Mastering the Basics: On the Bit

It’s something we hear a lot in dressage: “Get your horse on the bit.” “He’s not round enough; get him more on the bit.” But what does this actually mean? For many people, it brings up images of making the horse come into a certain posture to “look” a certain way. This then makes people either averse to using their hands with the bit, or it makes them over-use it to get their horse “on the bit.” However, both of these are basically wrong.

What is on the bit?

Understanding how to get your horse “on the bit” really comes from understanding what it means. There are a couple of ways we can define this: biomechanically, and how it feels. Biomechanically, a horse comes on the bit through suppleness and relaxation (the difference between the two is a topic for another day). If the poll is relaxed and the rest of the muscles are doing their job elevating the back as much or as little as called for, depending on the level of collection, the horse will come on the bit. The poll will be situated at the highest point, and the nose will hang from it at or slightly ahead of a vertical line drawn through the poll. Because the horse is relaxed and supple, it will be able to easily respond to the bit in a positive way, to turn the head, move the jaw, and raise or lower the head and neck as the horse becomes more or less collected.

By feel, on the bit feels like you have an easy, malleable feel at the end of the rein. There’s some contact, the exact amount depending on the horse and level of training, but it feels a bit like putty. The horse should also feel like it’s bubbling up from the hind end through the seat and over the neck to the bit. This is much like what Karl Mikolka described as the “circle of aids.” It’s also a bit like holding hands with your horse while strolling in the park: soft and flowing with you, not tense or trying to get away. It will also feel like the horse is taking your hand, not you taking the horse’s mouth.

So how do we get it?

This is the tricky part. However, simply put, you don’t just get your horse on the bit. If you’re tense, it doesn’t help for someone to try to force your muscles to soften or to yell at you “Just relax, dang it!” Getting your horse on the bit takes a bit of tact to figure out how to help your horse relax and physically supple them through gently massaging the muscles through soft squeezes of the fingers or releasing the muscles through bending or yielding exercises. It also takes being able to feel where the tension actually is; if there’s tension anywhere over the topline or under the neck, the horse will not come totally on the bit. This can also mean if your saddle doesn’t fit well, chances are, your horse will never truly come “on the bit.”

However, despite these potential obstacles, you can help your horse come on the bit by starting from the hind end and working your way forward. Make sure the hind end is engaged enough through transitions, turns, and other exercises. From there, you can check in with the back and then the shoulders, and then the neck and jaw last. Provide the horse with a consistent feel on the bit, offering your hand and waiting for the horse to take it. Always pause and observe: did what you did work? If not, try something else. See if you can find where in the body the blockage exists that’s keeping the horse from taking your hand. As you start to take your attention away from the head/neck and to the rest of the body, you should start finding the real root of the problem. As you address the actual root, you should find your horse puts itself on the bit.

Like many things in dressage, getting a horse to come on the bit is simple in principle and doesn’t require a lot of “busy-ness” with the hands. However, that doesn’t make it easy, as you have to look at the rest of the body to see why the horse isn’t relaxing. However, if you change your way of thinking from “making” the horse come on the bit to helping your horse release tension, you’ll find that it is a lot easier and simpler than you might have thought.