# Can’t eat with bit in mouth?



## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

I feel like I have been told, over and over, not to let a horse eat while it has a bit in its mouth. Yet some of the same people who have told me this will give horses cookies, peppermints, etc., while the horse has a bit in its mouth. I also imagined that when people are doing ranch work with a horse, they would let it snatch bits of grass along the way so it wouldn’t be so hungry.

So, my question is, CAN I give a horse something to eat when it has a bit in its mouth?


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I personally don't let my horse eat anything when she has the bit in her mouth. When she has a bit in her mouth, that means 'work' not play. I don't want her to think it's OK, like trying to graze, etc. 
On the trails when I took her out the first few times she's tried, and succeeded, but nowadays she knows better & doesn't even try anymore.

Plus it's probably annoying to eat with one in her mouth! I mean, I wouldn't like it! :lol:

You CAN feed treats, I mean yes other people do, sure, it won't really hurt anything, but it's really up to you. I never do it though. *shrug* But that's just me.

After a trail, I take the bridle off, and usually have a halter underneath for this reason, so afterwards she can freely graze.  
So, I take the bridle off THEN let my horse enjoy treats/grass, after our ride/work is done. Whether we are on a trail, or in the arena, etc.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

I let mine, say, if we're standing around, doing nothing, waiting on someone to get a gate, pick some feet, tighten a cinch, have a stretch-walk or a snack ourselves, so why not let mine snag up some wild oats or something delicious while we wait? I discourage it when we're in forward motion, but I'm not always successful. I guess some things are just too noms to resist.



Superman... famously... has a knack for snatching up bois d'arc apples along the trail, sometimes off the ground, sometimes right off the tree. He never slows up, never pauses, just snaps it up and carries on. As he walks along, he'll juggle the apple around with his lips and teeth and eat it as he goes. He's sneaky about it, gives no indication he's going to snap one up until he's already snagged it.


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## Kriva (Dec 11, 2015)

I never intentionally give a horse something to eat while they have a bit in their mouth. It just "seems" like it would be difficult to eat. I've had some that would sneak a bite of grass or hay with the bit in if I wasn't paying good enough attention, or while I was busy adjusting something. Sometimes they eat it fine, sometimes it ends up wadded up on the bit. Either way, the bit is a mess. But I have seen others give the horse something to eat with the bit in. It's just not something I intentionally let happen.


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## LoriF (Apr 3, 2015)

I personally don't really care. Laela has no problem eating something with a bit in her mouth. I figure that if it was that uncomfortable she wouldn't do it. I don't typically allow her to do so when we are in forward motion on the trail (as in stop to graze when not ok'd) She will snatch things as we are walking along. She's not allowed to drop her head and graze when I am leading her, bit or no bit. I used to ride with a halter underneath the bridle in case we stopped for a snack ourselves but haven't done that recently. If she wants to eat, she wants to eat. When the bit gets messy, I rinse it. 

I imagine that after a couple of hours they work up an appetite.


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## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

As far as I'm aware it's not great to let them stuff their mouths with hay with a bit - esp a noseband done up as it increases the risk of choke? But small things like peppermints etc no issue. Someone can correct me though it's what I've been told and tbh sounds reasonable. I let mine graze even with a bit when I hack out which is everyday atm. She always gets 10-15 minutes every hack (trail ride) to just horse around and enjoy the green grass and sunshine. At the end of the trail I dismount (on lovely soft grass for my ankles haha) and give her more time grazing with a loose girth. I will note if it's really long grass and she's eating like a pig and unable to swallow anything coz it's all tangled I'll clean her up and she'll have to wait until we're home. I think it's more about just being sensible and whatever suits the horse. I definitely know some pushy horses you cannot let get away with grazing as they become persistent nightmares and others like mine that are very reasonable when it comes to clear cut "yes you can/can't graze now".


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

I think this, like so many things Horse, are highly dependent on the horse, the rider, what you're doing and for how long.

I've had people tell me never ever with a bit in their mouths, I have people tell me no problem, so long as they aren't diving face down into the grass and ignoring you asking them to move out/keep moving (None of ours do).

I've also had people tell me to never ever ever feed them from the hand, that's how you make a horse a biter. I've had others pffft that notion and tell me to just be aware of each horse and how they behave and use some common sense - there's no hard fast rule.

I feed every one of ours snacks from my hand and while some are more delicate and polite than others, I've never been bitten over a snack. Jealousy when showing another horse attention, yes - I've had the one that felt slighted reach out and straight up bite my arm, but not for snacks (Then again, I don't go out in the middle of them with snacks - too much like sharks circling). I give them snacks individually when working with them or riding. It's amazing how well a horse will flex to reach back and get a peppermint snack from your fingers while you're in the saddle. 



/Threaddrift


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## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> I've also had people tell me to never ever ever feed them from the hand, that's how you make a horse a biter.
> /Threaddrift



This one too - I've recently had someone make a comment about me doing this. But I have worked with Katie and getting her used to fingers (how else can they learn unless you give them the opportunity?!) that I can now place a treat in her mouth from the saddle but right in there with my fingers between her teeth - and she will gently close down enough so the treat doesn't fall out but not enough to even squash me. I'll bring my hand away out, my middle finger last holding the treat in place against her tongue. I make sure to slide my finger across her bottom teeth so she knows when my finger is out. THEN she will chew. (Can I just take a moment and say how weird it is to type this out like this lol?). Just today I tickled her mouth and she gently put her teeth around one of my fingers and immediately backed off with the "whoopsie" flinch. She's now very gentle and fully aware of the differences between fingers and food AND the manners that she has to have when either are involved. She had to be taught all this though - she didn't even know what a treat was when I got her. Even though I give her delicate little pea-sized treats between two fingers to teach her a gentle mouth I still always make sure other people use flat hands. 



But you know what? I cannot blame people for saying biters can be made. When you get a bunch of strangers just mindlessy hand feeding with zero training or discipline involved it's not surprising that some horses can become absolute pigs around food.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

My horses would be invited to eat when out on a long ride or out hunting. I would also give them sugar cubes if they were a bit dry mouthed as this would make them salivate. 

As for snatching at things that was not allowed.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

@Kalraii: Superman will get your entire hand - he's a greedy snacker - but he won't just come up and bite. I warn my mom to hold an apple for him a certain way because it's not intentional he gets fingers, he just loves his snacks a little too much.


Trigger? Is so... weird. He is so shy and delicate when he accepts a treat, even the ones he loves best. I could trust a young child to offer a carrot to him. He's grazed my fingers only once, in the four years I've had him now, and he immediately backed up and looked terribly apologetic... and it was the faintest of grazes on my skin. I barely realized it, but he did.


And I never ever let anyone, nor do I myself, take snacks out to the 'herd'. That's a good way to get caught in the crossfire if they start squabbling or get jealous. Only independently do mine get treats. 



But I do admit to riding with a pocket full of peppermint horse snacks.  Trigger has learned if I whoa him, if he'll stand still long enough to reach back, first on the left, then on the right, and touch his nose to my boot, he gets a snack. We still do a LOT OF circles to keep his forward motion up, but he's slowly made improvement.


As far as grazing on a trail, it just seems rude to ride them for four hours, stop for our own snacks, and not let them pluck a few tasty spring leaves or tasty summer oats up for their own treat, a little something-something to sustain them. I mean, you let a horse drink when you're riding, why not get something to eat too?


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## QueenofFrance08 (May 16, 2017)

Ok opinion from a different view here..... 

We encourage our horses to eat at rides, they wouldn't make it through without eating and it helps keep their energy up. Now I don't just let them dive their head down we slow down and I tell Stitch to "eat" when I want her to take a bite (not that she needs any encouragement!) DH's horse rides in a hack but Stitch has a jointed snaffle and has no issue eating with it in. I have to clean her bit after every ride or it gets a lovely green slime coating but otherwise no issue. Obviously this is not a good plan for most trail horses/horses in other sports but everyone we ride with lets their horses eat on trail and many of them have bits. Some who struggle to get their horses to eat move towards the hack end of the bitting spectrum but I figure if this is working for us why try to change?


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

AtokaGhosthorse said:


> I've also had people tell me to never ever ever feed them from the hand, that's how you make a horse a biter.


Almost every horse is a "biter," especially the young ones. Not the aggressive "get out of my space" biting, but just trying to get your hand with their lips and teeth. At my new barn, there is a 2 year-old; lovely gelding, likes hugs and scratches on his neck from both sides with both hands. He follows me along the fence when I walk by his pasture. 

When I offer him my hand, he always starts with his lips and then tries to get it with his teeth. Just for giggles, I once let him have at it, holding my flat hand vertical, palm facing his mouth. He ends up scraping his teeth across my palm, quite vigorously actually. By that time he must have noticed that no treat is forthcoming, so he does it because it offers intrinsic reward to him. I correct him by squeezing his nasal bone to make it a bit uncomfortable (enough for him to let up), but I don't hit, swat, or kick. He's not trying to boss me around, so I don't have to get on my proverbial hind legs over it. I trust him to stick his nose into my face (for a mutual sniff) and not injure me.

A true "biter", in my book, is a horse that lunges at you with ears pinned and teeth bared to get you out of his space, trying to take a piece out of you any which way. I don't think cookies can do that - the horse not liking and/or respecting you would, probably - absence of treats notwithstanding.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I don't know what kind of bit would interfere with a horse eating. Maybe one cranked too high in the horse's mouth. But, any horse I've ever ridden could eat a Sunday Ham with a bit in its mouth.


It's not about the bit itself, it's about whether or not the horse should make decsions on its own about what and when to eat when you are in 'work' mode.


I often ride in a halter, and the same rules about grazing without permission apply. Bit is irrelevant.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

mmshiro said:


> Almost every horse is a "biter," especially the young ones. Not the aggressive "get out of my space" biting, but just trying to get your hand with their lips and teeth. At my new barn, there is a 2 year-old; lovely gelding, likes hugs and scratches on his neck from both sides with both hands. He follows me along the fence when I walk by his pasture.
> 
> When I offer him my hand, he always starts with his lips and then tries to get it with his teeth. Just for giggles, I once let him have at it, holding my flat hand vertical, palm facing his mouth. He ends up scraping his teeth across my palm, quite vigorously actually. By that time he must have noticed that no treat is forthcoming, so he does it because it offers intrinsic reward to him. I correct him by squeezing his nasal bone to make it a bit uncomfortable (enough for him to let up), but I don't hit, swat, or kick. He's not trying to boss me around, so I don't have to get on my proverbial hind legs over it. I trust him to stick his nose into my face (for a mutual sniff) and not injure me.
> 
> A true "biter", in my book, is a horse that lunges at you with ears pinned and teeth bared to get you out of his space, trying to take a piece out of you any which way. I don't think cookies can do that - the horse not liking and/or respecting you would, probably - absence of treats notwithstanding.



Exactly. Huge difference between exploring the world with their nose, lips, and teeth - because that's their hands and fingers, and actively BITING.


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## ApuetsoT (Aug 22, 2014)

I don't allow hay or grass or anything while bridled. Its work time. Otherwise I'd take the bridle off and let them eat. It also prevents the bit from getting full of gunk. I can imagine that's similar to when you have food in your teeth that you can't get off.

I do feed treats while bridled. Its not my preference, but I will. I have an agreement with my horse, he will bridle nicely and he gets a cookie after. We went through a winter where it would take 10 minutes to bridle. With a cookie he opens right up.


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

If the bit is cluttered, then the grass can get caught on things like rollers. If so, it forms an annoying wad. OTOH, a bit like this doesn't catch anything passing through:








A typical scenario for us is a halt for a few minutes for the horses to grab whatever they can find:

















Horses certainly CAN eat with a bit in their mouth. At least a lot of types of bit. Up to the rider to determine their goals and if they WANT to let them do so. I have no problem with it unless it hinders forward progress. Bandit & Cowboy are experts at grabbing a bite without missing a step. Cowboy, in particular, views the desert as a skimpy but free all-you-can-eat buffet. He could gain weight on a trail ride!


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

bsms said:


> Horses certainly CAN eat with a bit in their mouth. At least a lot of types of bit. Up to the rider to determine their goals and if they WANT to let them do so. I have no problem with it unless it hinders forward progress. Bandit & Cowboy are* experts at grabbing a bite without missing a step*. Cowboy, in particular, views the desert as a skimpy but free all-you-can-eat buffet. He could gain weight on a trail ride!


The Old Man, Supes... has perfected this. It's rare he's not eating on a ride. When he was so poor over the bad teeth floating, and I took him to Coffee Mill anyway, I would let him walk ME around the edges of the woods and grass (I know, no bit, he was just haltered and on a long lead but...) and there these bushes... I have no idea what they are, I've seen them all my life, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE CALLED, so for all I know they could be as poisonous as belladonna... it has magenta colored berries on it in sections... there's a bare supple limb, berries and leaves, length of bare limb, berries and leaves, in segments. They're everywhere along the forest edge, all along the trails, all around camp. The berries are ripe, juicy, and make a nice splat when you throw them at the rider on the horse in front of you...

We're putzing around... he's grazing and snacking... then he snags a limb of this stuff! AND I'M IN FULL OMG STOP NO! mode, try to haul his head away, and he just peels every berry and leaf off that limb as his head swings... two chews and he swallows.

OMG YOU COULD DIE!

I have no idea what that stuff is - but he didn't die. I had to really watch him or he'd have a mouthful in no time flat! He's the slickest sneak eater I've ever seen. I guess many years of practice. LOL


EDIT: FOUND IT! BEAUTY BERRIES! No idea if toxic or not though. More digging required.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

I have beauty berry, but as an exhotic ornamental plant. I think it best not to eat the berries. any berry that is opaque like that (not translucent, like black berries, raspberries) and is NOT dark blue, I would not trust.


I once read that 90% of all black or dark blue berries are non-toxic


50 % of all red berries are so.


and only 10 percent of white are ok


other colors, like purple, green, turquoise . . . I just don't know.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

Nick has never been pushy or rude, so I do let him eat with a bit in. He seems to manage fine the odd snatch of grass while we're standing around. During arena work he gets treats. And he eats them no trouble at all as far as I can tell. Also getting food involved in his training has made a huge difference in his demeanor and attitude to the work. He wants to figure out what he needs to go to acquire a cookie vs. what he needs to do to get put away.


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## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

@tinyliny - apparently you CAN consume them, but they are best cooked and used for jellies as they contain an astringent and can make humans sick if we eat them raw.


Who knew? I've seen them wild here my entire life, but never in the quantities we see them at Coffee Mill. Never could find anyone who knew what they were.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

@AtokaGhosthorse you can use them to make soap!


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

Some places we ride through around here has grass higher than the horses' shoulders. Good luck stopping them from eating when the grass is hitting them in the mouth. My friend's horse can keep trotting and eat while being ridden through tall grass. 

I prefer a horse that I can get to eat while under saddle. I also think it can be a good exercise to tell a horse that now you want them to stop, rest and eat, and now you want them to put their head up and continue riding. We practice this so we can do it on long rides. If you want a horse to learn endurance or go on long trail rides without getting ulcers, eating when saddled and bridled can be a good skill. 

It can also be helpful for a horse that gets nervous when going out alone if you can reward them by stopping and letting them eat. It can really get them to start thinking positively about going out if your goal is a big patch of green grass a mile away from home, etc.


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