Does your gaited horse resist contact with the bit, rush off into a pace or hard trot or curl up behind the bit to avoid contact? 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 contact or 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 horse with elastic fingers and relaxed arms.

I have tried all of these methods with my naturally gaited horses in my pursuit to develop smooth gaits like flat walk, running walk, fox trot and saddle rack. Not all of these methods produced the same results.

Granted, there is more to riding a gaited horse to smooth gaits than just the choice of bit how to use the hands. However, this post touches on the concept of bit acceptance versus bit avoidance. For me this meant increasing my riding awareness and noticing how my actions affect my horse. When a method led to the dreaded pace or hard trot, I changed my method until smooth gaits and a happier horse appeared.

What is the difference between bit acceptance and bit avoidance?

I’ve noticed when my naturally gaited horses are mentally and physically relaxed they offer smoother gaits. A comfortable mouth plays a big part in this relaxation.

Bit acceptance for naturally gaited horses leads to relaxation not just in the mouth. When the mouth (lower jaw, tongue, and poll) is relaxed and pain free, the body relaxes leading to smoother gaits.

Naturally Gaited Tennessee Walking Horse Flat Walk

What are 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

If the horse has a painful experience by the rider’s hands or with a harsh or ill-fitting bit, the horse becomes defensive to protect itself. Resistance sets in.

What are signs of bit avoidance?

• 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
• Horse is difficult to bridle

Bit avoidance creates tension and resistance―the absence of relaxation. Bit resistance effects the quality of movement. The horse becomes braced in its mind and body―especially its back. For the naturally gaited horse, a tense back leads to pace, hard trot, a horse that can run away and avoid contact with the bit. 

What can cause bit avoidance?

• Tight nose bands
• 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

Following the natural head and neck motion

In 1988, I was drawn to the horse-rider connection through dressage and began taking lessons with my non-gaited horse. My instructor helped me select a mild snaffle bit and fit the width and contours of my horse’s mouth. She taught me to follow my horse’s natural head and neck motion at a walk and canter.

At a trot, the horse’s head and neck remained stationary. However, I had to learn how to post (rise and be seated with my body) at each step of the trot 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 of the post. This would have led to bit avoidance.

To help me gain awareness of my hands and to protect my horse’s mouth as I learned how to post, my ingenious instructor added twine to the pommel rings of my saddle. I placed my pinky fingers in the twine which notified me each time my hands moved with each rise of the post. Each time my pinky fingers were pulled by the twine it reminded me to relax my arms down with each post. I was surprised how often my pinky fingers were pulled!

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. Just how does a dressage rider accommodate the natural head nod at a flat walk, running walk, and fox trot?

Dressage taught me to follow the natural head and neck motion of the horse and dressage teaches bit acceptance. 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. I had to become aware of the cause and effect I had on my horse and make adjustments to develop the smooth gaits I desired.

Hand position 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? I had no idea. Years of German dressage lessons taught me to keep my hands low and follow the natural head and neck motion of the walk and the canter. A high hand position was frowned upon.

Then I acquired my first naturally gaited horse as a three-year-old. There wasn’t anyone near me who taught dressage for the naturally gaited horse, so I began to take lessons from a TWH rail class instructor. I was taught to hold my hands low and still at my sides as my horse’s head nodded up and down. Adding to the low fixed hand position are the bits used. Most use curb bits and ride with low fixed hands. I gave this a try hoping it would bring us to smooth gaits.

The low fixed hands with a snaffle or a curb bit didn’t help us achieve smooth gaits, so I gave up on that approach and began to ride on a long floppy rein.

Riding without contact

In some ways it was easier to ride a naturally gaited horse on a long floppy rein than it is to ride with contact and follow the natural head and neck motion. Riding without contact seemed to avoid many of the bit avoidance issues. However, to ride exclusively on a long floppy rein, I struggled with communication and balance without contact, so I returned to the dressage I knew.

Dressage teaches the horse how to stretch into a long rein and be released onto a loose rein in self-carriage, yet it begins from contact and bit acceptance. Then the horse is released to moments of a long rein stretch.

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.

Another kind of dressage

As a German dressage rider, I had thought all dressage was the same until I watched a DVD called Classical versus Classique. In this DVD, French dressage and German dressage theologies are contrasted and demonstrated. Impressed with the results, I became an avid DVD, book and cyber student of French dressage masters and applying what I learned with my naturally gaited horses.

This study has helped me become aware of the cause and effect my hands have had with my horses. Instead of seeing bit resistance as my horse’s problem, I began to notice what I was doing that lead up to resistance. I began to listen to what my horse was saying through their response. Then I offer ways to bring my horse back to relaxation and balance.

Applying French dressage with my naturally gaited horse opened my eyes and awareness to how my hands directly affect my horse’s comfort and relaxation leading to smooth gaits and why the low fixed hand position seemed to lead us to tension, bracing, anxiety, pacing, step pacing, pace canter, and runaway hard trot.

Dressage became a partnership with my horse and a two-way communication. I asked with my aids and listened to my horse’s response. Soon we were reaching relaxation and balance leading us to smoother gaits.

The hand has many parts to communication

Years of riding German dressage had taught me a gentle use of my hands. Yet French dressage has taught me the hand has many parts and uses for communication I had never known.

French dressage taught me a different way to hold the reins and use my fingers, wrists and elbows. Each rein is held by the thumb and index finger to prevent the reins from slipping longer. Together the thumbs and index fingers provide a light, even contact with a snaffle bit. The middle, ring and pink fingers can vibrate on a rein to soften the jaw. The turning of the wrists upward with a bending of the elbows are also used in communication to ask the horse to rebalance.

The middle, ring and pink fingers are like gentle springs that follow the natural head and neck motion of the horse along with relaxed wrists and elbows. This is particularly important to encourage smooth gaits like the flat walk, running walk and fox trot.

The many parts of the hand are important elements of communication with the horse’s sensitive mouth, and great care is needed to build trust. When cueing, the elbows bend upward to raise the hand positioned higher. This makes contact with the less sensitive corners of the horse’s lips instead of pressing the bit into the tongue and bars which cause pain.

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

What working in hand teaches

• The rider learns how to communicate with the horse’s mouth
• 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
• The rider can see the response and effect these exercises have on the horse

These in hand exercises have been teaching me and my horse a a two-way communication with each other. I learn how to communicate with my horse just as my horse seeks to understand it. As I become clearer and more consistent with my hands, it clarifies communication to my horse and builds a better partnership.

Taking it to the saddle

Everything I have been applying in hand translates directly to the saddle. While in the saddle I begin at a halt, then a slow walk, then I increase the tempo only as long as relaxation is maintained.

The horse learns to follow the snaffle and the rider learns to follow the horse’s natural head and neck motion with elastic fingers and relaxed wrists and elbows. This helps the horse remain comfortable.

Following the natural head and neck motion helps the horse trust the rider’s light contact and accept gentle contact with the bit. If the horse begins to feel tension or pain, then the horse develops self-protection, resistance, and bit avoidance.

Is it easy to learn all this? No. Is it worth it? Yes! My horses are happier. They enjoy our time together. And best of all their gaits are smooth! No more pace and hard trot!

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. The goal is 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 with elastic fingers, relaxed wrists, and elbows.

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 naturally gaited horses to maintain relaxation in the mouth and jaw which leads to smoother 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.

Questions?

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