Tales from the Horse's Mouth: Part Two
It can be a nerve-racking time for you and your horse. Until now, you've been getting to know him as a friend and establishing your relationship, identifying the boundaries and developing trust. Now it's the start of a whole new phase: your friend will become your business partner, as you start your "professional", grown-up lives together in riding and competition.
We all know a horse who's as gentle as a lamb while you're at the end of a halter rope, but who suddenly transforms into a fizzing bundle of barely-contained energy as soon as you get into the saddle. As you walk towards your horse with the bridle for the first time, you'll be entering new territory, and you'll have no idea how he will behave - will he suddenly start to play up as soon as you introduce tack? Will the sight of a bit or bridle trigger some personality trait you never before knew existed?
The good news is that this is pretty unlikely if you have done your initial ground work well. If you already have a good, strong relationship with your horse, a calm horse on the ground is likely to become a calm horse under saddle. Introducing his tack should just be a matter of continuing to handle him and understand him in the way you have been until now.
The methods for introducing a bit for the first time vary enormously, but the main thing to remember is that the more gentle you are, and the slower you take things, the less likely your horse is to associate his first experience of this strange object with discomfort or fear.
Some coat the bit mouthpiece with honey to help with acceptance: others use flavoured coatings. I find the honey method works fine the first time - but takes you back to square one when you need to put the bit in without any flavouring. And you end up cleaning honey off yourself and your horse for days afterwards!
My own feeling is that if the right bit is chosen (see my previous article in this series, Tales from the Horse's Mouth: Part One), then this will be perfectly acceptable to the horse as it is if it is introduced well.
You'll need to prepare a little by adjusting the bridle. I generally take the browband, reins and noseband off, as these tend to get in the way and are not necessary at this stage. You will also need to roughly fit the bridle cheekpieces to the right length (hold them up against the horse's face) before you start, so that there is not too much fiddly adjusting to do once you have it on. Unhook the bit ring on the left side, so the bit is dangling from the right cheekpiece.
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