Is there any reason to use pacifiers on your horses e.g. visors, blinkers and cheek peices? Do they affect the horses in any way?

Also when doing training e.g. gallops does this affect your horses performance at race day or is it only for your own benefit?

Thanks

Pacifiers can help some horses settle, check the head lad comments on the training page, he will say `may benefit from pacifier`. Hopefully it will stop your horse from being too keen and hitting the front too soon or dropping out when you need it to be making ground.

Never bothered with the gallops and don`t think it makes any difference towards your horses performance in races.

I find the gallops very useful. They improve your horses fitness for a start, but more than that they give a good indication of how a horse likes to race, eg handy, hold up etc. And of course you get a good idea of their 'level', how they compare with others in your stable so you know what type of races to enter them in (especially good for untried 2 year olds). Also to get them used to all weather.

I've got a feeling they do help improve speed/stamina/jumping over time as well, depending on type of gallops undertaken obviously. I strongly recommend regular gallops