A bit BETTer - Bettkonsult

22/01/2025

If you’re exposed to something extremely often, you often become desensitized to it.

This is a particularly powerful likelihood when the stimulus you’re exposed to often is shrugged off as benign, harmless and non-concerning.

This is why it is often so much easier for people outside of the horse world to notice welfare concerns in horse sports, even with little education.

Many of these “outsider” opinions are often fairly closely aligned with that of welfare experts that have been conducting study on horse sports and the ethicality of them.

There are a number of echo chambers that exist within the horse world.

Many of such chambers are enforced by the belief that the number of years spent in sport equates to having an all encompassing knowledge that doesn’t need to grow and adjust with the time.

This is one of the most dangerous mindsets that plagues the horse world: the belief that years of experience and years spent in tradition means that those years were spent without fault.

Years of experience are irrelevant if those years are not spent with a consistent curiosity and desire to learn. Or an openness to being wrong.

The fact of the matter is this:

When new information threatens our comfort zones, it’s a lot more likely to be rejected. Even when it’s highly credible.

People outside of the horse industry don’t have the same comfort zones because they are not as attached to the idea of things staying the same.

They also don’t run the risk of new information forcing the realization that they may have harmed a horse.

Horse people have both of these risks when new information exposes holes in the ethics of our sport.

And they will often vehemently fight against accepting the validity of new information when it threatens the comfort of the environment they grew up in.

So, honestly, we have more to learn from people who haven’t grown up immersed in horse industry bias than we may think we do.

That doesn’t mean everything they say is right, but it’s definitely interesting to see how closely aligned to science a lot of their initial responses to stres behaviour in horses often are.

The knee jerk reaction when horses express stress behaviour is often to view it as stress.

Horse people are just conditioned out of it throughout years spent having these moments normalized so they stop seeing it for what it is.

And unlearning is an awful lot harder than learning from a blank slate.

21/01/2025

👀 buckles matter!
Does your bridle have buckles which cover the TMJ? Are they stacked on top of each other?

It is extremely important that your bridle fits as well as your saddle!
Just look at all the nerves that exist in the horses head! All those pressure points!

It's important the buckles don't stack, don't cover the TMJ.

Does your horse rub its head during or after the bridle is on?
It's trying to tell you it has pins and needles and so the bridle is pressing on any of these nerves and is trying to rub feeling back into the area.

Discomfort around the head can lead to
- head staking
- head tossing
- tilting head
- avoiding flexing
- avoiding relaxing
- tension in jaw, neck, poll, shoulder
- poking nose
- high head carriage
- over bent head carriage
Avoiding work!

Get your bit and bridle checked! It's very important to your horses comfort and relaxation!
Let's stop anxiety and promote welfare!

19/01/2025

Idag har jag blivit intervjuad för en podd 🤩🐴 inte vilken podd som helst! Utan där pratar jag om hur jag ser på bett, nosgrimmor och bettlöst bland annat. Min resa till Bettkonsult och vad min hashtag står för 🤩🐴

19/01/2025

Why is the correct bit and bridle fitting so important?
In this picture, the bit is too long. This creates instability in the mouth, extra pressure points, lack of direction, to loose connection between the rider s hand and the horse's mouth.
Also, the buckle of the noseband puts pressure and irritates the lips.
The buckles of the cheek pieces are too high near the TMJ and giving unconfort where we have the proprioception centre of the horse. It will also give more instability and, most of the time, more tension in the poll with less possibility of release.
So even if your tack is not sofisticated, it needs to be fitted properly.
Do you need more advice?
Please feel free to send a mail to [email protected] or a WhatsApp.
#

14/01/2025

11/01/2025

Ja har man inte en häst att visa på, då får man använda sig själv 🐴🤷‍♀️ för ses inne på FB på gruppen Sverige Bettlöst

11/01/2025

Förberett inför kvällen livesändning 🤩 missar du den kan du se den i efterhand, men missar då möjligheten att ställa frågor direkt till mig 🤩

10/01/2025

Nytt inlägg på läs om Micklem träns och dess ”kopior”

10/01/2025

Nu ligger ett nytt inlägg uppe i Katja Tipsar https://abitbetter.se/micklem-och-dess-kopior/

10/01/2025

09/01/2025

Alltså hur varm i hela kroppen blir man inte!? Tack Malin Schön för de fina orden 🙏❤️🐴

08/01/2025

08/01/2025

En beskrivning vad det är som gör att bett med rulle är skarpt, detta från Bombers katalog. ”The Buster rollerlink is shortened witch increasses bar and tung pressure making this mouthpiece sharper than conventional link bits”. Översatt: ”Buster-rullen är förkortad vilket ökar lan - och tungtrycket vilket gör denna mundel vassare än konventionella ledade bett”.

08/01/2025

Part of 3 of 3 of my headpeice series
As before please go back to parts 1 or 2 if you have missed them.

TMJ and Browband area

This, in my opinion, is the most important and can produce the most significant change in the horse's behaviour, comfort and performance. The temporo mandibular joint (TMJ ) is simply the jaw joint in the horse's head, but sadly it's not that simple as there are so many sensitive nerves, ligaments and blood vessels in that area. For this post's sake I will just say the TMJ area.
The TMJ is such a sensitive joint. A horse with damage or significant tightness can actually show lameness in it's hind end. A horse can head tilt, excessively play with the bit, headshake and many other things purely because it is uncomfortable in it's TMJ.
Because of this, IR Bridles and I have designed a system which has padding that extends well below the joint along with low profile browband loops that I use in my bridles. I truly believe that this system makes the horse so much more comfortable. I've had physios and vets agree as well.

The browband is a very important part of this area, although some people are definitely realising the dangers of having a browband too small, I still often see it happen. Personally, I am not a fan of padded browbands as it doesn't benefit the horse and it just makes it more bulky and less space. I am also personally not a fan of the browbands with the running keepers as the keeper sits right against the horses TMJ area. Also, I often see the browbands with poppers slipping too low and again sitting on a very sensitive area.
A browband should not fit too tightly but also not too loosely that it's excessively banging on the horse's head when ridden. My simple test is if I can fit a flat hand on the horse's head underneath the browband without pulling the headpiece forward but still touching it with the top of my hand then it is correctly sized.

It is also important the buckles are fitted away from the TMJ, usually around the level of the horse's eyes looks the most aestheticly pleasing. With my bridles they are designed so you can't fit them on the TMJ area, but often with off the peg Bridles you will have to be careful It may be worth having some of the straps adjusted by shortening so they are avoiding that sensitive area.

With the drop down padding of my bridles as well as the loops, they actually sit completely off the horse's head at the side to give the least pressure on that very sensitive area.

I will be adding one extra part to this series on training, so if you are interested keep your eyes out for the next post.

07/01/2025

Det var lite oklart och är fortfarande otydligt i texten i TR II men bett med rulle är inte längre godkänt från och med i år, enligt SvRF. Något jag är mycket tacksam för då jag sett hästar som blivit mer eller mindre bettintoleranta med denna typ av mittdel. Vad menar jag då med bettintolerant? Att hästen inte längre kan ridas med bett, den kanske behöver bettlyftare så den inte längre klarar av tryck mot tungan. Detta är inte ett snällt bett även om jag vet att visst bettföretag tom rekommenderar det till känsliga hästar!?

07/01/2025

DIGITAL FÖRELÄSNING MED ETOLOG: OM HÄSTVÄLFÄRD! Delta du också 💌🐴

Torsdagen den 9 januari kl. 19.00-20.30 kan du via länken i nyheten nedan delta på den digitala föreläsningen med Elke Hartmann, om det högaktuella ämnesområdet kring hästvälfärd.

Ingen anmälan krävs, spara bara länken!
https://hastsverige.se/news/digital-forelasning-med-etolog-om-hogaktuella-hastvalfard/