September 2026
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Wexford Training Newsletter
Finding Balance from the Inside Out
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Dear Friends,
I wanted to let you know that my father passed away near the end of August. There are things to deal with and I have needed extra time with my mom ever since. I am sharing this because this month I had to dive into some of my archives in order to put together the newsletter. When I edit or update any of the five books I have written a lot of useful stuff winds up being cut out. I save random paragraphs or whole sections so that I can go back to them and share the information differently, in a newsletter, post or as video material. So that is what I did this month. It is an article about bits which is something concrete I can talk about, useful to you and I don’t have to be too creative.
Having animals my whole life means this is not the first time I have lost someone I dearly love. I tend to think it will somehow get easier but it never does. I am still all tears and snot when I no longer get to see the face I loved so much.
Kirsten
kirsten.wexford@gmail.com
P.S.
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“If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.”
- Stephen Hawking
What Type of Bit is Best?
As always, the first honest reply to that question is, “It depends.” When we start shopping for bits, usually because we want it to resolve a problem, we step into a black hole of conflicting opinions and advice. There is a way out. Instead of taking advice we can look at how bits actually work, what they do, how they influence horses and what purpose they serve Understanding the mechanical part of bits or bitting helps us select the bit or even bit-less bridle that best serves our individual needs for now and as we progress.
As far as choosing the right sized bit, length and thickness of the mouthpiece, the best person to ask is your equine dentist. Every horse has a unique shape inside the mouth and specific amount of space for the bit seat, between the teeth and under the pallet.
Let’s start with the purpose of bits. As a horse trainer my real purpose for using a bit on a horse is refined communication and resisting physical imbalances, not for control. A simple snaffle bit is all I ever use because a snaffle bit provides clear information about a horse’s balance left to right as well as front to back. A leveraged bit muffles the same information. I don’t see any need for a leveraged bit even for the highest refinement of a horse’s coordination because a horse in balance, in self-carriage, does not require strong resistance to imbalances.
The purpose of leveraged bits was for one handed riding, when the rider had to wield a sword, carry a large stick, crack a whip or swing a rope. Leveraged bits became associated with advanced horse training because the horse had to be balanced, in self-carriage, and very reliable without much guidance from the rider, in order to do that job. Leveraged bits were not used for training horses, they were used for horses that were already well trained and had a real job to do.
What defines a snaffle bit is that the reins attach to the bit at the corners of the horse’s mouth, not below. What goes inside the horse’s mouth can be single jointed, have multiple joints or be solid, with no joints at all. The mouthpiece can be thick, thin or have twists in the metal. The mouthpiece can be made from a single metal or have mixed metals. The important part of how a snaffle works is that there are no shanks, nothing hanging below the horse’s mouth for the reins to attach. No matter the mouthpiece, the rein resistance will have roughly the same amount of leverage action on any snaffle bit.
Leveraged bits are defined by the metal shank on the sides of the bit, the bit components that hang below the horses mouth for rein attachment. The shanks are what increase the amount of resistant force applied through the reins, always significantly more than a snaffle and in increasing amounts for every inch the reins attach below the corners of the mouth. Many leveraged bit have a jointed mouthpiece and are mistaken as a snaffle for that very reason. But the leverage action is the rein pressure being applied below the horse’s bottom jaw.
Let’s look at how bits physically influence the movement of horses, without all the anatomical details included. In a general sense bits provide leverage to the rider. For every ounce of pressure a rider exerts on reins the bit magnifies, increases, the actual force impact inside the horse’s mouth. That’s what leverage is, a force magnifier or a tool that provides a bigger result than the amount of effort applied.
A snaffle bit, where the reins attach to the corners of a horse’s mouth, has the least amount of leverage, the least amount of force magnification inside a horse’s mouth when we use the reins. A bit with shanks, with the rein attachment below the horse’s mouth, has a lot more leverage, magnifies forces even more from the same rein use. One pound of pressure on reins connected to a snaffle bit might feel like 10 pounds of pressure inside a horse’s mouth. The same one pound of pressure on the reins connected to a curb bit could be magnified into 100 or more pounds of pressure inside a horse’s mouth.
Leverage also works both ways between living bodies. The leverage action of a bit means we feel less than the horse feels. When horses go out of balance, with body weight shifting too far forward, left or right, we don’t feel the full weight of the horse in our hands, but less leverage makes weight shifts much more obvious. In a snaffle bit we feel very clearly, a lot of pressure or pulling on the reins, when a horse’s body weight shifts too far forward, left or right. If a horse’s body weight shifts too far left, the right rein suddenly feels very heavy. If the horse’s body weight shifts too far forward we feel it as the horse pulling on both reins.
The more leverage we use in a bit, the less pressure we feel coming from the horse through the reins. In a bit with shanks, the body weight changes are muffled by the extra leverage. We are simply unaware when horses body weight shifts too far left, right or forward because rein pressure changes are extremely subtle, we hardly feel the horse pull at all. When using a curb bit with shanks a horse can maintain excessive weight on the forehand and to one side but we are unaware of any imbalances because the reins feel so light to us.
Now let’s look at what bits actually do, why we would use any leverage at all. We affect coordination in horses mostly though the use of our torso, seat and legs but we simply cannot influence the use of the head and neck without reins. Dysfunctional use of the head and neck can only be corrected by using reins, with or without a bit. How we use the reins is what generates force inside a horse’s mouth or on their nose.
Rein use generates a resistant type of force, resists what a horse is doing. Even if we pull a rein to turn the horse right, the rein pressure is resisting the current direction of travel. Using reins without a bit generates the least amount of resistant force. A snaffle bit generates more resistant force from the very same amount of rein pressure used. A bit with short shanks increases the same amount of rein resistance substantially. For every inch of shank, the lower the reins are attached under a horse’s mouth, the rein pressure multiplies, increases the force felt by horses hundreds of times.
The use of the reins, and bit, are for resisting speed, directions of travel, body weight imbalances and poor coordination or use of the skull and cervical spine. We communicate to horses what we want by resisting what we don’t want. How much resistant force is needed for any given horse varies but should become less and less during training. When horses are unbalanced they have little self control over speed, direction, internal weight distribution and coordination of the skeleton. An unbalanced horse feels heavy on the reins when we ride bit-less or use a snaffle bit but the heaviness on the reins is the information we need in order to make improvements. As coordination improves, horses feel lighter on the reins while adjusting speed, changing directions, or rebalancing internally because they are developing the capacity of self carriage.
Finally let’s look at how reins and bits work. When we apply pressure to reins that don’t connect to a bit, attached to a halter or bit-less bridle, the force is not magnified and pressure is applied to the horse’s upper jaw. A bit magnifies the same amount of rein pressure and force travels through the reins to inside a horse’s mouth and applies pressure to the tongue and lower jaw. The main difference between pressure on the upper or lower jaw is how the pressure affects muscle use. Individual horses respond differently to where they feel the forces from the reins, so we don’t know which is the better choice unless we try both options. Horses that respond to bit pressure by curling the neck, dropping the poll or tucking the nose backwards are letting us know that the rein or bit pressure is just too much. Tight, curled necks on horses is a sure sign they need less leverage.
Helping horses balance, develop optimal coordination, dissolves the need for leverage. Relying on leveraged bits never helps horses improve coordination because the leverage impairs our ability to even feel the root cause of the problem. Horses that are hard to slow down, turn or always have their heads stuck up in the air don’t need more leverage in the reins, they need better coordination in their bodies.
The Art of The Horseman Online Horse Fair is on again with another FREE weekend coming up soon. I am participating with training videos and did a few Q&A panels with other trainers. Hope you get a chance to check it out!
September 12 & 13, 2026
Here is the link for FREE tickets.
http://www.becauseofthehorse.net/a/23333/a2zsSgDH
Feel free to share this link as much as you want, with friends or on social media.
To join a scheduled clinic, please contact the coordinator directly. To book a clinic, please contact me directly at kirsten.wexford@gmail.com
