04/06/2025
Allowing a young horse to wear the bit while freely grazing is just one of the ways we help a horse have a stress free start to their riding. There’s way more to it than that of corse - have a read.
Bits, Baucher, and Swallowology
I remember sitting in my graduate dysphagia course, watching modified barium swallow studies and thinking, “How the hell do horses breathe and swallow with a bit in their mouth?”
Dysphagia is pathology of swallow function– in human populations often occurring in individuals with stroke and neurological disorders. People with dysphagia are at risk for malnutrition and aspiration pneumonia. As a speech language pathologist, my dysphagia clients are typically medically complex children using alternative feeds (feeding tubes) for nutrition while learning to swallow safely. Treatment is complex– and often scary. Folks can die from swallowing disorders.
In my horse life, riding and training and interacting with the horse’s mouth through a bit, equine swallowing has been in the back of mind.
I wondered about bits, nosebands, and why I was being told that the mouth should be “quiet” (i.e. closed) at all times while I was riding.
I wondered why I saw in pictures and video of my riding that my horse’s mouth was foaming, drooling, and grimacing against his flash.
I wondered why when my coach said, “Yes! That’s it!” I felt 40 pounds of pressure through my reins.
I came across The Bit Course by Dauphin Horsemanship a couple years ago and was hugely inspired by the information Daniel had to share. I was delighted that he even consulted with a speech pathologist while creating this course. Daniel’s work helped me understand several life-changing concepts in my horsemanship:
-Nosebands are trash, their purpose is to tie the mouth closed.
-Foamy mouths / drooling is a sign of swallowing dysfunction.
-The “two wrinkle” rule for bit placement is a myth.
In recent correspondence with Dr. Kevin Haussler, DVM, DC, PhD, I got further clarification on what exactly is happening when horses have oral discomfort as a result of poor riding.
-Horses may experience reluctance to chew or swallow with the bit, leading to dry mouth, abnormal tongue posture, TMJ stiffness
-Altering normal salivation and swallowing patterns can lead to reduced gut motility, increased colic risk, gastric ulcers due to persistent anxiety and chronic pain
-Chronic oral pain can lead to altered motor patterns, aberrant jaw-tongue-pharynx coordination, (theoretically) causing functional dysphagia in absence of the bit
The structures of the equine tongue, hyoid apparatus, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus are VITAL: for life. Manipulation of these high-value real estate structures has enormous potential for harm.
Bearing this information in mind, when I see bodyworkers and riders posting about hyoid function and being able to influence a horse’s whole body and nervous system via the bit, “tongue release” or “hyoid release” maneuvers, I feel tempted to call bu****it.
I think the best we can do is educate our hands and seat to not disturb the horse. A happy mouth is a swallowing mouth. A swallowing mouth is a breathing mouth. The best indication of relaxation in riding or bodywork is healthy, full range of motion, regular breathing.
Enter: my French dressage horse.
This year I became caregiver to a schoolmaster in his 20s. Throughout my riding career I’ve been tangentially aware of Philippe Karl’s work and Ecole de Legerete but I had never met a horse trained in French classical tradition. Aslan was trained by a student of Jean Luc Cornille, former Maitre de Cadre Noir de Saumur.
Around this same time I met Aslan, I started reading Mills Consilient Horsemanship’s journey into Baucherism and dove into her reading list. I also, by pure stroke of luck, had access to a lesson with Thierry Durand, former Olympic coach and ecuyer of Cadre Noir who taught me my first cessions de machoire (jaw flexions).
In my reading, I’ve come across the following references to bits and swallowing:
“The mere “half-tension” of one rein or both must bring about the mellow mobility of the lower jaw without the horse’s head moving… and the animal’s tongue must then make one bit jingle over the other, which at times produces a silver toned ringing… It shows that the relaxation looked for… should not be limited to a mere “chomping,” but should… include the up and down movement of the tongue and “let go of the bit.” – Racinet Explains Baucher, pg. 31, Racinet
“These first flexions are aimed solely at obtaining a mobilisation of the tongue without any alteration in the position of the head and neck. The symptom of the horse’s yielding to flexion requested by the trainer is a movement of the tongue similar to the movement performed in the act of swallowing….. The best way of accustoming the horse to the double bridle is to let him wear, for a while every day in the stable, a bridle without reins…. and to let him have some oats and bran in the manger during that time. The attempts at chewing and swallowing which the horse will not fail to do are excellent “flexions,” and the rapid success of these attempts give the mouth and tongue the kind of mobility which is exactly the yielding that must be sought and achieved in the Mise en Main. Academic Equitation, pg. 254-255, Decarpentry
“La mobilite da la bouche n’est pas une suite de mouvements convulsions et saccades de la machoire et de la langue qui produisent un cliquetis rageur des mors; c’est un mouvement souple, discret, moelleux d’une langue qui remonte de quelque millimetres, comme pour une deglutition, avec machoire a peine ouverte, tandis que les mors font entrendre le discret mumure.”
Eng: “The mobility of the mouth is not a series of convulsive and jerky movements of the jaw and tongue that produce a furious clicking of the bits; it is a supple, discreet, soft movement of a tongue that rises a few millimeters, as if swallowing, with the jaw barely open, while the bits make the discreet murmur heard.” Beudant quoting L’Hotte, Main Sans Jambes, pg. 22
Now, I am not saying these French masters were particularly kind to horses’ mouths. There are plenty of descriptions of severe, brutal force in these classical texts. Insistence on manipulating the jaw is to manipulate vestibular (balance) function, which to me seems way creepy and invasive.
But is it as creepy and invasive as driving a horse forward into the hand? Putting them “on the bit?” Is it as invasive as 40 pounds of pressure through the reins? What about, “Don’t let him keep going around like that! You HAVE to get his head down.”
I’m still learning and integrating all this information and right now I have more questions than answers. I don’t think learning a certain style or tradition of riding absolves us of the responsibility to do no harm, even while figuring things out. I would hate to go from riding one problematic way to another. I still think “do not disturb,” is a good rule to live by.
But I have to say that Aslan showing me what pole-high, chewing mouth, feather light loose rein contact feels like… feels pretty good.
Sources / continued reading:
Equine Dysphagia, Conturbra et al, 2017
Equine Oral Pain, Mellor, 2020
Evaluation of the association between orafacial pain and dysphagia, Tsujimura and Inoue, 2020
Retrospective Analysis of Dysphagia in Equine Referral Hospital, Conolly et al, 2024
The Bit Course, Daniel Dauphin
Veterinary Compendium, Dr. Kevin Haussler
Three Day Whole Horse Dissection, Lorre Mueller
Mills Consilient Horsemanship, Andrea Mills
Tensegrity Balancing Therapy, Level 2, Tami Elkayam
Methodical Dressage of the Saddle Horse, Faverot de Kerbech
Academic Equitation, General Decarpentry
Racinet Explains Baucher, Jean-Claude Racinet
Main Sans Jambes, Etienne Beudant
