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Any tool, including your hands and your voice, can be harmful if used inappropriately. The whole point of this discussion is proper and appropriate use of a given tool.
Actually, what I was trying to point out is that twitching is not the benign procedure people often think it is and it practially, IMO, should be reserved for when absolutely necessary. Someone's "necessary" may be to keep them safe for a trainable issue like clipping or abused to the extreme as I have seen it done to apply fly spay on a horse that now is completely and incorrectably head shy because his previous owner thought nothing of it until she was unable to manage him any longer and sold him off.
This is not a debate about the correctness or not of twitching a horse. I think it is a valid and useful tool that promotes a handler's safety. To each their own and you must do what works best for you but as you said the point of the discussion is proper and appropriate use of a given tool. For those that don't think it causes pain may not realize the principal of why twitching works in the first place. A horse that can be twitched by hand has a much lower pain tolerance that those who must be twitched using the device but the reason it works is due to pressure yes, and pressure that is enough to incite a pain response for that individual horse in order for the endorphins to be released which has the calming effect. It's not my anthropomorphic idea of what a horse goes through, just the facts, substantiated by veterinarians and research. Although I did giggle to learn that some of you love your horses so much you twitched yourselves to see if it hurt. Kind of sweet actually that some would care enough to do that.
: However, we don't have the same nervous system as our equines so it's really not a valid test to try it on ourselves. For those interested in reading the whole article there is a link at the end.
Should I use a twitch?
A twitch applies pressure to the sensitive nerve endings in the nose. This inflicts pain, which initially distracts the horse from either noticing or responding to an unpleasant procedure. It usually particularly inhibits movement and kicking. That's why it is often used to restrain mares for breeding. The pain causes a release of natural analgesic chemicals in the brain--known as endogenous opiates or endorphins--which then likely mask both the pain at the nose and any discomfort elsewhere. You will see that after a few minutes, the horse might get a droopy lip and drowsy, glazed-looking eyes. This drowsiness corresponds to high levels of endorphins in the blood. After about 10-15 minutes on the twitch, most horses become agitated. Some seem to explode or "blow the twitch." This behavior corresponds to lowering blood levels of endorphins, perhaps because the brain has temporarily depleted its supply.
Some horses seem to grow in their dislike of the twitch, while others don't. This might be related to how the twitch is applied and whether or not the twitch was removed during the relaxed drowsy (positive) state or whether they reached the obviously unpleasant point of "blowing the twitch."
So for mildly painful, brief procedures, a twitch will give some added security. For most ordinary examinations and treatments, I recommend teaching the horse to comply as we have described, rather than twitching. If a twitch is used, it is useful to accustom the horse to the twitch in practice sessions. These sessions will allow the operators to more effectively learn how to apply the twitch smoothly to the individual horse, as well as to learn the horse's typical behavioral response and the duration of twitch tolerance. Practice sessions will allow a calm and unhurried approach, which will maximize the possibility that it becomes a tolerable emergency procedure.
http://www3.vet.upenn.edu/labs/equinebehav...AQ/terrible.htm
