Western Tack For Sale

Is a sweet iron copper inlay bit just for green horses?

I keep hearing about how this is the perfect bit for training green horses. Is it just for green horses??

Copper is a metal that is very sweet and therefore makes a horse develop more saliva, however, it's a very soft metal - a bit with a mouthpiece made completely of copper can become quite a hazardous device if a horse chomps at it or chews or something that causes gouges and sharp edges.

Sweet Iron is a metal that is intended to oxidize, the oxidation also creates a sweet flavor or a flavor that causes the horse to salivate as well (I think the "sweet" might be a misnomer, as we don't know what horses consider 'sweet'). However, these bits look kinda poor when they've oxidized a lot.

Thus the copper inlay - it allows the copper content to create salivation while not endangering the horse's comfort with sharp or irregular edges.

Stainless steel on the other hand creates a drier mouth - if a horse is overly drooly, stainless steel can help take care of that problem.

I would not make a general statement that bits such as you've described are only for green horses. It is a known fact that a moist mouth is more able to detect movements of the mouthpiece than a dry mouth. Therefore, we try to keep the horse's mouth as moist without becoming too much so and keep it quiet (which can also play a part - if the horse is keeping their mouth closed to perhaps suck on the bit like a candy, they are properly positioned to listen - get what I mean?

Quite often young horses are worried a bit by what is happening and may become rather dry-mouthed. The swet iron and copper tend to help them keep thier mouths moist.

I personally can't remember a time using a bit without any copper in it. My horses, young and old have always seemed to do better in such a bit than those without anything like that.

I think what's more important is knowledge in bit mechanics - once one knows how and why a bit works and is able to use it competently as a communication tool, such items as copper mouth or not can simply fine-tune what's working - if one is having bit problems, such as resistance, copper likely isn't going to take care of the problem - a whole different bit will be needed and perhaps the copper just becomes the small part of the equation that gives it just a little boost.

Hope you get what I'm trying to say.....

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