Introducing the Bit~share your tips

[Marsha Cassada]

I have a new driving prospect. I've been working on trust and general ground manners. I felt yesterday was a good day to introduce the bit. I did some stroking, then offered her the bit. Not much resistance and it was in. I held it there for a few seconds then asked her to drop it. Treat. I repeated this 5 or 6 times with lots of praise. I might do that for a few times, then actually put the headstall over the ears and let her wear it for a while. I did not need to put the halter on her at all, she just stood by me. She is much better with ear-handling, even allowing clipping, but I don't want to jeopardize our progress by trying to get the headstall over the ears at this point, especially as the headstall will no doubt need adjustment. I've had her 3 weeks today and she is a 4 year old shetland. Her teeth have been done since I've had her, so there should be no reason she cannot begin learning about the bit.

It is a french link bit.

I hope others will share their techniques for introducing the bit.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

My horses are given a bit that I have dipped in molasses and it only takes a couple of times and they are opening their mouths for the bit and looking forward to it. It is a bit messy tho and I have often thought I should switch to wrapping a piece of fruit leather around it (an idea I read somewhere that sounds very reasonable to me but I never seem to have any around on the days I decide its time for the first bitting) For horses with touchy ears (if I haven't gotten then past that first) I will unbuckle the headstall and refasten it once the bit is in so I don't have to pull it over the ears. Once the bit is in and the headstall adjusted I will let the horse wear it in the round pen for as long as it takes for them to stop trying to spit it out. As soon as they relax with it we are done for the day and I will repeat the excersize for as many days as it takes to have little or no reaction to the bit when it is on. I find it is a matter of them becoming accustomed to the feel and I don't use the bit for anything until the are comfortable with it in their mouths but I do let them carry it for longer and longer periods of time. With my saddle horses I would allow them to graze with it on but I prefer my minis to not ever start eating with it, bit in the mouth means its time to work and I like to set an early precedent.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

My horses are given a bit that I have dipped in molasses and it only takes a couple of times and they are opening their mouths for the bit and looking forward to it. It is a bit messy tho and I have often thought I should switch to wrapping a piece of fruit leather around it (an idea I read somewhere that sounds very reasonable to me but I never seem to have any around on the days I decide its time for the first bitting) For horses with touchy ears (if I haven't gotten then past that first) I will unbuckle the headstall and refasten it once the bit is in so I don't have to pull it over the ears. Once the bit is in and the headstall adjusted I will let the horse wear it in the round pen for as long as it takes for them to stop trying to spit it out. As soon as they relax with it we are done for the day and I will repeat the excersize for as many days as it takes to have little or no reaction to the bit when it is on. I find it is a matter of them becoming accustomed to the feel and I don't use the bit for anything until the are comfortable with it in their mouths but I do let them carry it for longer and longer periods of time. With my saddle horses I would allow them to graze with it on but I prefer my minis to not ever start eating with it, bit in the mouth means its time to work and I like to set an early precedent.

I like the idea of buckling the headstall instead of going over the ears! Thanks for that tip!

 

[hobbyhorse23]

With Turbo I did almost exactly as you but with the addition of using clicker training to get him to reach for it on his own. We started by targeting the bit (bumping it with his nose) then progressed to lipping it, then mouthing it, then taking it in his mouth. Within a few minutes he'd learned to reach out and take the bit and hold it quietly until I clicked, at which point he'd let go of it and I'd give him his treat. He was already comfortable with having things pulled over his ears so the next time I slipped it on, clicked, then immediately took it off again and we quit for the day. The next day we went almost immediately to that stage and proceeded on from there. I was going to let him simply wear the bit and get used to it but he gets a little obsessive about things if left alone to think about them and the bit turned out to be no exception. The longer I left him with it the more he tried to spit it out, so I changed plans on the fly and started running him through his learned behaviors (pivoting, lateral work off my body language, etc.) to distract him. That worked beautifully and as a bonus he got used to chewing with the bit in. For another few weeks I simply had him wear the bit during our normal work but didn't use it at all; when I felt he was ready we did flexing lessons teaching him to give to pressure on the bit and from there it was easy as he'd clearly transferred the cues I'd taught him off the halter and lead to the bit and he was ready to work off it.

I was actually so pleased with the results of this program that I went back and re-trained Kody the same way. He loves taking his bit now and works much better laterally!

Leia