Bombers

About Bombers bits

Bombers bits come from South Africa. Pete “Bomber” Nel first made bits for his own polocrosse horses in Rhodesia, carried on after his family moved to South Africa in 1980, and formally started Bombers Equestrian Equipment there in 2001. The stops and turns of the polocrosse field were his testing ground.

Most Bombers mouthpieces are blue sweet iron. The blue fades to a brownish grey as the metal oxidises, and that oxidising is what encourages salivation. Bomber Blue is a separate material, developed for horses that do not like metal, and the Moulded range puts a flexible synthetic over a stainless steel cable core.

Bombers group their mouthpieces by what they do with the tongue:

• Happy Tongue is a solid, ported mouthpiece for maximum tongue relief, curved to be softer on the bars. Bombers call it their most successful design and recommend it for young horses and any horse showing tongue sensitivity.
• Control Plate is set at 45 degrees to follow the tongue. It suits a horse that accepts tongue pressure, or one that throws its head up in a snaffle.
• Elliptical is stronger than the Control Plate because it concentrates pressure on a smaller area. It is meant for a horse that pushes the bit with its tongue.
• Buster Roller has a shortened link with a roller, which makes it sharper than a conventional link. Bombers suggest it for a horse with a low head carriage that leans on the bit.

We stock them on snaffle cheeks such as loose rings and full cheeks, and on 2.5 ring gags, Pelhams, Kimblewicks and Williams cheeks. Our article on what a universal bit does explains how the ring cheeks add poll pressure. The Moulded Preferred Contact bits have their own page.

Many of the metal Bombers bits can go on our 30 day Bit Bank trial. Bomber Blue and Moulded bits are sold outright.