My horse is playing with his bit?

Question

When I'm riding my horse, he plays with his bit a lot. He c***s his head and waggles his tongue and it makes him difficult to control. To my knowledge, his bridle fits properly, but exactly how high should the bit be in the horses mouth? Also, I am just using a plain snaffle bit, so I'm not sure if I should use a different bit, or a different kind of bridle or something else??? What do you think would help?

Answer 1

My horse used to do that. Do you have rubber rings on the sides of the bit? It could be pinching the corners of his mouth. Also make sure that his bit sits in the groove in his teeth.

Answer 2

Well the best way to stop a horse from playing with the bit like that, is to get a flash. The best way of knowing if your bit is raised enough is if there are two wrinkles at the corners of his mouth when the bridle is on.

Answer 3

Well, to my knowledge, when your horse chews on the bit he is listening and trying to understand the aids that you are giving him, but this sounds a bit extreme. You could try giving him clearer aids or even using spurs and "bumping" him when he wags his head. My pony used to do this as well, and my trainer's advice was always to give him leg and loosen your hold on the reigns. Especially use your outside aids when you give this aid. The horse should stop this bad habit in a few weeks.

Hope that helped!

Answer 4

Do not use a harsher bit on him. to make sure the bit is the right height, make sure that on both sides of his mouth there are TWO wrinkles, or folds. If there's more, its too high and could be painful, and if its less than two, its too low and will be bumping into his teeth which would be painful too. If it does, however, fit right, then when he c***s his head, flex his head to the inside until his head is almost touching your leg, then straighten him up. do that every time and then he will stop. if he doesnt stop, you may want to check to see when he was last floated... lastly, be really light on his back because he might just be trying to say that he's uncomfortable. i hope that helped and if none of that works, i have no idea whats wrong!  

Answer 5

snaffle bits should make two wrinkles when correctly fitted one big wrinkle and 1 small wrinkle.

Try a rubber bit port. You attach it to the bit and it prevents them from sticking their tongue over the bit. Now he may play with this more but it might help. Also when he does this playing thing make sure you hold contact no matter how much he is fussing and push him forward into the bit. This will teach he still has to work even if he is being silly.

Answer 6

The bit should be sitting in the empty space in your horse's mouth where there are no teeth. If you think the horse is in pain because of the bit, try a rubber bit.  You could also try a hackamore, it does not actually go in the mouth, just over the nose.  

Answer 7

ur bit is probualy too low... it sould be high enough to make a little wrinkle in the side of his lip.... its hard to explain.. but put ur bit up a hole on each side and see if that works... if not use a stronger bit... try a snaffle with rubber bumpers and if not us a snaffle or another bit with a roller my gaited horse loves to play with his bits so i have a low port curb with a brass roller as my curb bit.... and he still rolls his touge on it but not noticeable and he leaves his head alone in line up or when hes walking.... (but i dont think u ride  in a double bridle) so try a bit with some type of  roller...

Answer 8

one he needs more training bec he is resisting. on top of that when he resist a two piece snaffel pinches so he has gotten used to it and is pushing through.go back to basics with a  side pull bridle. Also try a 3 piece snaffel that doesnt pinch as much if at all. rollers might soothe him and keep him from bracing too. The bit should be against the corner of his mouth with NO wrinkle. you dont want to "contact" his corners constantly, it can bug the horse and also go numb, they "feel" you there too.  It WILL NOT touch the teeth. If he has wolf teeth that need to be removed regardless. It is very inexpensive.  Also put a cavesson on to discourage opening his mouth. You can try a hackamore, some horses just work better with them and dont need a bit competing or pleasure.

Answer 9

The bit should be in his mouth so there is about 2 to 3 wrinkles in the corners of his mouth.

When a horse chomps at the bit, it means he is accepting what you are doing. So this could be a good thing.

Another reason why might be that it has bad habbits. What you can do is get a breastcollar and get those leather straps to hook to the bridle to the breastcollar. This will keep the horse's head steady. Also you can use a tiedown strap.

A manual way to just let them drop their head to a reasonable level is to grab both left and right reins and with your pinkies, seesaw them. Like, move one pinky in, then the other, then the other, etc.

This will help. I do it all the time. When the horse drops its head, release. Then seesaw again if the head returns back up.