So seeing as I have had such great success with a new product I thought it only fair to share my latest secret weapon with GHE fans!
Dustry has a bad habit of scrunching on his bit at times when working. It’s not through tension or pain, it’s just a left over bad habit from his racing days, and up until now I have just ignored it, but now that we are starting to get out and about competing it needs to be stopped, because it will cost us valuable marks in the dressage phase if the judge hears him scrunching on his bit it will be marked down as ‘lack of submission’ or ‘tension’ .
My instructor Amanda Brewer told me about a fab product called ‘GumBits’ that would help eliminate this problem. GumBits are like little round sweets (similar size to tictacs) made from all natural ingredients, which help promote chewing and salivation, and eliminate grinding. Well like most things these sounded too good to be true, and at £39.95 I was sceptical about parting with my money in case they didn’t work, but I bit the bullet, and they are great!
It says on the packet that you need to feed approx 2x tablespoons before you ride and that will last for approx a warm up and a test. Through trial and error I have found that I only need to give Dustry about 20-25 GumBits before he is bridled up (the amount shown in pic), and they last for around 1 hour (so far I haven’t had them ‘run out’ whilst riding). He became instantly SO much more responsive and soft in the jaw, and he is producing some really lovely light, and accepting work. I am literally amazed at what an instant and noticeable impact they have had, I just wish I had bought them sooner!!!
Dustry loves his GumBits and is keen to gobble them up, but because they are small and he is quite greedy they sometimes go flying! I am giving him them with a polo too so that eventually I can try to wean him off them and still continue to give him a pre-work polo for the same effect, we will see if that works…
GumBits are 100% legal so ideal for use at competitions and at home. I am so impressed with them that I have even used them on a friend’s horse who doesn’t grind, but can at times be very heavy in the hand, and they really helped her too! All in all I’m very impressed so wanted to share this secret so that potentially others could benefit from GumBits too!
P.S. I ate some myself to see what they were like, their texture is very similar to softmints, but they just taste sugary!
GumBits website www.gambitatlanta.com
Buy GumBits in the UK from www.horsehealth.co.uk