yes, my jaspar seats his bit. I had read True Horsemanship and when I got to the part about keeping the bit loose i thought oh yeah like that'll work, maybe with him but not me... then I had to put another horse's bridle on Jaspar one day and leave on a ride in a hurry, It hung down so low the bit almost fell out of his mouth and I thought dang, and went and saddled him, turned back to adjust the bridle and he had picked up his bit. So now I leave it that way for him.
Another thing I learned at the time that amazed me, from the same book, he said "dont get in a hurry" when bridling, that the horse perceives it as rude and it can start off your whole ride on a bad footing. He said when you get the bit to his teeth dont just clank it against his teeth til he opens his mouth, or force his mouth open, and when you get the bit "shoved in" dont "jam the ears under the leather" at the top. and again i thought yeah right. I was having to bridle jaspar by standing on a mounting block while he was tied brutally short to a cross tie. He would brace every ounce of his being and hold his head and turn it this way and that, as much as he could move while I wrestled the bridle and bit on him--- just telling this makes me smile, its amazing, i can hardly even remember my Jaspar like this it was so long ago! But anyway, in the book True Horsemanship Through feel Dorrance says "ASK him politely if he will take the bit, offer it and ask him with respect" and i thought oh man, this guy does not even know a horse like my horse... So I go out, I crank him in tied short to the cross tie, I drag up my stool and climb up and there he is braced as tight and stubborn as always and I just took the bit and offered it to him, just rested it against his tight stubborn lips and in a soft soothing voice I said "Jaspar, will you take this bit" and if anyone had been around I would have laughed it was so ludicrous a thought, but when his lips plopped open and he parted his teeth for the bit I liked to fell off the dang stool!! from that moment on, bridling my horses has always been a very loving, almost sacredly gentle and loving act. And they all lower their head for me, each and every one. Janice-- yipie tie yie yo
