Getting your bit fit right and how to measure a bit
Finding the right bit for your horse after a long and possibly stressful search is such a great feeling. Maybe they’ve finally started to soften and accept contact after so many schooling sessions spent pulling, running through contact, or hanging behind the vertical. Or perhaps they’ve been fixing their jaw during faster work and jumping, and your new bit means you have the steering and brakes you need to go forward confidently.
A key element to success when you try a new bit is to make sure it is fitted properly, as that will have a huge impact on how it works. If the new bit is the wrong size or is positioned incorrectly in the horse’s mouth, then it will cause discomfort and pain when a contact is taken up. Of course, simply saying that you need to make sure your bit is fitted correctly isn’t helpful advice in isolation. There are now so many different brands and some innovative materials and designs which could leave you scratching your head about how to make sure they’re correctly fitted.
Thankfully, here at the Horse Bit Bank, we’ve got you covered with our top tips for getting your bit fit right. It’s worth taking a look at your horse’s mouth confirmation (maybe comparing them to other horses in the yard) before you kick off, so that you can gauge if they have fleshy lips, small lips and the size of their tongue. We have some helpful information about assessing mouth confirmation here, in case you’d like some tips. Knowing how much space your horse has in their mouth can help you choose the bit diameter and mouthpiece style which suits them best.
Getting the bit height right for your horse
The classic advice for bit height is to make sure there are one to one-and-a-half wrinkles in the corner of the horse’s mouth when the fit is fitted. However, whether the bit is actually at the right height when those wrinkles are present actually hinges on how short the horse's mouth is from the corner of the lip to the muzzle, and also how fat the lips are. That’s why we don’t advise our clients to use the ‘wrinkle rule’. Opening the mouth to see where the bit is sitting on the bars is a much better way to do it, and you should be checking it sits evenly over both bars and when the contact is taken, it doesn’t knock the teeth. You can sit the bit slightly higher on the bars for a horse which likes to get its tongue over the bit, and seating it slightly lower can help a young horse learn to mouth the bit.
How fixed cheek bits should be fitted
If your bit of choice has fixed cheeks, you can go for a slightly snugger width fit than you would for a loose-ring bit. That’s so that when you’re asking them to turn, the bit doesn’t get pulled through the mouth. The lips can be gently brushing up against the cheekpiece but not squashed in, and check this with and without the contact being taken.
How to fit a loose-ring bit
How a loose ring bit fits is dependent on the type of mouthpiece you’re using but they will all need to be slightly wider than a fixed cheek style, to avoid the horse’s lips getting pinched in the hole the bit ring slides in. Once you’ve made sure that’s the case, take up the contact as if you’re in the saddle.
With a lozenge or French link-style loose ring bit you should find the cheek pieces move further away from the lips, removing the risk of pinching. A single-jointed loose-ring bit will shorten into a ‘v’ shape (which you need to check isn’t impacting the horse’s pallet), and that brings the cheek pieces closer to the lips, so you may need a wider bit. An unjointed loose ring bit, so a straight bar or a mullen mouth, won’t shorten up when the contact is taken so should stay away from the lips.
How to measure your existing bit
If you’ve had your eye on a new bit from our wide selection of brands and styles, you’ll want to know which size to buy. There are several ways you can find out, the first and most simple being to find out what size your existing bit is and then working out if you need the new one to be narrower or wider depending on the information above (for example if you’re changing from fixed to loose ring cheeks). If it’s a new horse that you don’t already have a bit for then you can borrow bits from other riders and see which fits the horse best, to get an estimate of what you need. We also have a downloadable bit sizing guide from Neue Schule (take a look here) which also has a handy mouthpiece diameter guide on it.