Just like most of the bits we offer, the slider concept came trying to address a need. I was helping a friend who had been riding Cutting horses and moved over to riding Reiners. She had really fast hands. Fast hands and Reiners do not go together. I simply put a port in a gag shank, hopefully, to help slow her hands down, but once I rode in it, I could see a use for it in a lot of places. The gag works as a shock absorber between the horses face and the rider's hand, giving a horse time to understand what the rider is asking it to do. The slider shanks come with a horizontal bottom ring that adds to the lateral pull. Helps with more leverage than the 4.5"
