The mandible (bottom jaw), is significantly narrower than the maxilla (top jaw). When you put a tight noseband around the horses head, the sensitive tissue inside the mouth can be pushed against the top teeth, creating lesions in the tissue. The noseband sits on the infraorbital nerves. That pressure will cause pain, then numbness, or worse, could damage the nerve, resulting in permanent loss of sensation. Low drop nosebands sit on the fragile nasal bones. This is painful, even torturous for the horse. When the skulls of horses that have died are examined, you see many fractures in the nasal bones. Drop nosebands should be banned.

The bars of the mouth have a sharp, knife-like top edge. The tongue rests on these bars, and the bit sits on top of the tongue. People talk about the pressure on the tongue from the bit, but what they should be more concerned about is pressure on the tongue from below, as the bit pushes the tongue against the sharp edge of the bars. This is quite uncomfortable for the horse, and he starts moving his tongue around, trying to get away from the pain. Or, he may manage to get his tongue over the bit, which is even more painful, as the delicate tissue on top of the bars gets smashed down against the sharp edge of the bars. This is why we see the most popular bit in the world is the three ring snaffle, as this tends to lift up away from the bars. The problem with this is that the bit gets lifted onto the horse's molars, which is also very uncomfortable.

There are some, such as the Micklem bridle, that take these issues into consideration in their design, and produce a humane bridle.

Muscle problems can also be a result of compensation for foot problems, being overweight, or arthritis. Particularly horses that have chronically sore backs, even after chiropractic, massage, etc. For example, a horse with arthritic hocks will compensate by overusing his low back muscles to swing his leg forward.

*Repetitive motion creates muscle shortness. Muscle shortness creates skeletal misalignment. If we never release a short muscle, it stays short. That's where I come in. I release spasms and I lengthen tissue. I find all the areas of shortened muscle.*

When I hear riders say, "My horse is having a bad day." Or, "My horse is uncooperative." Or, "My horse is stubborn about training." It's probably the horse telling us, "I'm not comfortable." Most people don't realize there's anything wrong until something happens, or worse, the horse goes lame.

Some obvious signs that your horse is hurting are, if your horse pins his ears when you saddle him. If your horse turns to nip you when you saddle him. Or if he starts to buck, or starts exhibiting some sort of negative behavior. This is the horse trying to tell you, "I hurt, I can't take it anymore!"

I'm asking you to see your horse differently and to recognize signs of potential problems that may be developing. It's much easier, and better for all involved, to resolve a problem when it's small, and avoid it escalating into a big problem that could possibly leave permanent damage and be much more expensive to treat.

Every horse owner I know is madly in love their horse and would never purposely harm them, but horsemanship skills passed down from previous generations need to be questioned and examined for cause and effect.

If your horse is having motion lameness issues, if your horse acts up while trying to saddle him, if your horse is having behavioral issues related to training, or if you want an extra edge in the show ring to bring home a blue ribbon, perhaps your horse would benefit from massage.