Thoughts and Stuff - Bitting

I think a lot about fair treatment to animals. What is fair and reasonable care? When is abuse truly abuse and when is it a reaction to treatment that may not be understood?



A good example came from Flyin' Horse (FH) over at the Equine Mind Meld -

"Mugs can you talk about your ideas on bitting? It seems there is so much confusion out there about types of bits to use. I know you aren't supposed to use a 'bigger' bit to correct problems but what DO people use curb bits etc for? Why don't we continue to always ride in the lightest bits or even bitless if we can once the horse has been trained to it. What is the idea behind 'moving up' in bit type as the horse progresses in training?"

There is a huge misconception of what a "bigger" bit means. Bigger has to do with the horses ability to perform with less hold, less pull and more signal.

I have seen horrific damage done with snaffle bits, halters, hackamores, you name it. Strap it on a horse's head, involve a human and the potential for disaster is always there, depending on the ignorance of the user and the usee.

 It's not the equipment, it's the hands and education of the rider and the education of the horse that either causes pain or a beautiful ballet.

In order to have this conversation, I'm going to define the action behind three types of bits, the snaffle, the curb and the spade, or signal bit.

These are bits I'm comfortable discussing, but I think other riders in other disciplines can chime in here with explanations about the purpose of their bits.

If somebody wants to talk about double bitting in the dressage ring I'd love to learn.

SNAFFLE

A snaffle bit is a non-leverage bit. A ring on each side of a mouthpiece creates direct pressure from the reins to the riders hands.

A common misconception comes from thinking the broken mouthpiece, or single, double or triple-jointed mouth piece is what makes a bit a snaffle. It's not. It's all about the lack of a shank. So a mullen mouth or straight bar is still a snaffle, as long as it is on rings and not shanks.

A snaffle creates pressure on the tongue, bars, lips and sides of the mouth.

For every pound of  pressure exerted from the riders hand and equal amount of pressure goes straight to the horse's mouth. So the force ratio is 1:1.

Slap a thin, rough, twisted or wire mouthpiece between those rings and you can cause as much pain as anybody. Thinking of a snaffle as "mild" can get a rider into a lot of trouble. Even a simple, smooth, jointed snaffle can cause lots of problems.

The wonderful web site, Sustainable Dressage ( http://www.sustainabledressage.net/tack/bridle.php) explains what can happen much better than I can.

"The bit folds in the mouth when you pull on both reins (as in heavy contact). It folds around the lower jaw. It acts as a nut cracker on the bones of the lower jaw. Not only that, the V-shape of the bit will cause it to go higher in the middle and cause the link to hit the horse in the palate. Now, if you thought the bars of the lower jaw were sensitive, the palate is even more so. And no tongue can protect it. Also, the more vertical (and beyond) the head, the more the V points into the palate. The firm Herman Sprenger in Germany, who specialise in horse bits, have recently studied the bit's placement in the mouth and concluded that there's not at all as much room in the mouth as previously thought."

On the flip side, a jointed mouth piece snaffle is a great communication tool. I'm talking to my horse straight from my hands to his mouth from hand to rein to the corresponding side of the bit. There's a lot to like.

CURB

A curb bit is a leverage bit.

There are two sets of shanks on a curb. The upper, short shank, where the curb strap attaches and the lower, long shanks where the reins attach.

Any bit with shanks, regardless of the mouthpiece, is a leverage bit.

Leverage is created from the shanks and the curb strap. The pounds of pressure ratio goes up depending on the length of the shank according to the following formula:

The pivot point where the reins attach to the shank are divided by the pivot point where the curb chain attaches to the short shank.

A curb with a 5" rein shank and a 1" curb shank will generate a force ratio of 5:1. So a 20 lb. pull on the rein will result in 100 lbs. of pressure from the curb's "vise grip" onto the horse's jaw.

A curb bit works on the bars tongue and roof of the mouth through the mouthpiece, the poll by way of the shanks, the chin groove through the curb strap and with a "loose jaw" shank, the sides of the mouth and jaw.

When used appropriately, a curb increases communication by taking less action from the rider to get a response. The longer the shank, the farther back the bit has to rotate before ANY contact is made, so the horse has more warning the pressure is coming. Ideally, again with the use of educated hands, the horse learns to respond BEFORE any pressure is pt on the bit.

How tight the chin strap is adjusted also increases the pressure from the bit.

So the longer the shank, the better the communication.

Of course, if you're an uneducated jackass the longer the shank the more excruciating the pain.

Different shanks and mouthpieces cause different responses.

A solid mouth piece, like a grazing bit, is made for a horse that neck reins. When the rein touches the outside of the neck the pressure from the bit causes the horse to move away from the rein. Traditionally, the bit was designed to allow the horse to comfortably graze. It rolls back before making contact so he can stuff himself. Of course we all no better than to let our little Schnookums to eat with his bit on, don't we?

A loose jaw bit swivels where the mouthpiece attaches to the shank. This allows a slight rotation before the bit engages and the shanks can be worked independently of each other. Increased communication or pain, your choice.

Jointed mouthpieces usually accompany loose jaw bit. These mouthpieces (here's where the "snaffle" mix-up happens) increase the pressure on the bars due to the nutcracker action of the mouthpiece. In addition, the joint angle is altered by the shank lever to tip the bit downward and into the tongue. These bits are a lot harder on a horse, again, in the wrong hands, than a curb with a simple, solid, ported mouthpiece.

The shanks themselves can be straight, S-shaped or curved. The straighter the shank, the less warning before the bit engages.

So a dressage horse, ridden with contact and his face on the vertical, will be ridden in a straighter shank, and a cutting horse, ridden with almost no contact at all, and with his nose extended, will have shanks with a curve or an S to give plenty of warning that a cue is on the way.

SPADE

There's a world of difference between a leverage bit and a spade. A  leverage bit works mainly off pressure from the curb strap.The port is usually low and a chain is often used at varying degrees of tightness to increase pressure. The port size doesn't matter all that much since the pull of the reins on the shanks to the curb strap are what make things happen.

A horse in a leverage bit isn't taught to carry it. There's very little communication through the mouth, so it isn't necessary.

The old time cowboy needed to talk to his horse and use a rope, which is why riding one handed was so important.

The greater the horses ability to get in position quickly and correctly, the greater the chances of roping the cow, turning the herd or shooting his pistol in the air on Saturday night without nailing Miss Kitty.

All of the needed communication with the horse needed to come from tiny little adjustments in the reins, so the rope would stay neatly coiled, easy to get at, and keep every body safe in the mean time.

Small, tiny movements and pressures from the reins have to be taught, they can't be forced.This is where the spade bit came in.

The spade is considered a signal bit.The long (scary) tapering port, the spoon, roller and copper braces were all designed to encourage the horse to pick up his bit and carry it.

The seven or eight years needed to prepare a spade bit horse are intended to create a horse that NEVER gets yanked on.

We start our horses with the intention of making them communicate through whispers. The two-rein, the last phase before going into the full bridle, is where the horse has both a bosalito (1/4 or so inch hackamore) and the spade, so the rider has a place to go when the conversation needs to go above a whisper. If you need to yank, then get yourself to the bosalito.  The spade should NEVER EVER  be used as a punishing tool.

By the time a horse is ridden in just a spade the bit's only purpose is to receive signals from the riders hand. The horse responds to the signal, not pressure.

As far as I'm concerned, developing a spade bit horse is the most amazing, intriguing, complicated aspect of horsemanship I've ever gone for.

The reason I'm sitting out of the show pen during my five year wait to regain my amateur status is a simple one (well, other than the fact I'm really poor at the moment). I want to develop my bridle horse with no pressure on either of us. I want both of us to ride in the spade without fear and to achieve a lightness I've never created before.

This is why we go to a "bigger" bit.