I recently trialled a Turtle Top Baucher on one of my intermediate horses and have been amazed by the result. I have always struggled with him a bit as he can be quite fussy and not still in the mouth but is also a little lazy so never wanted to go forward into a nice still contact as a young horse. He is big moving and flashy so generally scores well in the dressage, but I have rarely come out with that feeling of “that’s felt great”.
A friend of mine suggested I tried the turtle top baucher and I could not believe the difference straight away. He was instantly more forward going and very willing to take a nice contact around the bit, as well as being much more consistent and still down the rein. I rode him at Houghton in it after only trying it once or twice and I finally got that wow feeling after the test that I have not had before. He did by far his best test to date, the judges agreed scoring a 26.9 which we finished on to come 5th out of over 100 starters.
I will definitely be trying this bit on other horses and will be looking into the other bits that Neue Schule do to try and achieve the same feeling.