What's a Fulmer snaffle?

Ordinary full cheek snaffle with French link mouthpiece

Romy asked about Fulmer snaffles. Apparently, many tack shops do not know what a Fulmer snaffle is! If you do an internet search, you find that many bits are mistakenly listed as Fulmer snaffles when they are really ordinary full cheek snaffles. a Fulmer snaffle is a particular type of full cheek snaffle. The mouthpiece and the full cheeks are forged or cast in one piece (i.e. there is no swivel joint at the cheeks). That’s one of the key differences from an ordinary full cheek snaffle. Another difference is that the Fulmer snaffle has loose ring that go through a hole in a projection outside the full cheeks. Finally, the Fulmer always has a slight bend at the top of the cheek to accept bit keepers which hold the bit in alignment.

Americans and the English call this bit the Fulmer snaffle because, Robert Hall, an Englishman who had studied at the Spanish Riding School, popularized it at his Fulmer Riding Academy. In Australia, this bit used to be known as the "F. M. snaffle" after Franz Mairinger, a Spanish Riding School rider who emigrated to Australia after World War II. As the coach of several Australian Olympic eventing teams, Mairinger popularized the bit among sport riders there. Although Mairinger called the bit a Podhajsky snaffle, it became known as the "F. M. snaffle". Ironically, the Australians already had an almost identical bit that was used by their cattlemen. That is why the bit is sometimes called the Australian loose ring snaffle.