“Hey Maddy, my horse is avoiding the bridle every time I tack up. I’m using the same bit, and teeth have been checked! Help!” – Victoria

Hi Victoria, it can be really frustrating when you take care of your horse’s needs like regular dental and a correctly fitting bit, but then all of a sudden, their behaviour can change ! But, I think I might have some solutions for you 😉

I’m going to assume that along with the regular dental work etc you’ve already completed, that your bridle actually fits and isn’t hanging too long/low in the horse’s mouth or is pinching behind the ears. 

I’m going to suggest the change in behaviour will be down to one (or both) of these two things:

1. Is the bridle being put on in a way that is comfortable for the horse?

2. How does your horse work when he has his bridle on?

Ok, let me explain each one. The first one is pretty easy for us to understand – if we are rushing (and hey, I totally get it, we lead busy lives and time is precious) then sometimes we might accidentally pull the bridle when putting it on. 

Our horse’s faces and ears are incredibly sensitive. Their whiskers around their muzzle are connected to your horse’s nervous system and designed to give essential feedback about your horse’s surroundings. If we did accidentally, hurt or limit the use of these whiskers, even for a moment while the bridle is going on, then our horses are going to naturally, become more cautious about letting us near certain parts of their body. 

Lots of horses also have bad experiences of pain or at the very least, feeling uncomfortable, as their ears are ‘folded’ to fit under the headpiece or ear piece of the bridle. Some horses have past fears of ‘ear twitching’ and can sometimes have triggered fears if enough care isn’t taken around their ears. 

I would also analyse how you take your bridle off. Some horses can pull away sharply when a bridle is taken off, or some immediately start scratching and rubbing their head on the person trying to untangle themselves from the mess of mane, horse head, reins and bridle pieces.

In these cases, the bit can accidentally ‘drop’ out of the horse’s mouth as they move unexpectedly. This often clangs the metal bit against the horse’s teeth. Ever scraped your tooth against a metal knife or fork? Ever accidentally knocked a tooth against a glass? Not nice is it.. same applies for our horses. 

So whilst we may not even be aware of a past incident, we can certainly set ourselves up for future success by practicing proactive handling. 

I show my methods for easy bridling as part of the Basic Handling series in our Video Library monthly subscription too. 

2. Bridling as a symptom of a larger issue

This second one is a little more difficult to ‘diagnose’ but is a very common reason why our horses struggle with the bridle being put on. Particularly if there is a sudden change in the horse’s previous behaviour.

If your horse is struggling in his work whilst being ridden, then he might start protesting to all the precursors to ridden work; things like tacking up, bridling, grooming and even being caught. However, this does not mean that you are the cause of this either.

Perhaps you are starting to move up a level with your jumping, and your horse isn’t feeling confident at that height so he is starting to rush and getting ‘strong’ in your hand. So you apply a little more pressure to keep him on course, or to slow down, or adjust a stride. The real issue in this example is that the horse is not confident with the height of the jump or the lines you’re taking, so applying more half halts, more rein pressure just puts more physical and mental pressure onto the horse. 

By going back down a grade/height and working on building the horse’s confidence with his lines or adjusting his stride length means that your larger issue is actually solving itself. This results in a happier, calmer horse. In turn, he can view being ridden more positively and in turn he will be happier to be tacked up and bridled. 

Not a showjumper and that example means nothing to you? Ok, how about this: 

You’re on a trail and your horse is a little spooky, you can just feel he’s a little ball of nervous energy underneath you. You just know there’s a spook coming. Let’s leave the training issues about why a horse spooks to the side for a moment. A rabbit suddenly emerges from the path just to your left, and now you’re holding onto your reins like your life depends on it. Because, let’s be honest, it probably does. You regain control pretty quickly and give your horse a little pat on the neck and whisper ‘mate that was unnecessary’ and head for home before your luck runs out. We’ve all been there. 

But what did this experience teach your horse?

Well, he doesn’t know that you were holding onto those reins to not only keep yourself in the saddle, but to also stop him from turning himself into a 15hh quarter horse version of Secretariat and heading for the hills. 

What he felt was a whole lot of anxiety as the rabbit (he was pretty sure it was a lion mind you) leaped from the bushes and then the person on his back applied even more emotional and physical pressure. He probably felt pretty validated in his initial reaction thinking ‘see, I told you the rabbit was terrifying, you were scared too’… the thing is, you weren’t scared of him, you were scared of coming off – but he doesn’t and can’t know that. 

So now, your horse associates riding with (accidentally) getting pulled in the mouth. Which isn’t your fault, but it does give us a reason why.

And maybe it’s not a specific moment or incident like in those above examples, maybe he’s telling you that the kind of riding that’s going on isn’t currently enjoyable. Perhaps he is developing contact issues in the bridle and this is the first sign of that. 

My video library also covers contact issues in the bridle and how to ride the horse whilst supporting them to find a more consistent, soft contact. 

How can we help change this?

Well, if it’s an issue with how the bridle goes on and off, then we can definitely reprogram how our horses view bridling. We can work using Positive Reinforcement (R+) to teach our horses to lower their head for the bridle. We can teach them using R+ to search for the bit and effectively bridle themselves by placing their head onto or in the bridle. 

If it’s riding incident or ongoing problem as I mentioned above, then you can working on rebuilding a more positive picture of riding. This is achieved by creating lots of micro wins within a ride, showing your horse that those past experiences are ‘outliers’ rather than the ‘norm’. This requires us to revisit some of our riding training methods and look for ways to set our horses up for success. 

It can be really hard when our horses change behaviour, because sometimes it’s really hard to remain neutral and kindly reflect on our role in the change in behaviour without being unfairly harsh on ourselves. Just because your horse’s behaviour changes, this does not mean that you caused it, and it does not mean you’ve let the horse down. In fact, you’ve identified an area of concern and you are proactively searching for ways to positively and kindly support your horse. I love that! 

Thank you for your question, Victoria. All the best with your journey with your horse! 

• Maddy