Whole Bit Better

By Lisa Fergason Equines by Design, Sanger, TX

These bitting ideas of the Mylers fit right in with our efforts toward having “The mule as a Willing Partner”. When Ron Myler was training horses and competing in rodeos, he realized to make a better horse he had to communicate more effectively with them. “And that required a relaxed horse, ready and willing to receive a rider’s message.”

Ron studied bits, noticing that in many cases the bits would not send the message he had intended, rather causing the horse to be resistant, “...the greater the resistance, the less effective the communication.” He looked at the function of the bit, the anatomy of the equine mouth and determined that some small changes in the construction of the bit would make some big changes in how comfortable and effective it would be to the animal. He experimented with some changes on bits made by his brother Bob who was good at working with metal. Dale Myler, riding reining and pleasure horses, also worked on improving the design.

Ron and Dale spend a lot of their time on the road now giving bitting seminars, but also gaining new insights from horsemen for even better bits.

An Unusual Concept!

Having a problem with your mule being resistant, not paying attention to the bit? GO SOFTER!

Ron pointed out the goal of a bit was to reduce the escape, to make the animal comfortable enough that he did not try to escape or be resistant. “Horses speak through resistance. The horse is communicating that he’s trying to be good, but needs something different. It is at resistance that we need to give them opportunity. That is when you give them a softer bit.”

That’s opposite of what you would think! Most people believe if they are having a problem, they need to go to a more severe bit. The Mylers say that you need to go softer! When the horse or mule is resisting the bit, the bit is too much and he can’t relax. Go to a softer bit which will reduce the resistance, he’ll relax and accept the more comfortable communication through the bit! And we all know that these mules can ignore pain and run through a bit when they want to--whipping on the mule and jerking on the bit won’t work! Better training and a more comfortable bit is the solution for the mule!

What’s makes a bit comfortable?

Tongue relief:

Last month, I told you about a problem that Ron fixed on a mule just by going to a little wider bit, more fitted to the shape of the mule’s mouth and tongue, the animal was fixed as soon as he got tongue release. As the tongue is the most sensitive part of the animal’s mouth, Myler bits build tongue relief is built into all their bits, the mouthpieces are curved forward to allow the animal to swallow easier.

Bits with a lot of tongue pressure-- the curb bit has the mouthpiece built even with the cheek or shank, full time tongue pressure, restricting the tongue and making it harder for the animal to swallow.

These Myler snaffle and curb bit mouthpieces have a rounded, forward pitch that reduces tongue pressure and allow the animal to swallow easily.

Opposite of what you probably thought...

Most people think that little or no port makes the bit milder. How could it be milder when that allows for no tongue relief--it will be more uncomfortable.

The upward curve of bits with a port allow for some tongue relief for swallowing. A high port is not severe if it fits the horse and designed with the top of the port rolled back to fit the horse’s mouth. If the animal has a wide tongue, it may need a wider port to be comfortable (seems like most of our mules have wider tongues than our horses, so we are really happy with how our mules work with a wider ported bit.)

So the Myler bitting philosophies knock down some fallacies. I highly recommend the book--there’s a lot more detail in the book including a lot of basics and bitting and training strategies. Next month we’ll look at who uses these bits, high profile riders in the professional horse world and successful trainers in the mule world. And we’ll show some of the features of a bit that can solve some problems, like dropping a shoulder or not breaking at the poll.