I thought horses cannot breathe through their mouths and thus their airway isn’t connected to the mouth?
@OTTBs The horse’s soft pallet blocks the oral cavity from the pharynx most of the time, but not when swallowing so horses can and do aspirate. Aspiration pneumonia is one of the dreaded results of a horse choking,
Had a TB gelding who detested bute. Flat out refused any and all concoctions In early days tried mixing flavored powder in his grain. No go, so dumped his feed and put regular meal in. He wouldn’t eat that either because the bucket still smelled apparently. Fortunately he never had to be on it long term, so we just dosed and put up with the fuss.
Have you tried putting the bute inside a stud muffin? That might work. Could the horse be on something other than bute or does it have to be bute? Aspirin, banamine, previcox etc.? My one gelding hates bute and my other gelding will eat the bute pills straight out of my hand. 
Mine get a porridge concoction* (self-designed) for tea. I find that I can get all of them to eat whatever nasty stuff they need if I mix it in. Syringe feeding is not a popular option–horses don’t usually like it, it’s messy, and it takes too much time.
*Triple Crown Sr., alfalfa-bermuda pellets, a tbs of iodized salt and any meds & or supps they need. Add water to an almost slurpy consistancy.
Applesauce.
Sorry but I don’t know what a stud muffin is…
First of all it would be best if he got off bute and tried a different alternative, because my horse was on it for several months because of founder and we started seeing the negative side effects. But I would recommend giving it to him in grain. I would take about a measuring cup full of grain and wet it a little bit and mix the bute in, so it stuck to the grain. At first my horse didnt care for the taste but he ended up looking forward to it each day. In the beginning I was doing the syringe with water and putting it in his mouth but it was a fight everyday. So by switching to grain it was his new favorite part of the day instead of a daily struggle for years. Best of luck to your friend!
I use old worming syringes. My horses see the syringe coming and open their mouth for it. I also use the citrus flavored bute. I have three geriatrics that get it daily.
https://studmuffinshorsetreats.wordpress.com/
http://www.bahrsaddlery.com/one-horse-bakery-horsey-bits.html
This type of thing. It worked for a little while with my gelding that hates bute but then I needed to syringe it or it was a no go. My vet told me that some horses start to refuse bute for a certain reason but I can’t think of what he told me right now.
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