You know what's weird? A horse changing bit preference. What do I mean by this, you're wondering. Well in my limited observation of Zee, my horse, I know for most of his ridden "career" he has gone in a simple double jointed egg butt with a lozenge link (instead of a french link?) and has gone well and listened to it well and we haven't had any issues. Recently though something was going on and I repeatedly found blood on the joint of one of the rings but none on his face. (I rinsed the bit off every time so I know it was fresh) While Zee has thrown his head during the rides I find blood, I didn't think much of it because he's thrown his head a lot throughout his ridden life and there wasn't an issue in the past. This bit also has a lot of mobility, for example it can fold completely in on itself like a single jointed bit in both directions. Because I'm obsessive I ended up getting a different bit purely for handling Zee on the ground in "in-hand" classes. This has a similar mouth piece as the egg butt, but has "hunter" D rings instead. (Not to she confused with "racing" d rings) Because of the near constant unwillingness to give to the bit and repeated finding of blood I decided to switch to the other bit I have. Keeping in mind the last time I rode Zee in this bit he refused to listen and constantly tossed his head (during a class at a show) which pushed me to buying a second bridle specifically for the bit that was specifically for not riding in. Something to notice about the bits though is the the points of the joint connecting the cheek rings to the mouth piece is wider apart on the D ring than on the egg butt. What I recently found out about the D ring as well was that this mouth piece had less movement in that it could fold perfectly in half going backwards but was closer to a mullen mouth going forwards or the way it will sit in a horses mouth. I didn't realize this when I first got the bits, but they aren't very similar at all due to these slight differences. When I went to school and free leased Zee to BF's niece I didn't think much of what she would be doing with him because she already had a horse to ride (in barrels) and figured he would be used on days the other horse was on rest and they would walk and jog around the ring. Now I have no idea what they actually did with him, but I know they used a western saddle on him. It could be that Zee learned what a shanked curb bit was for the first time last year with a semi incompetent trainer and a 9 year old girl. While this is less than ideal it could be that the stiffer bit was something Zee didn't know he wanted in a mouth piece. This could have led to the unimpressed feelings toward his wiggly eggbutt and more wanting the rigidity of the D-ring. Idk but he's much happier going in this different bit he used to hate these days than the bit he used to love so there's my piece on that