Education to the Bit Continued
Part 2: In-Hand Work with the Snaffle Bit
(If you haven’t read part 1, click here to read that now, then come back when you’re ready for part 2!)
When the horse happily self-bridles, I do not immediately begin using the bridle, whether it’s an educated horse, or one who is wearing a bit for the first time. I take the time to first acclimate the horse to the sensation of holding a bit in their mouth, and then educate the horse to the language of a bit.
Oftentimes we see trainers bridling horses for the first time and immediately lunging off of it or riding in it, as if the horse was pre-programed with the language of the bridle and will naturally accept it with time. Not so! There is absolutely nothing natural or intuitive about holding a piece of metal (or whatever material your bit is made of) in the mouth. This doesn’t mean it’s wrong or bad or mean or harmful to use a bit, but we can’t expect the horse to just accept, enjoy, or understand the bit without some patient and mindful work on our end as trainers. I can say with confidence that putting a foreign object in a horse’s mouth and immediately putting pressure on it, assuming the horse will “figure it out” is unkind and disrespectful to the nature of the horse.
The failure to properly educate horses to the bit teaches horses to retract their tongue in their mouth, lock the jaw, close the poll, and lock the neural and myofascial chains that connect the TMJ and hyoid apparatus to the horses limbs and back, thereby blocking the possibility for healthy biomechanics.
Therefore, my first step to educating (or re-educating the horse to the bit) is just having the horse wear the bridle underneath or on top of the halter or cavesson while I work with them without reins attached to the bit. This way the horse has control over where the bit sits in their mouth, how they want to hold it, and how they want to interact with it. At this stage I do not apply pressure or influence the bit at all.
I observe the horse’s licking and chewing behavior. If the horse is excessively chomping the bit, chewing the bit with teeth, or exhibiting unusual tongue behaviors, the bit may not be fitted correctly. Make sure the bit is sitting in the mouth where it is not in danger of clanking teeth– male horses have canines, which will limit how low you can put the bit. There’s little reason to fit the bit high up in the mouth– the 2 wrinkle rule you may have learned isn’t actually helpful at all, because horses have varying lip lengths. And in fact putting the bit up to stretch the lips (wrinkles for the sake of wrinkles) can create unnecessary tension in the horse’s head. At the end of the day, we want to position the bit where it’s comfortable– not hitting teeth, and not breaking the mouth seal, squeezing the lips up into a false smile. After all, the bit is there so that when we apply pressure to it and release it, we can create meaningful communication with the corners of the horse’s mouth, so it has to be fitted loosely enough for the horse to easily distinguish and return to a feeling of freedom and release when your hands are not in contact with the bit.
If your bit is fitted correctly and you still have these behaviors indicative of discomfort, it’s possible that the bit you’ve chosen isn’t the most comfortable design for your horse.
When selecting a bit, consider the shape of the mouth and structures within. These include lip length, teeth positioning/bar length, tongue width and thickness, pallet height and width. This will narrow down the types of bits worth trying, and from there observe behavior to determine if your horse wants something more or less stable.
Full cheeks and fulmers have good lateral stability. Bauchers are also quite stable bits, and have an added benefit of relieving poll pressure when tension is applied to the reins. An egg butt or D ring function virtually the same and are slightly less stable than the previously mentioned bits. Loose rings are of course the least stable of the cheek options. As for the mouth piece of the bit, if your horse seems irritated at the tongue, you might look for something with a small port or forward curvature to relieve the weight of the bit on the tongue while the bit is just sitting in the mouth. There are so many options for bits, and it really is worth experimenting to see what your horse is most comfortable in. Not only do horses vary in their anatomy, but they also very in their personal preferences, much like we do. It’s ideal if you can find a bit that works with your horse’s unique anatomy and preferences as early on as possible.
You’ll notice I’ve only mentioned snaffle bit options– this is because when starting a horse or restarting them in a bit, the snaffle is the starting point, as it’s the only style of bit that allows you to distinctly lift up to release the jaw and tongue and encourage lift in the front end.
The curb is best suited for a horse that already maintains a soft jaw and tongue and engaged thoracic sling. Bits with leverage are for horses who have already learned self carriage and collection, and their purpose it to ask the horse to lower. The snaffle lifts and the curb lowers. Without self carriage and collection, a leverage bit will pull a horse onto the forehand, and you will not have the ability to lift the horse back up with rein aids. The curb enables very subtle signaling and lowering action. Traditionally you would progress from a snaffle to a double to just the curb. In this post we will specifically focus on education to the snaffle.
When have your horse fitted in a snaffle that complements their anatomy and is comfortable, and they’re used to wearing it around without issue, you are ready to begin education to the bit.
The first thing I teach horses is a very simple jaw flexion.
Jaw flexion is also known as jaw release, jaw yielding, hyoid release, or if you want to be really simple, it’s “licking, chewing, and swallowing on cue”.
Why does this matter?
The jaw is the most innervated joint in the horse’s body.
This means there are more nerves running to and from the jaw than any other joint in the body. Even more nerves than their gigantic hip joints! This is because horses are grazing animals. Their jaw provides them with proprioception and information about about the ground they are on, the plants they are choosing to eat, and so much more. The gentle, constant chewing that horses are evolved for is part of how they calibrate themselves in the world, not to mention maintain gut health. The TMJ is also the beginning of very important myofascial kinetic lines (the superficial dorsal and ventral lines in particular), which are chains of fascia that run throughout the body, responsible for the mobility and stability of the spine, ultimately connecting the jaw to the hind legs.
If we have tension or immobility in the jaw, we also have lack of proprioception, and restricted movement in the back and hind legs. This eliminates the possibility of carrying a rider in a healthy way.
If we were to put a bit on a horse and immediately ride them in it with “normal” rein aids and no prior education, or worse, use some sort of training aid that puts pressure on the bit when they move their neck in particular ways, the horse’s natural response would be to lock the jaw to protect their skull and neck. In fact, stimulating the sympathetic nervous system in general will provoke a jaw locking response. (Any jaw clenchers reading this?) In that moment, we’ve blocked the mobility of the neck, back, pelvis, and hind legs, and the horse is destined to be on the forehand. In this situation the horse learns to flex the poll and stiffen the neck and back to protect their mouth. The tongue retracts back in the mouth to avoid frightening or painful pressure. This is hardly a description of a happy horse or enjoyable riding partner!
The tongue is just as important as the jaw, if not more, as far as nervous system regulation, posture, and biomechanics. The movement of the tongue is supported by the hyoid bones and surrounding muscles, together known as the hyoid apparatus. Two very important muscles connect the hyoid to the forehand: the omohyoid (connects tongue to shoulder) and the sternohyoid (connects tongue to sternum). If we have discomfort (in the form of pain infliction or simply the tension of unclear pressure and signals), the horse tends to protect the tongue, thereby stiffening and contracting these other muscles– this eliminates our ability to influence the posture of the sternum and shoulders to engage the thoracic sling and shift weight off of the forehand. These muscles also connect to the ascending pectorals, the diaphragm, the abdominals, all the way back to the stifles.
Using the bit, we have the opportunity to lift the forehand, open the back, and engage the weight-bearing power of the hind legs, or we can cause the horse to brace in all of those areas. Which would you choose?
Let’s properly educate the horse to the bit so they have no fear or brace against contact, and can enjoy the clarity provided through the vibrations of the reins. But this takes time, and skill— skills that are seldom taught in our face paced, goal driven horse world.
The jaw flexion begins by simply lifting the cheeks of your snaffle bit, stretching the corners of the mouth up, and lifting the bit off of the tongue. As soon as the horse begins to open the mouth, initiating the lick, chew, and swallow, you release completely and observe. The lick and chew part of it is the unlocking of the jaw, but the key is really the swallow, in which tension is released in the hyoid apparatus and related structures. You can watch the horse’s throat and under-neck for the swallow. If your horse does not swallow the first try, don’t sweat it! You are moving a foreign object in the horse’s mouth, which is not inherently relaxing, and doesn’t clearly ask the horse to swallow– this is a behavior we shape. Repeat as many times as needed, checking in with your own tongue to make sure it’s gently resting in your mouth, between loose jaws, not pushing, pulling, or twisting. When the horse finally swallows, praise them and end the session there so they can process that new information!
Here I stand in front of Faith the fjord to stimulate a simple jaw flexion. I could also stand to the side, facing the same direction as she is.
Why is the swallow so important? After all, we all are used to hearing about “licking and chewing” as a sign of release, but not swallowing. Well, if we just have licking and chewing and no swallowing, the horse will produce saliva.
Humans will salivate by just thinking about yummy food, but horses actually only salivate when they are chewing. The friction of the chewing, along with the bit in the mouth, will produce foam, as the saliva contains an enzyme called latherin (note that more latherin is produced when a horse is stressed, and their saliva contains elevated levels of cortisol). Latherin is the same substance that makes sweat foam up.
Now imagine brushing your teeth for 10 mins— all that foam and no spitting or swallowing. Very uncomfortable!
Are you starting to understand why making sure horses are swallowing their spit is important?
Swallowing saliva is not only important for the horse’s comfort, but also for their health! Horse saliva also contains calcium carbonate (the antacid found in Tums), which raises the pH of the stomach, buffering stomach acid and preventing ulcers. These molecules and processes are important to the horse’s nature as a grazing animal, who has evolved to be almost constantly chewing up fibrous forage and producing lots of saliva to help swallow and digest it.
Working with a horse that is either not salivating (which happens when the jaw is locked), or not swallowing it (when the hyoid apparatus is locked) prevents this natural process from taking place. In doing so, we alter the pH of the stomach and can further trigger the sympathetic nervous system through the restriction and prevention of natural “rest and digest” (parasympathetic) processes.
Are you starting to see how licking, chewing, and swallowing is related to nervous system health? (The nervous system being the systems in the mammalian body that keep us alive!)
The jaw flexion is a simple way that we can unlock this swallowing process, thereby allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to function correctly, as well as enabling the mobility of the neck, and shoulders, and stability of the thoracic sling, back, and hind legs, which can then act as weight bearing springs.
Early on in educating jaw flexion, you may find you have to use a considerable amount of pressure to stimulate the horse to begin chewing and swallowing. This is why it’s essential to start on the ground with upward pressure only, so the bit is coming off of the tongue and you’re only acting on the soft, stretchy corners of the mouth. (If you were to begin jaw flexions in the saddle and your horse did not respond to light pressure, you would risk putting backwards pressure on the tongue unless you are a very tall person on a very short necked pony!)
As the horse learns the process, you’ll be able to use less and less pressure. Through this process, you’ll be able to hold the reins, starting with the outside rein up over the poll, and gradually back by the atlas, middle neck, and finally the base of the neck without having to worry about acting on the tongue. We first explain it to the horse, and then they can generalize their understanding of the cue to the point where you can hold the reins from the ground as you would from the saddle. But you can’t start in that rein position without risking pulling the bit onto the tongue– that’s just physics, the direction of motion.
Here I have my outside rein up over Manchego’s atlas, enabling me to hold the reins, but only use vertical pressure. The baucher bit is lovely for this process as well, as it decreases poll pressure when pressure is applies to the reins.
As Manchego learns to release his jaw and tongue to very light pressure in the corners of his mouth, I can take the outside rein back to just in front of his withers, my hand resting on the slope of his scapula. I still hold the inside rein close to the bit.
Once your basic jaw flexion is working well, you can then add lateral flexion to the mix. Please note that lateral flexions and bending should be introduced first without a bit (in a cavesson, off of 2 whips, or really however you’d like) to ensure that the horse is able to articulate each vertebral junction in the cervical spine without bracing.
Here is some of the preparation for lateral bending, achieved off of the cavesson BEFORE the bit.
You can ask the horse to flex their neck to the inside from the bit by lifting the inside ring of the bit. When the horse softens into the bend (no brace or head tilt), try also lifting the outside ring of the bit (usually with the outside rein up over the poll or neck, like a pulley). The horse should immediately recognize this as the jaw flexion you did straight before, only now there is bend. Many horses automatically release their jaw when you use the single inside rein. Great!
Manchego learned to bend off the bit through neck extension. Neck extension is a natural reflex promoted by jaw flexions. When horses lick and chew in a natural setting, they’re usually foraging, so their neck instinctively wants to extend forward and downward. Go with your horse and release the reins entirely when they begin to respond correctly to the information you give them. You can always shape later, as I will with Manchego. I want him to be able to bend and flex at all different elevations of his head and neck.
You can also bend the horse away from you, through lifting the outside rein (like a pulley over the neck) and if the horse needs assistance releasing the jaw, bring the inside ring of the bit up towards your outside rein.
Here I’m beginning to flex Manchego slightly away from me. I will progress to a 90 degree flexion, but I wanted to show photos early on in the process of reschooling him so you can see the beauty and importance at appreciating and rewarding these little tries. Notice his floppy ears and thinking eyes.
Here You can see Faith is able to flex farther laterally, but I keep my reins close to the poll because her jaw did not unlock as easily, and I needed to take care to act upward, only on the corners of the lips.
With practice, you’ll find the horse yields the jaw to any aid on the bit, be it bending, extending, or lifting the neck.
That’s the idea! We shouldn’t have to cue the horse to release the jaw constantly and forever– the softness of the jaw and mobility of the tongue should become the norm. This gets us to a starting place to where we can really have a positive effect on the horse’s posture, biomechanics, and nervous system through our reins! Without the yielding of the jaw, pressure on the reins is leveraged onto the poll and the horse will have to use muscular effort to brace against you, which ripples down the spine, ribs, and hind legs.
We can also progress our jaw flexion into a lifting half halt by delaying the release on the reins to the point where the horse lift their withers by engaging the thoracic sling, bringing the sternum back and up. You should feel as if your reins loop down under the sternum instead of connect to the bit. The lifting half halt lifts the horse off the forehand, enabling them to carry more weight behind, or in other words, to collect. This not only improves posture and strengthens the horse, but this change in balance also makes it easier for the horse to respond to other aids you might give in hand or under saddle, such as turning or transitioning.
At is essence, the half halt is a change in balance, redistributing weight from the front end to the hind end, simply through upward action on the reins, and if you’re riding, lightening the front of the pelvis to invite the withers to come up.
We can also teach the horse to extend the neck in hand as part of our education to the bit (as mentioned in one of the captions above). I’ve described the release of the reins when the horse yields the jaw as part of teaching jaw flexion. Once you have that, you can try releasing the reins more slowly; instead of dropping the reins, try gently giving the reins forward. The horse should follow the soft feeling on your hands forward. They are then maintaining contact by opening the poll. (Consider this in contrast to typical bit education, which involves the horse evading contact by flexing the poll in response to fixed hands, confusing hands, or a training aid).
This leads into our discussion of contact.
To me, contact with respect to the bit is just the weight of the rein without slack or tension. It is the feeling of holding hands with your horse, neither pulling nor going absent. It’s a space of feeling each other. Learn to feel the horse’s thoughts in the reins and let your own willingness to go with the horse flow through the reins.
“Follow the horse and find heaven in every step”
—Nahshon Cook
You can practice walking around with your horse in contact, with the outside rein up over the lower neck, and your hand gently resting somewhere on the shoulder, and the inside rein held close to the bit, pointing up towards where a rider’s hands will be. Simply follow the horse where they go, holding hands. Take care not to tighten or loosen the reins, just go with the horse. As you walk, your feet should point forward. When you halt, you can turn your feet towards the horse. To back up, your feet can point back. This provides clarity to the horse about where to go.
Keep your elbows connected to your ribcage. You should feel as if you’re riding, only your feet are on the ground.
The closer you can mimic riding posture and aids, the more clarity your horse will have under saddle, and therefore more impulsion, relaxation, and balance too.
Have someone watch you as you learn to feel for this place of soft connection and balance not only within the horse’s body, but within your own as well.
Once you’ve learned to follow the horse through contact at the walk, and you’ve educated jaw flexions and lateral flexions at the halt, you’re ready to start flexing the jaw and neck in motion. Then you can even do your gymnastic exercises off of 2 reins connected to the bit. The possibilities are endless when you have a clearly educated foundation.
Notice how many things we’ve now taught the horse off of the bit, and yet I haven’t mentioned asking the horse to flex the poll or become “round”.
Poll flexion comes last in this process. We have to prioritize mobility of the jaw, tongue, and neck before we can ask the horse to flex the poll, otherwise we will cause the horse to brace. The worst thing we can do is teach the horse to protect their minds, bodies, or spirits against us. So we wait and we dance and we clarify for a long time.
When the horse is proficient in everything described above, namely the softening of the jaw and tongue into the reins, you can simply ask the horse to bend in, by lifting the inside rein, and resist (don’t give on the outside rein). The only place the horse has left to go there is down, so they will flex their poll. DO NOT JUMP TO THIS STEP! I hesitate to even describe the education of poll flexion in this post, because the rest is so much more important, and you’ll find that through connected work with your horse, once you have a soft, warm jaw, tongue, ears, and neck, the poll will naturally release. Asking too much too soon will cause contraction, not release. The key is not allowing the horse to close/contract the poll before the rest is soft.
At this point, we have a horse that automatically softens the jaw, tongue and neck, able to lift through the thoracic sling, and flex the hind legs in collection, all through slow, methodical education to the bridle. Imagine the first bitted ride on a horse who has already learned all of this. And you can teach the leg and weight aids bitless prior, separately. What a difference from the first rides where the horse is so frequently stressed or confused.
If you have a horse with any kind of issues under saddle, I encourage you to see where the misunderstandings are on the ground. Slow down, observe, and see not only what the horse is bringing to the interaction, but what you are as well.
