 Hi, my name is Kathy Hattrick Anderson and today I want to talk a little bit about how the bit affects the horse's behavior and the effects that it has on the bars of the horse's mouth. This here is Bucky and Bucky's brother. So we just put the bit in our horse's mouth and we kind of just set it and forget it. We don't think about what it's doing inside here once we get out of our horse. I rode the bit's most of my life and used all kinds and I wish I had known what I was doing because I punished a lot of horses very severely if there are misbehave and give my cranks here or whatever because I didn't know what this looked like. So I just want to show you a little bit the effect it has. The tongue comes over here and lays on the bars of the horse's mouth and the root of the tongue is way back here if you kind of picture a cow's tongue. You know it's very long and it actually overlaps these bars. These are nice edge like a butter knife. So what happens is we lay the bit on top of the tongue and the horse to alleviate this pain of this tongue being pinched between the bit and sometimes the chin strap. What I'll do is he'll retract his tongue. He'll put it over the bit. Sometimes they'll all turn out to the side all in the effort to relieve that pressure that this bit is putting on the tongue. Now when they retract it now the bit is just on bone. This is covered by thin layer of skin much like a shin bone. So it still hurts. It just hurts a little bit less by retracting it. So we'll do stuff like tie the horse's mouth shut to try and get him to accept the bit. Dr. Cook studied 74 different horse skulls, the jaw bones and four different museum collections and he found that 55 of them had bone spurs. That's why I had to get bucky brother because I could talk about the bone spurs but until you see it it's very sharp at here. So that's a bone spur and 55 of those horses there were five years and older had bone spurs and so the incidence of bone spurs and these horses that were ridden was 74%. That's a high number and the actual numbers probably higher because some of those horses were feral and it never had a bit in their mouth. So a lot of times we don't know what's going on but you can see this poor guy he had a lot of serious issues going on here and they're just trying to get along. They're not trying to be bad but when we try to rate their speed they're having a hard time listening because we're using metal. A horse is a highly sensitive animal and he really doesn't need metal to steer him. And where did this bit lie on this horse's mouth that lie right on those bones spurs and hitting the first cheek teeth. It should have hit the first cheek teeth on the bottom but they're gone and these grew in their place. I don't know if it's because somebody was pulling so hard but I'm sure he's happy that he's expired. It's ported bit a lot of people using the reins or attached chair so when we say well it actually opens the horse's mouth. So his mouth can't even accommodate this. Every horse has a different size and here some have higher pallets and others. This horse is actually higher than his. The other problem we run into with a snapple bit is hitting this little bitty one but it hits the roof of the mouth. Here we have double twisted wire. I have clients that have poems that use this. He's busted out and may demonstrate this can hit the roof of his mouth when we're trying to rate his feet. This is off center on two points on purpose to cause more pain. One is not enough that maybe if we add two and poke him in the roof of his mouth from two places. And this looks wider than his mouth. To show you what one that hasn't been breached looks like this is how thin that is. This hasn't been breached by a bit and so this is how he came. And it's very, very thin. So what qualifies us as riders, I've been riding my whole life, what qualifies me to put to control my horse with metal in his mouth. I don't think I'll ever feel qualified to steer my horse with metal. Even though I use bits most of my life, that's because I didn't know what this looked like. So how many horses have to put up with beginner riders trying to steer them via metal? They have their hands on ends of reins. They don't know what they're doing, they're yanking and pulling. How would you like going to a surgeon who watched a few videos and he wants to start practicing medicine? Would you go to a surgeon who just hung a shingle out and let him practice medicine on you? How about a dentist? Dentist, you go into a dentist's office and just the stress is being there and knowing there's going to be metal implements in your mouth, your heart rates going up, your stress and you get novocaine. And you still have a lot of anxiety wondering what this guy with this metal tools is going to cause you what kind of cane is he going to cause you. And you can say, hey, I need more novocaine. These guys, when they scream out in pain, we don't recognize that. A horse can't verbally scream. Okay? Horses are stoic and put up with a lot of pain. So if you have soft hands and your horse is okay with your bit, that's fine. How many horses do we see that are swishing their tail? They're grinding their teeth. The tongues hang out to the side. They're foaming at the mouth because they're having a hard time breathing because they have an airway obstruction because we got them cranked back here. When I've seen horses with major injuries, they can have an eyeball hanging out. They can have a laceration on their chest. They can have a broken leg and it's just hanging there by a thread. And you can go by them and, you know, unfortunately, I've seen the feed loss and you can go by them and they're like, no, it's not that bad. They don't seem like they're in pain having major injuries, but yet when they're being ridden, any you go to any horse show, any event where people are riding their horses with bits and you see them expressing pain. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to notice that horse is in pain. He's saying, hey, you're hurting me. But most people just want to tie their mouth shut or continue doing what they're doing. It qualifies us to think that we can control the horse with a piece of metal on this mouth. Okay? They're highly sensitive animals. The outside of their nose is sensitive. I've heard people say, well, I see people jerking on a horse's face and a bitless bridal. Hey, I'd rather have a dull piece of equipment on my face than like a dentist with a sharp tool or something that's dull. If you had a choice, which would do pick? So I'm just here. I'm not trying to make you feel bad. I just want to educate people and I wish I had been educated about what this looks like. And I'm going to have another video of how the bit can affect the horse's breathing and way of going. So thank you for your time. Thank you for watching.