Special Edition: CalmRide Hunter D-Ring Snaffle

Riders often choose this bit for:

• Horses with a thick tongue: the barrel link removes the pinch of a single joint and makes tongue space
• Low palates (slim 10mm profile)
• Horses that feel dull to the tongue aids: the copper rollers on the barrel link give a snappier reaction
• Head tossing linked to palate interference: the barrel sits low
• Horses that chew or grab the bit with their teeth (metal, non-ported)

The D-ring gives the stability of a fixed ring with a wide, steady contact area.

Every horse is an individual. If you are not sure, take our two minute quiz or write to hello@agadors.com and we will help you decide.

Bit size is the width of the mouthpiece. We list inches. Some bits are stamped in centimetres, so a bit marked 13.5 is 13.5cm, which is our 5.5".

Measure your horse rather than going by their height. A 17hh horse can have a 5" mouth. If you already have a bit that fits well, measure that instead and match it.

Fixed cheek (eggbutt, Baucher, D-ring, full cheek): about 0.5cm of clearance each side. Loose ring: up to 1/8" between the corner of the lip and the bore hole each side. If you ride in bit guards, or your horse has fleshy lips that catch, order a quarter inch up from your fixed-cheek size.

Too wide slides side to side and can pinch the corners. Too narrow presses on the lips. If your current bit fits with no room at all, stay at that size. If it "just" fits, go up a quarter inch.

Send us a photo of your horse in their current bit and we will tell you what we see.

Most of our metal bits, yes, within 30 days, for a refund or an exchange, and we do take them back used. That is the point of the 30 days: a bit you have not ridden in tells you nothing.

What happens to it then is that we resell it as a Demo unit, clearly labelled and priced lower, rather than as new. That is also where the demo units on this site come from.

Three things cannot come back: rubber mouthpieces, Final Sale items, and Demo condition bits. Rubber because it cannot be brought back to a saleable state, and the other two because they have already been through this once. All three are marked in the product title and description.

You can add return coverage at checkout, which gets you a free return label. If you skip it you can still use the returns portal, and the label cost comes off your refund.

We do not run a trial or loaner program.

How do I know if this is right for my horse?

Ask us. We would rather look at your horse than have you guess.

Useful things to tell us: what they go in now and what is not working, your discipline and whether it needs to be competition legal, the size, and what their mouth looks like inside. Peel the lip back and look at the tongue. Is it fleshy and full, or thin and tucked? Is the palate low? Are the bars sharp to the touch?

A photo of your horse wearing their current bit tells us more than a paragraph.

One thing worth saying up front: the bit is one variable. Saddle fit, dental work, noseband tightness and rider hands cause a lot of what gets blamed on bits. If your horse has changed suddenly, get the teeth and the saddle checked before you change the bit.

Does mouthpiece thickness matter?

Our range runs 10mm to 16mm. For reference, 10mm is narrow, 12mm narrow to medium, 14mm average, and 16mm wide. 14mm is an ordinary thickness in the bit world, not a thick bit.

The counterintuitive part: a horse with a big fleshy tongue usually wants a thinner mouthpiece, not a thicker one. The average horse has around 16mm of space from tongue to palate, so anything over about 14mm starts competing with the tongue for room. More material in a mouth that is already full makes things worse.

Which way up does it go?

Lay the bit flat on a table. The roller or centre link should sit as the highest point. The Agador's lettering and the size should read upright, and the "A" points toward the nostrils.

Our logo placement is not perfectly consistent across the range, because where it lands depends on the bore hole the cheekpiece rings pass through, and some bits work either way up. If it looks odd, send a photo and we will confirm rather than have you guess.

When will my size be back in stock?

A restock is usually 4 to 8 weeks. Canada tends to land first and the US follows about 2 to 3 weeks later, so if you are in the US and it shows in stock for Canada, ask us. We can often ship one across the border, which adds roughly $10 in duties.

Sign up for the restock alert on this page and you will hear the moment your size lands.

Two honest caveats. Some cheekpieces get discontinued and will not return, and we will tell you plainly if yours is one of them. And sizes 6.5" and up are not something we stock regularly, because the orders are too few to justify holding them.