way at this time almost universally recommended a French Link snaffle for a young horse’s first bit. It was soft, and the piece in the middle offered a more comfortable way to introduce pressure on the mouth and tongue, or that was the theory back in the day. My, how the times have changed.
It started in 2019 or so, when the FEI rules for eventing changed to ban bits with a middle plate-like joint, like French Links and Dr. Bristols, from the dressage phase. Now, the USEF has approved a rule to ban French Links from dressage competition beginning this month.
We’ve learned over the years a lot about horses and how they handle pressure and how tell us when they’re in pain. And there are those bad apples out there that can find a way to abuse any piece of equipment, no matter how soft or friendly or comfortable it is designed to be.
Dr. Graham Cross, part of the Neue Schule The Academy, studied the angle of different mouthpieces in bits to understand the tension applied with rein pressure. He found that in the case of the French Link, the middle mouthpiece will rotate up to 45 degrees clockwise in the mouth once pressure on the reins is applied, causing the plate of the bit to press down onto the tongue. In horses with a low palate arch or a fleshy tongue, the thin plate of the French Link can be pushed up into the roof of the mouth.
Maybe this is the concern of governing body officials. The alternative for a double-jointed legal option is a bit with a “bean” or “lozenge” -shaped middle piece instead of the thin plate.
There are a lot of bitting options out there, with many companies investing in science and research to determine the best ergonomic design for the horse’s mouth. But no bit works as intended if it’s not the right size for the horse’s mouth.
This hot take originally published in the Heels Down Spark in December 2022. Get more conversation starters in your inbox every weekday morning by subscribing to the Spark now.