My horse is crunching the bit, not a healthy chew but locking down on it with a crunching sound. He does salvate and foam a lot. Yesterday his tongue went over top of the bit. This is all happening on the lunge line, while I’m not riding. He’s in a loose ring double jointed snaffle with copper losenge in the middle and curvature to distribute pressure over the bars. Any thoughts? Hes done this for a long time and yes he’s had annual dentals before and after this behavior. His next one is this month but I doubt again they’ll find anything.
We had one horse that absolutely hated any bit with copper on it.
If you forgot and used one, no matter how little copper was there, some snaffles only have little bands inserted here and there, he would immediately start salivating and trying to spit it.
Try a different bit, see if you can find one with other metals he may not object to, just in case that is contributing to the problem?
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He was originally in a basic steel single joint d ring and did the same thing. Switched to the double joint hoping that would help. I may see what I can find with double joint and no copper.
One horse at my riding teacher’s stable spent his whole time off contact trying to destroy his stainless steel bit. Now he much prefers his titanium coated bit and behaves better in it.
Some horses do not seem to like the chromium &/or nickel in the stainless steel. I do not know if it is the taste or if the horse has a minor allergic reaction to the chromium or nickel.
A “sweet iron” bit might work too. They tend not to cost as much as the titanium bits.
A few of my riding teacher’s horses have essentially gone on strike as lesson horses (they stopped behaving) when their titanium bit was replaced by their old normal, once acceptable, stainless steel bits.
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Decades ago we had an older OTTB that was a higher dressage school horse.
Students had competed with him and did very well.
He was also a very nice trail horse.
Then he started chomping at the bit and salivating, so we checked his mouth, tried changing bits, then was off on a front foot a bit and vet diagnosed starting navicular.
We shod him for that, he was sound, we quit trail riding, only in the arena.
He quit chomping at any bit.
We were thinking then, his bit chomping was a response to being in pain, maybe and once that resolved, so was his chomping.
Have your vet check him all over again, or try a go round of bute if your vet agrees and see what happens?
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My horse was doing that with a Happy Mouth Mullen mouth (20mm thick plastic bit) - dentist told me the gap between her top and bottom jaw where the bit goes was very small. Put her in a 12mm KK Ultra and she’s much happier.
What is your goal when lunging? How are you attaching the lunge line?
If the bit isn’t an issue while riding, maybe you need to consider a different setup for lunging (depending on your purpose).
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My youngster likes to suck the bit back and chew on it with his molars, worse with fatter bits and double jointed ones. He is MUCH quieter in a pretty thin single jointed bit, only chomps when he’s made to stand still and is trying to entertain himself. He likes to chew on things in general though, including reins and lunge lines and lead ropes, especially the metal clips.
I put my previous youngster in a gentle 21mm bit and she started chewing on it over time. I went to a 18mm Dr. Bristol and she hated it and reared under saddle. I tried a bunch of other snaffles with little success. I really inspected her mouth and found that she had a thick tongue and a low palate and most bits really aggravated her. I ended up putting her in a 14mm HS silver double-jointed loose ring. It was thin enough that it fit her mouth better and the double jointed design didn’t allow for the single joint to poke into her palate. She went soooooooooooooooo much better in this bit and went up the levels in it.
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