How Bits Work

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 onyour 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 givesyou whathe 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 hesaid 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 gefortable 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 gefortable 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 gemand "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 okay 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 are7 pressure points that are used when you gemunicate with a bit.


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