Does your gaited horse rush off into a pace or hard trot or dip its nose behind the vertical? Teach your horse bit acceptance and discover relaxation and smoother gaits.

Here’s my story.

Bit Acceptance vs Bit Avoidance for the Naturally Gaited Horse

By Jennifer Klitzke

There are many ways to ride a naturally gaited horse. Some ride with a bit or bitless bridle on a loose rein. Others ride in a curb or snaffle bit two-handed with contact. Some ride with low, fixed hands and others follow the natural head and neck motion of the naturally gaited horse.

If you ask me, I have tried all of the above in my quest to learn how to ride my head nodding naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horses and fox-trotting mare. Then I discovered my role in the cause and effect on quality smooth gait.

What is the difference between bit acceptance and bit avoidance?

I’ve noticed when naturally gaited horses are relaxed in their minds and bodies are when they offer smooth gaits. Bit acceptance for naturally gaited horses leads to relaxation not just in the mouth. When the mouth, (lower jaw, tongue, and poll) are relaxed and pain free, the body relaxes and that leads to smoother gaits.

Bit avoidance creates tension and resistance―the absence of relaxation. For the naturally gaited horse, if the mouth feels pain or is resistant, the lower jaw and poll tense and the horse becomes tense in its mind and body―especially its back. A tense back leads to more pacing, hard trotting, and a horse that runs away from contact. 

Signs of bit acceptance in the naturally gaited horse

• Horse is easy to bridle
• Horse accepts and follows a light contact with a snaffle bit
• Horse reaches and follows the bit when the rider offers longer reins
• Horse easily repositions its head and neck when the rider regathers the reins
• Horse is relaxed in the mouth and lower jaw, tastes the bit and swallows
• Horse is flexible side to side and can be ridden on the bit without getting behind the vertical
• Horse is relaxed and offers smoother gaits

Naturally Gaited Tennessee Walking Horse Flat Walk

Signs of bit avoidance in the naturally gaited horse

• Horse is difficult to bridle
• Horse throws its head upward or side to side to escape the bit contact
• Horse draws its head behind the bit to escape the bit contact
• Horse gaps its mouth to escape the bit contact
• Horse roots and snaps the reins out of the rider’s hands
• Horse lifts its tongue over the bit to escape pain
• Horse is tense in the jaw
• Horse grinds its teeth
• Horse gets tense and quick when contact is made with the bit
• Horse is tense and rushes into pace or hard trot

What causes bit avoidance?

• Tight nosebands
• Harsh bits
• Ill-fitting bits
• Abrupt rein movements of the rider’s hands
• Driving the horse forward into closed hands
• Riding with low fixed hands
• Pulling back on the reins
• Sharp teeth that need to be floated
• Riding with head setting and head restraining devices

Position of the rider’s hands and its effect on the naturally gaited horse

Low fixed hands

Did you know the position of your hands make a difference in how a bit acts in the horse’s mouth? Many riders of gaited horses are taught to hold their hands low and fixed at their sides. Yet, low, fixed hands position the bit to press on the horse’s sensitive tongue. This can lead to bit avoidance.

Higher hand position and why

Dressage is another way to ride a naturally gaited horse. Dressage teaches a rider how to communicate with the horse through rein, leg, seat, and weight aids.

Each hand holds a rein, and together they provide a light, steady, even contact with a snaffle bit. This is an important element of communication with the horse’s mouth and great care is needed to build trust with the horse. The mouth is sensitive. Hands positioned higher make contact with the less sensitive corners of the horse’s lips instead of pressing on the sensitive tongue and bars.

The rider teaches the horse how to accept and follow a light snaffle bit contact, beginning in hand, and then in the saddle.

Following the natural head and neck motion

The horse learns to follow the snaffle and the rider learns to follow the horse’s natural head and neck motion. Why? So, the horse remains comfortable. This following motion helps the horse trust the rider’s hands and continue to accept the contact. If the horse begins to feel tension or pain, then the horse develops self-protection and bit resistance. Is it easy to learn all this, no. Is it worth it, yes! My horses are happier. They want to be ridden. We enjoy our time together. And best of all their gaits are smooth! No more pace and hard trot!

My story: Insights from a non-gaited dressage rider for the smooth gaited horse

In 1988, I was drawn to the horse-rider connection through dressage and began taking lessons with my non-gaited horses. My instructor taught me to follow my horse’s head and neck motion at a walk and canter. At a trot, the horse’s head and neck remain stationary, so my arms remained stationary. However, I learned how to post the trot with my body while keeping my hands in one place. This wasn’t easy. If my hands moved with the motion of my body, it would bump my horse in the mouth with each rise and fall. This would have led to bit avoidance.

Many school horses develop bit avoidance since they introduce beginner riders who haven’t learned how to keep their hands quiet. These school horses become hard mouthed and bit resistant as a result. Hard-mouthed horses become this way as a means of self-preservation.

In 2007, I became a rider of naturally gaited horses, I am blessed with a smooth ride and no need to post. However, naturally gaited horse breeds, such as Tennessee Walking Horses, Spotted Saddle Horses, and Missouri Fox Trotters have a natural head and neck motion at a walk, canter, flat walk, running walk, and fox trot.

Dressage taught me to follow the natural head and neck motion of the horse. With a naturally gaited horse, there are more gaits with a head and neck motion to follow with a light contact. Is it easy? No. Yet it has been a journey worth pursuing.

For me, following the natural head and neck motion of flat walk, running walk, and fox trot has been the hardest part in training naturally gaited horses using dressage. Why? Because I had to become aware of the cause and effect I had on my horses and then change my riding habits to benefit my horses.

How I became aware of bit acceptance and bit avoidance

As a German dressage rider, French dressage challenged my paradigm. Most profoundly, is in a DVD called Classical versus Classique which contrasts and demonstrates French dressage and German dressage theologies using the same horses and students.

Before watching this DVD, dressage was a method to produce results with my horses. After watching this DVD, dressage became a partnership of relaxation and balance with my horses that actually produced greater results as a benefit. My dressage paradigm changed.

I became a DVD, book and cyber student of French dressage masters and began adopting work in hand exercises with my naturally gaited horses. This study helped me become aware of my cause and effect to my horses. Instead of seeing bit resistance as my horse’s problem, I began to notice what I was doing to encourage resistance. I began to listen to what my horse was trying to say. Then offers ways to bring my horse back to relaxation and balance.

Instead of correcting the bit avoidance, I began teaching bit acceptance, beginning with working in hand.

What working in hand teaches the naturally gaited horse

• The horse learns to accept a light contact with a snaffle bit
• The horse learns to follow the bit
• The horse learns balance, how to carry its own head and neck and not lean on the bit
• The horse learns to relax the mouth and lower jaw, and flex to each side by stretching the neck muscles

I have been learning to communicate with the horse through equal steady contact with both sides of the snaffle bit through these exercises. Together they have been developing a partnership of communication through the light snaffle bit connection.

Everything taught in hand translates directly to the saddle at a halt and then at a slow walk and then the tempo increases as the relaxation is maintained.

Through a progression of working on the ground with my horse in hand to in the saddle at a halt to a slow walk, my horse learns to trust my hands and I learn to communicate with my horse more effectively through the reins. This produces bit acceptance.

When I increase my naturally gaited horse’s tempo to the smooth gait, I began to learn how to gently follow the head nod. What I noticed most is I needed to be relaxed in my shoulders, arms and hands to effectively follow the motion.

Bit acceptance and a light contact lead to a two-way dialogue between me and my horse. I choose a gait, movement, frame, and tempo that my horse is capable of performing, and then my horse follows that choice. Then I follow my horse’s natural head and neck motion within that choice. This is not easy. Yet it has been worth it for me and my gaited horses to maintain relaxation in the mouth and jaw which helps to keep the back relaxed for more smooth natural gaits.

Bit acceptance takes time. Riding with awareness takes time. Learning new ways to ride that benefit the horse takes time. Yet learning bit acceptance pays dividends versus unlearning bit avoidance down the road which takes even more time.

It is much easier to ride a naturally gaited horse on a long floppy rein than it is to learn to ride with contact and follow the natural head and neck motion with relaxed shoulders, arms and hands. Riding on a long, floppy rein can avoid many of the bit avoidance issues, however, it isn’t dressage nor does it teach bit acceptance. Effective dressage riding with contact is essential to teach bit acceptance and a horse that is light in the bridle without getting behind the vertical.

Riding on a long flopping rein and riding on a long rein in self carriage are two different things.

There’s nothing wrong with riding on a long rein. Dressage allows for this, yet it doesn’t begin this way. Dressage teaches bit acceptance first. Then we offer moments of release to a long rein for moments of self carriage when the horse is in balance with relaxation, rhythm, and forward motion without rushing.

When my horse has developed bit acceptance and self carriage, I release the reins as long as my horse maintains the same relaxation, rhythm, and tempo as we had with contact. If my horse begins to rush off, I gather the reins and help my horse find relaxation, balance, forwardness without rushing, and rhythm.

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