Pathophysiology of bit control in the horse

Abstract

Summary The use of one and often two bits, in traditional or normal horsemanship, constitutes a welfare problem, a hazard to health, and a handicap to performance. u • The bit method of control is invasive, physiologically contraindicated and counterproductive • A bit often causes discomfort, pain and injury • It can be responsible for a horse's poor attitude to exercise and many behavioral problems in all types of equitation from dressage (e.g., headshaking) to racing (e.g., dorsal displacement of the soft palate). Horses are happier in a bridle without a bit • The bit can be the sole cause of abnormal inspiratory noise (stridor) at exercise • To govern the speed of a racehorse using a bit and traction on both reins depends on poll flexion, which obstructs the airway and leads to premature fatigue, poor performance, and asphyxia-induced pulmonary edema (“bleeding”). Measurement of jowl angle is recommended as an indicator of upper airway patency • A bit triggers digestive tract reflexes, which are physiologically opposed to rapid breathing. Horses are being expected to eat and exercise simultaneously, two activities that are mutually exclusive • As the bit interferes with breathing and as breathing is coupled with locomotion, the bit also interferes with locomotion. • A horse that leans on the bit loses self-carriage, and becomes heavier on the forehand. Its stride becomes shorter and, therefore, slower. In addition, greater stress is placed on the tendons, ligaments, joints and bones of the forelegs. In racing this factor, coupled with fatigue, renders breakdowns and fatal accidents more likely • Resistance to the bit causes rigidity of the neck, which is incompatible with optimum performance, and also reduces the effectiveness of some important energy conservation mechanisms. Human athletes need complete freedom of their neck • The horse is an obligatory nose-breather. At exercise, a horse's lips should be sealed and mouth closed so that no air enters the digestive tract. A bit breaks this seal and the mouth is often open • “Nonacceptance of the bit” includes problems such as buccal ulcers, wolf tooth sensitivity, pain during eruption of cheek teeth, star fractures of the mandible, lacerations of the lip, tongue and gingiva, open mouth, tongue movement, tongue behind the bit, tongue over the bit, ‘swallowing the tongue,’ ‘flipping the palate,’, headshaking, fighting the bit, chewing on the bit, ‘bit between the teeth,’ boring, pulling and bolting • The safety of rider and horse are imperiled when justifiable resentment of bit-induced pain leads a horse to take the bit between its teeth and bolt. In the practice of natural horsemanship, horses can be controlled for early schooling without a bit, and for advanced schooling with a snaffle. In this way, the above problems can be either solved or minimized, respectively. A new design of bitless bridle, that is neither a hackamore nor a bosal, permits control by painless pressure on the skin behind the ear and facilitates the humane, non-invasive and natural approach, even for advanced schooling.