on the bit?

[Jodie & Ru]

Hi everyone,

Just wondered if you can help me out. What does it mean exactly when a horse is on the bit?

On Saturday i rode my friends new horse, who is a beautiful 5 year old t/b who was unsuccessful on the race track. My friend was explaining to me about the training that they are currently under going and how they are trying to get him working 'on the bit'. When i hopped on board i asked her to describe to me what aids she used to do this and 2 of the aids she gave me was to keep my heels down and to sort of wiggle my fingers slightly alternatively, playing with the bit (probably a bad explaination)- this did bring his head down. But in this months addition of 'Your Horse' they say that this is wrong as you are not engaging the hindquarters. So how do i do this and is this something that is possible to do on a school horse?

Thanks and sorry for the lengthy post :)

[galadriel]

When a horse is "on the bit," the bit is in fact the *last* element to be concerned about :)

A horse "on the bit" is a horse who has shifted much of his weight to the hind legs. As a result, he is working harder in his haunches and through his back. His hind legs will have more movement to them; they will be flexing more and moving further forward under the body.

His back rounds a bit as he uses it properly, and you can really feel those hind legs; it's a beautiful feeling but hard to describe. Sort of
elastic.

Since he has taken more weight on his hind legs, he now has less weight on his forelegs. His front end feels light. Again, beautiful feeling :)

As a result of all of the above, the horse's neck will curve in harmony with his back; typically his poll will be the highest point and his face will come back to vertical. This is as a result of, not a way to achieve, coming onto the bit.

Specific aids to bring a horse onto the bit will vary from horse to horse, depending on training, body type, etc. But the basics are the same: you ask the horse for more energy, without letting him expend that energy by moving faster. Use your legs, ask for energy, "listen" with your body for more movement, use soft aids of seat and hand to keep the horse from simply speeding up.

Any horse--who's rideable--should be able to do a little work on the bit. If it's not the horse's normal way of going, however, it will take much more effort than he is used to giving. Most of the time, a horse will "pull" himself along by his front end, carrying most of his weight on his front legs. Unless he has been taught to use his hind end and his back, then going on the bit will be very difficult, at least at first.

So at first, he should be permitted to work for only short periods and then to stretch his neck out; if he is held in position but doesn't have the muscle to support it, he will cramp up and begin to resist; this will undo all the good of the work "on the bit" already done.

Forcing a horse's head into position without actually engaging the hind end causes a horse to hollow his back, and makes it near impossible to work through his back and hindquarters. It's important to be sure that the energy from behind comes *first*, and then the mild aids to ask him to use all that energy without just going faster.

[Moody Mare]

I couldn't have said it any better than galadriel.

So often you see so many horse and rider combinations with the horse's head tucked into it's chest, with a hollow back and NO impulsion or engagement of the quarters and yet the rider is convinced that the horse is 'on the bit'.

The term itself, I think though is somewhat misleading - I was always taught to ride the horse up and onto the bridle making sure that the horse is really using it's back end before beginning to worry where the head is positioned.

[Wally]

It's very much chicken and egg situation, if the horse is not soft in his mouth and jaw and neck he cannot possibly start to engage and work from behind. But this does not mean you neglect the back end in favour of the front. If he has his nose in the air and his head twisted on one side the back end cannot engage.

Quick fixes don't work - by hauling the front end down you won't get a horse working from behind.

As most folk have said it isn't really a bit thing at all, imagine riding "up hill" with power coming from under and behind you, the horse will be light but positive in your hands and soft.

[Jodie & Ru]

I see, its all a lot clearer now. Thanks everyone for all your advice!

[Lovecat]

It's funny, I was in the forest last night trotting alongside my friend Sandy, who has a lovely little Fell Pony. Although their length of leg (and thus their strides) are vastly different I like to do this a bit when we're out as part of Murph's training, in getting him to realise that he has to listen to me when we're out as well as in the school, instead of being a one-pace trot (fast!) horse; so as well as keeping a good contact to keep him steady and stop him barging ahead as he'd like to do, I was also having to push him on as well, as otherwise he'd drop into a walk (we don't do this for too long, just enough so that I know he's listening to me and then I let him have take the lead and have a bit of a stretch!)

ANYWAY (sorry, digressed totally there) we were trotting along together and I was chatting away to him as I do, saying 'I know, I know you want to go in front and trot away down that path, poor old Murph...' when Sandy said 'yes, but look at that beautiful collection you've got going there' and....ooh! I had! I knew that he'd changed how he was going and it felt lovely, but I'd attributed that to the fact he'd stopped leaning on the bit to try and tank on ahead - his back was beautifully rounded!

[galadriel]

LC--cool! Now you know he can achieve balance when he's going straight, and you're really pushing him on...now you just have to transfer it to a curve so he can do it in an arena :)

[ros]

May I just add a little to the discussion?

I do agree with Wally. I don't deny at all that a horse must learn to engage his quarters and "work through" instead of plopping along on his forehand. However, I do think sometimes we misunderstand how we start to achieve that. We think "quarters, quarters, quarters; legs, legs, legs..." and we don't really understand what's going on in front in that first phase.

The end result in so many cases is that the rider uses lots of leg to push the horse on and try to make it use its back end more, and has some vague idea that they should somehow be "shutting the front door" in order to "stop the impulsion escaping" and to encourage the horse to "work up into the bridle" and the like. And what happens then is that the horse goes faster, the rider resists with the reins but keeps pushing on with the legs in the hope that sooner or later the penny will drop, the horse gets thoroughly confused and becomes more resistant, and then something usually gives!

In actual fact, the very first thing you need to do is ask the horse to relax his jaw, as Wally says, because as long as his jaw is at all fixed or resisting, there's no way he can release his neck and back muscles to use them correctly. So first you have to make sure you ask him to relax his jaw for you, then you can ask him for a bit more energy, and if he starts to go faster because he doesn't understand, THEN you can say "no, I didn't mean that" with seat and rein signals. You back off a little, ask him to relax again if he's stiffened his jaw, then ask for a little more energy again, and quite quickly he'll learn what's required - especially if you remember to let him know that you'd like him to "lighten" up in front by positioning your hands in relationship to where you want his head to be, and not where it actually is ;) (By which I mean that if, for example, he's going along with his nose on the ground, there's no point lowering your hands in order to maintain that rigid "straight line between elbow and bit" because by doing so you're saying to your horse "yes, that's fine, you just keep your head down there and I'll follow" :rolleyes:

[galadriel]

Another terrific post by ros. Terrifically clear and understandable. Nice work ros :)

[Jodie & Ru]

Thank you so much, more fantastic advice.

[canadianbeaver]

so basically (i understand better when it is crystal clear!!) do you get energy and keep the energy going forwards into the hands by holding? What about moving the head to the left and right? Does that work? And by "engaging the hindquarters", is that just having energy?

[Tootsie4U]

Some GREAT replies on here. :)

[horsemad]

Yes, brilliant replies indeed!

Can I just butt in here and ask a quick question? My 21 year old mare knows how to work 'on the bit' - although I can only get her to do it if she is the mood to co-operate. :rolleyes:

But she has recently become quite stiff in her neck and I am now reluctant to take up a strong contact in case she finds this uncomfortable. Am I doing the right thing? Is it best to ride her with a longish rein, or should I be trying to get her to work properly to stretch those stiff muscles?

[galadriel]

Horsemad, if your horse became stiff in the neck rapidly, you might want to look into medical reasons. Whatever the cause, you might be able to do something about it.

You can try a few carrot stretches to see if there's anywhere in particular on her neck that is painful or stiff (http://www.kbrhorse.net/hea/spine02.html). If any one stretch seems impossible or she is reluctant--especially if it's one side but not the other--she might have a skeletal or muscular problem related to that part of her neck.

A stiff neck could also be tension related to pain somewhere else in her body; legs, shoulders, hips or back pain could cause her to tense up her neck in response.

[horsemad]

Thanks Galadriel. She has been checked out and it would appear that the stiffness is just in her neck, not a problem coming from somewhere else. It isn't really a sudden change either because she has always been stiffer on one side and has found it more difficult to bend to the right. Its just that recently I have noticed it a bit more - don't know if this is related to her age.....

Anyway, I'll give those 'carrot stretches' a try. :)