Bit Placement

The so-called bit seat.

In an English horse magazine last year, I read an article about horse dentistry, and how it could benefit the riding horse. The article was called "The Bit Seat" and explained how filing down the edges of the first molars making them angle inwards, would give a seat for the bit. Those dentists and riders can hardly know anything about the correct action of the bit in the mouth, when the horse is ridden correctly on the bit.

They do not know that the bit should never be in contact with the molars at all, because if it is, the angle of the head is wrong, the adjustment of the bit on the side pieces is wrong, or the rider is pulling like hell with a gag bit of some sort!

I have superimosed the horse''''s teeth and the correct bit placement onto a picture of a bridled, ridden horse here. With normal contact and normal head carriage the mouth piece of the bit never touches the molars. The bit should be at least an inch away from them. This will cause the bit to give no more than a wrinkle at the corner of the mouth, both at standstill and when ridden with contact. Only severe contact will cause the bit to come up against the teeth. That will also cause the side pieces to slacken and loop out from the cheeks.

So this is probably something that some thrifty businessman has come up with to squeeze some extra cash out of horse owners, and another last straw for the not too educated riders to grasp when there''''s no adequate instruction around.

I have been reminded, by several persons, that these few paragraphs make it sound as if I find dentistry for horses unneccessary and a waste of good money. I do NOT. If a schooling problem persist your attempts to change bits for one better fitted, and using lighter contact and aids, it is high time to let the equine dentist check the teeth. Don''''t just let the blacksmith or regular vet do a float either. Would you have your shoemaker or GP change your teeth? No, there''''s a whole sience to how the horse''''s mouth works, and remember that the horse uses his teeth alot. A person can drink soup for the rest of his life, but a horse with bad teeth will starve slowly.

What I don''''t think is a good idea, is to pay lots of cash for a "bit seat person" to come out to your barn and install a bit seat into your horse''''s mouth because it''''s supposed to be better and both you and your horse somehow "need it". The problem is always elsewhere. Solve the problem and don''''t just disguise it with a bit seat.

A friend of mine had ongoing trouble with her horse and his mouth. He wouldn''''t accept anything, not the bit itself, the rein aids, contact, etc. She finally took him to the dentist who discovered he had an overbite, and thus nasty hooks at the front of the upper molars. He made a very small adjustment to the teeth in question, forbid the flash noseband, prompted for a thinner, shorter bit to be fitted lower, and for her to come back in 3 months for a touch up.

No touch up was needed. She changed the bits and bridle as he said, and also moved him from the barn where the trainer was extremely heavy handed and pressing towards the horse. It was drawreins, rollkur and the works. When she left the stable the problem went away. I think it''''s a very common scenario.