Bit Refusal

Blade in happier times.

While prepping for the riding school last night, I noticed one of the students having trouble getting Blade to take the bit.  I went over to help and found that I was having the same problem.  Blade was clamping his teeth shut, pursing his lips, and throwing his head around to avoid the bit.  I took him to the arena and tried again without tying him.  Still no luck.  When he refused, I planned to lunge him off his lead line, but he would just pivot toward me instead of running around me.  Realizing that I was getting no where, I took him back to the tie up post and tried again.  I checked his mouth and teeth to make sure there were no problems in there and found nothing.  As I was about to give up, he suddenly parted his teeth enough for me to pull the bridle on.  He was fine once it was on.  I decided that I'd need to work on it again the next day.

 

Today, when I tried again, I had the same problem.  Blade would keep his teeth clamped shut and when I tried to insert my thumb into his mouth, he'd lift his head to prevent me from opening his mouth.  I became increasingly angry and started smacking him on the shoulder and yelling at him.  Realizing that I was losing it, I tied him up short and went and tended to the other horses for a while until I could calm down.  On my way back to him, I grabbed a pocket full of horse treats, and went back to work.  He still refused to take the bit, but I held a cookie in front of it, so he tried to snake his tongue around the bit to get at it.  We continued this game for a while, then I put the cookie back into my pocket.  Without losing my temper, I continued to hold the bit in front of his teeth and rubbed the side of his mouth with my thumb.  Eventually, he unclenched his teeth and I was able to get the bit in.  I praised him, gave him the cookie he desired and then slid the bridle off.  We repeated this cycle five times until he would take the bit without much hesitation.  I then let him graze on the grass for five minutes and then put him in his pen for dinner.  I will try again tomorrow, but I will try to keep him out of the riding school until I'm sure he's over whatever was bothering him. 

 

There is no telling what causes a horse to suddenly have a problem like that.  Could be that someone accidentally hit him in the teeth while putting bridle on, or there was something nasty tasting on the bit, or something totally unrelated.  The lesson I learned was that I had to keep my temper in check while trying to overcome Blade's phobia about the bit.  I spent about thirty minutes trying to solve this problem today, but hopefully, it won't take as long tomorrow.