Random Maker

Robart Pinchless Bit

Dave Robart Takes the Bite Out of Traditional Horse Mouthware

 

Dave Robart doesn’t think like the rest of us. And when it comes to horses and bits, that’s a good thing.

 

Dave—a fourth generation horse trainer, champion rider and inventor— has dyslexia. The down side: he never graduated from high school. The up side: he really understands horses.

 

“They seem to think the same way as dyslexic folks,” Robart says. ‘I have to process every part of a question to get an answer. I get there. I just don’t get there at the same pace as most people. Neither do horses and, as a trainer, you have to remember that.”

 

And his wife Glenice helped, too. For years, she trained service dogs for the disabled. Sure, dogs and horses are very different. But both can be taught how to work closely with humans. For Dave, it was more lessons learned. In particular: positive reinforcement influences behavior more quickly and effectively than punishment. It sounds obvious—but lots of folks forget that in the heat of the moment.

 

The Robart’s efforts gave them a national reputation for success in working with problem animals. Many were pleasure horses; others were competition animals. But he was also called on by organizations like the Denver Mounted Patrol to desensitize their horses to gunfire.

 

Dave says one key discovery is that “everything starts in the mouth.” Experience taught him that—the hard way.

 

Back in the mid ‘90s, at a show in Denver, the horse he was riding kept raising its head and going past the cow he was trying to corner. “When I got home, I finally figured out what was going on. The right side of that snaffle was pinching him on the right side, and that was why he was riding through that bit.”

 

That, too, is pretty common knowledge—a horse in pain tends to tense up and underperform. Riders—including those of us in mounted shooting - - d o what we can to minimize the discomfort, but that’s usually about as far as things go.

 

Now here’s another advantage to his dyslexia. Most of us can create only one or two-dimensional images in our minds. Dave can see things in three dimensions, just the way they are in real life. And after the Denver competition, he started thinking about a pinchless bit. “You know, if I put an internal bushing in this thing, and leave the rings in the center, I’ve got a snaffle,” he remembers thinking. “Granted, my two rings, when I pick up the outside shank, will rotate. So I still have control of the mouthpiece in the horse, left and right.”

 

So he put one together and tried it out—and the pinchless snaffle worked. Dave put in for a patent and moved ahead. “The next step is the precision bit. It looks like a stiff bit. But for the first time, [the rider] can lift the left shoulder and capture the top of the palate with the port with one rein and not move the other side of the stiff bit. But if he pulls both sides, it becomes a stiff bit.”

 

More success. More patents. More bit development in both English and Western disciplines. And all of a sudden, Dave Robart had a side business to complement his training work.

 

For all his success in the pinchless bit venture, Dave remains modest: “I didn’t invent the wheel. I just improved on the wheel.” And he says if something’s not broke, then don’t fix it: “If what you’re doing is working, don’t change it. If your bit is working, you don’t need my bit.”

 

Dave remains a cowboy and trainer at his ranch in North Carolina. Sure, he’s working with a company that manufactures his bits. And he’s got a couple of employees in an office. And he’s always coming up with new ideas. But he’s not given in to the allure (or headaches) of being a businessman. “I train 24/7. I’m always on a horse. That’s where I learn. The only way that you can be smart enough to help people is to ride every day.” And the best way to try new inventions is to use them in real life.

 

Nope, Dave Robart doesn’t think like the rest of us. But he’s got a clear vision of what he wants to do and how to do it—especially when it comes to horses and pinchless bits.

 

You can find out more about Robart Pinchless Bits by going to the website www.pinchlessbits.com. Or call (252) 747-2636.

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