How Bits Work

by Barbara Torres, Owner, eBridles

    Imagine what it would be like to have your horse's bit in your mouth with him pulling on the reins!  What does he want?  Is he hungry?  Thirsty?  Afraid?  Why is he jerking on your mouth?  I'm sure you would be more than a little confused.  That same confusion is felt by your horse every time you ride.  For him it's trial and error.  You ask for something.  He gives you what he thinks is the right answer.  If it is the correct response everyone is happy.  If it's the wrong response you ask again, maybe with a little more emphasis.  And then you ask again and again. 

    Think of it this way.  You are in a foreign airport and a man in a uniform walks up to you, holds out his hand and says something in a foreign language with a firm but agreeable tone.  You have no idea what he said so you shake hands with him and ask, "do you speak English?"  He jerks his hand away, seems irritated and makes his request again slightly louder and firmer.  You shrug your shoulders and stare at him unable to figure out what he is asking you to do.  He is getting more irritated now and he thinks you are hard of hearing so, he makes the same demand in a much louder voice and points to your purse.  "Ah," you think, "he wants a bribe.  I've read about these guys."  So you open your purse and offer him what seems like a nice amount of money in his countries' currency.  Wrong!  Now he is waving his arms, shouting about the money, shaking his head and screaming the same demand in a voice loud enough to cause a huge scene in the airport.  A man runs up to you and says, "Show him your passport and ticket."  You do so and he looks at it, walks off and makes the same demand of another person in the airport.

    Every time you try something new with your horse, buy a new gadget or a new bit, you seem to him like that guy in the airport screaming in a foreign language.  Just because some other horse somewhere else knows what that bit is for, doesn't mean your horse knows.  It's a new language to him so he has to guess what you want.  It's your job to teach him the correct response and not just keep on asking in a louder and louder voice with your hands or spurs.  A lot of this confusion can be avoided by you learning how the bits work in his mouth and what he feels.

Pressure

    Pressure and its more severe version, pain, are what make your horse go and stop.  One of the first things a young horse learns is to move away from pressure instead of pushing back which is what their instinct tells them to do.  With a young horse you say, "Back" and press on his chest and apply pressure to the nose of his halter and you expect him to back up.  All his instincts tell him to lean on the halter and your hand.  The way he learns to give to pressure is to make it more comfortable for him to back up than it is to lean on your hand and the halter.  You increase the pressure and when he gives you the slightest movement in the correct direction you release the pressure and his reward is the release, the praise in your voice and the fact that he is more comfortable for having moved backwards.  With repetitive pressure and reward he soon takes 2 steps back and later 3 or 4 steps and later does it without the pressure with just the command "Back".  Over time with lots of patience and rewards he learns to back and he is the better, smarter horse for learning this new skill.  Another version of this exercise takes 1/2 the time and begins with you punching him in the chest with your fist, jerking on the halter and yelling at him until he is so fearful he backs away quickly from the pain and the crazy person(you).  The lesson he has just learned is that you will hurt him if he does not get away quickly.  This lesson is often repeated on young horses when the "crazy person" tries to catch them in the pasture.

    Bits also use the theory of pressure and its more severe version, pain.  The pressure or pain is inflicted by not only your hands, but also your legs, your seat, your spurs and your crop (the aids).  When your hands say "Whoa" and your legs and other aids say "Go" your can imagine the confusion in the horse.  For our purposes here we are going to learn the pressure points of the different bits and how they work to apply pressure or inflict pain.

    Pressure is applied via the bit from your hands depending upon the construction and action of the bit and the way it is attached to the bridle or headstall.  (See my eBay guide "Buying and Fitting a New Bit for Your Horse" for a thorough description of how bits are made and how to buy a good bit.)  There are 7 pressure points that are used when you communicate with a bit.

• Lips
• Tongue
• Curb or Chin Groove
• Bars
• Palate
• Poll
• Nose

    The Lips and corners of the mouth are soft and sensitive.  With a direct pressure bit (one pound of pressure for one pound of pull with the hands) the lips and corners of the mouth take most of the pressure.  Depending on the size and type of mouthpiece you may also apply pressure to the bars, tongue and palate but generally it is the lips that feel the most pressure.  When the corners of the mouth and lips are abused by harsh, pain inflicting hands, the sensitiveity lessens and you may see what people refer to as a "hard mouth".  The horse will often lean on the bit in attempt to lessen the harshness of the pressure.  We often respond by "sawing the mouth" or we buy a bit that has more pressure points, commonly known as a "bigger bit".  It's not really larger, but it applys pressure to more areas.

     Bits with purchase (the length of the cheek above the mouthpiece where the bridle attaches) and shank (the length of the cheek below the mouthpiece where the reins attach) that are combined with a chinstrap or curb chain are in the curb family of bits.  When the hands pull back, the bit rotates in the mouth pressing down on the tongue and bars and the curb strap presses up on the chin groove.  The purchase rotates forward and the shanks rotate back toward the hands and the pressure is felt through the bridle on the poll. This rotation is called leverage and what it means to your horse is an increase in the amount of pressure he feels.  Now, when you pull back with 1 pound of pressure your horse feels 2, 3 or more pounds on this lips, tongue and bars depending on the length of the shank and more pressure on this chin groove and the poll depending on the tightness of the curb chain and the length of the purchase.  The longer the shank or purchase, the more pressure is converted by your one pound of pull. A big jerk on the bit with a long shank can send an incredible amount of pain through the horse's mouth and head.  This can make it really hard for him to relax to learn or respond.

    Pressure on the palate can come from bits with curved or ported mouthpieces, broken mouths used with long shanks causing a "nutcracker" effect or very thick mouthpieces like rubber or plastic used on a breed with a large tongue or low palate.  This leaves very little room in the mouth and the bit bumps the palate all the time because the mouth can't accommodate the size of the bit or the port. Since we have taught the horse to move away from pressure, he therefore pops his head up each time the port or the nutcracker hits his palate.

    Pressure on the nose comes from combination bits that employ a noseband attached to the bit or the use of a tie down, standing martingale, mechanical hackamore, mecate or bosel.  When correctly attached and a curb strap is added, these nose pieces sit on the very sensitive soft parts of the nose and pressure can be applied on the nose to an incredible degree of pain.  Many horses that fight a bit will go nicely in a hackamore because the degree of control is greatly increased by the amount of pressure that can be applied.  Many people misunderstand this and put hackamores in the hands of children and unschooled riders with the mistaken idea that it's less pain for the horse when the truth is exactly the opposite.

    The bars of the horse are essentially his bare gums.  There is an empty space between his front teeth and the rear molars where the gums are smooth and bare.  This is where the bit rests in his mouth when no pressure is applied.  If the horse has wolf teeth, parrot mouth or is in need of dental care the position of the bit can be an additional source of pain or irritation.  Most horsemen have their young horses mouths checked before putting them into training.  The vet may want to pull the wolf teeth or float (grind and shape) the molars.  This should be checked annually for the life of the horse and any kind of foul smell from their breath or nose should be an immediate call to the vet.  This could be a serious abscess or bad tooth and requires medical treatment.

    The curb groove or chin groove on the bottom of the horses jaw is where the curb strap or chain lies when attached to the bit.  If the curb chain is hanging loose when the bit rotates it will not engage (no pressure is applied to the curb groove).  If the chain is attached really snug then the slightest pressure on the bit causing the smallest amount of rotation will engage the curb chain and the pressure will be felt on the curb groove.  Increase to slightly more pressure and the jaw and tongue are squeezed between the bit and the curb chain.  Pull back on the shanks more and the bars and tongue are crushed by the bit and the curb groove is squeezed tightly by the chain.  You now have a "death grip" on your horse's mouth and how he reacts to this amount of pain depends on the amount of trust he has in you that it will let up soon or the amount of fear he has that if he protests it will get worse.  In a mechanical hackamore with a tight curb chain and long shanks, the crushing takes place between the curb groove and the sensitive parts of the nose.

    The degree to which each different mouthpiece and each cheek and shank in combination apply pressure and the way horse reacts is the wisdom of the ages.  Going to a horse trainer may offer you some insight but, most trainers have one or two bits they understand and if the horse doesn't like or fit those, its tough luck.  Catalogs will sometimes offer suggestions on how to use certain bits but, with our society becoming so litigious, most retailers are wary of offering information and figure the buyer should know what they are doing.  One place you can go to get expert, free, help is the Myler Company.  Myler bits are distributed by Toklat in the US and any Toklat dealer can get you a free brochure that explains the Myler system.  Myler has also produced a video and a very helpful small book that explains how their bits work and what each of their unique designs will do for and to your horse.  To learn more about how to examine and buy a good bit, see my guide entitled "Buying and Fitting a New Bit for Your Horse" here on eBay.

    Finally,  it is true that a bit itself is not inherantly gentle or harsh, it's the hands of the rider that determines the amount of pressure or pain the horse feels.  But knowing this, I am still amazed that many of the people who pride themselves on having "good hands" are the ones buying double twisted wires and bicycle chain bits.  In the end, no matter what bit you buy you want to make sure you take the time your horse needs to learn that new "foreign language" so that he can understand what you are asking of him and give you what you want.