Touch A Prince Bitting Investigation

The acupuncture has continued to help reduce the nerve pain in my left leg, and today was my best day of 2016 so far!  I went out to the horses this afternoon in the near sixty degree temperature (in January!) to turn Highboy out with the gelding herd for some romping and playing.  Within minutes he was sweaty and happy.  Dewey wanted to go out to play, too, but he had to wait until this evening since he goes out for turnout with the herd at night.  It's all part of teaching the young horses how to behave themselves and be mannerly in a group. 

While Highboy's friends carefully ignored his desperate efforts to engage in horse wrestling, I took Tough A Prince out and groomed him.  Winter at the big hay bales is treating him well, he has gotten quite plump.  It's fun to see a nicely rounded thoroughbred butt!  It's one of the nice things about having an adult horse who doesn't feel the need to grow an inch taller every month and run around in his paddock constantly.  After I groomed him I was able to put my very lightweight jumping saddle on him.  He was just a little cinchy, and once he realized we were back to the old routine he settled down just fine.  He also looked good in his leather halter with his shiny new Equine Comeback Challenge nameplate, but he wasn't interested in holding still enough to model it for photos this afternoon.

I did remember the very difficult time Touch A Prince had with the bit when I rode him before I was laid up with back problems for the month.  I wanted to experiment a little today to see what he thinks of a totally different kind of bit.  The first bit I tried on him is in the bottom of the photo.  It had three pieces in his mouth, and he despised it.  The second was a regular eggbutt snaffle, the middle bit in the photo, with just two pieces in his mouth.  He tolerated this better, but still hated it.  Today I changed it up, and I tried a mullen mouth eggbutt snaffle, as shown in the top of the photo.  There was only one solid piece in his mouth, and it was coated in white plastic.

Before riding I did do a brief oral exam on him, just to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious.  I felt the bars of his mouth, the section where there is no teeth and where the bit rests.  One of the excellent equine veterinarians I worked for would always do this type of oral exam when we did a prepurchase appointment.  Carefully feeling the bars of the horse's mouth will reveal whether the horse has any injuries there, including ulcers, lacerations, gum irritations, or even bone spurs.  I also take a good look and feel of the tongue.  It's surprising how often I find tongues with abrasions, old scars, or even large damaged areas.  These issues generally come from putting harsh implements in a horse's mouth.  Fortunately there was nothing wrong with Touch A Prince's mouth. 

I had a very different horse today than I did the previous rides when I had tried bits.  He let me place this plastic bit in his mouth, and he made quite a show of rolling it around on his tongue then swishing it side to side like a rinse with listerine mouthwash.  I suspect he was testing it out to see what it felt like from all angles.  After a minute or two he decided that it was acceptable.  His mouth then became totally quiet and he walked sedately down to the arena with me with his lips closed and relaxed.  I also had brought his hackamore bridle with us just in case after a few minutes he decided he didn't like the bit after all. 

I was only able to ride for about fifteen minutes before my leg went from tingling to hurting, but most of the ride Touch A Prince was happy with that bit in his mouth.  I did just a little bit of leg yielding at the walk to both the left and the right, and when I had a shorter rein he did brace against my hand and nod his head exaggeratedly tucking his chin a few times.  This maneuver of jerking his chin towards his chest is called getting "behind the bit" in dressage terms, or "in the bridle" in western terms.  Either way it's something a horse does when he is trying to avoid the bit contacting some part of his mouth. Because he was mostly ok with the bit I don't yet know if he is doing this out of habit because he thinks it is expected of him, or if this bit bothers him, too.  He never tucks his head like that when I'm riding him bitless, so that is something I'll investigate further. 

I suspect he is extra sensitive, and the shape of the bars of his mouth may be ridged in a peak that just makes anything touching it hurt as soft tissue is compressed against a blade-like bone shape.  That would fit with what he has told me so far regarding bits.  A mullen mouth bit sits directly on the tongue, and doesn't really hit the bars of the mouth unless the horse has a very thin tongue or the bit is pulled on in a certain way.  I have a few more types of mullen mouth bits I'll let him test out, and ultimately his opinion is the one that matters.  If he decides he likes one we'll use that, if he absolutely doesn't want anything in his mouth, then we just go bitless.  In the meantime I'm grateful he's so well behaved and quiet with me as I work back up to more active riding.