Dear Horse Nation: A community advice column
Reader Ella Rak has a problem–her horse likes to let his tongue flap in the breeze when she rides him, which doesn’t go over too well with dressage judges. Got advice?
Dear Horse Nation,
I am an avid Horse Nation and Eventing Nation reader who has a problem I was hoping you or your readers could help me with. I am a lower-level eventer competing my former upper-level horse at the Beginner Novice and hopefully soon Novice levels. When I bought him I was told his tongue was tied out when he was raced on the steeplechase track and that it became a habit to have it out.
My problem is that my horse sticks his tongue out. I’m not talking just a smidgen, I’m talking about 6+ inches of slimy tonuge flying in the wind. It doesn’t matter the weather, bridle, bit, or time of day, if he has a bit in his mouth his tongue is out. I normally wouldn’t consider this a problem as it is what makes him happy, half the time he will even do it in his stall, but I have found that when his tongue is out, out goes any chance of doing well in the dressage phase. He has been eventing for 10+ years with it out, but I am adamant that I will get it back in.
I have tried everything I can think of from stuffing peppermints in his mouth, cranking up his flash, even wrapping his bit in Fruit Roll Ups. He has perfect teeth, and absolutely no medical reason as to why he would do this. I attached a picture of him jumping to show just how far out it goes. I was just hoping that anyone would have any idea of how to get it back in, even just for the 5-minute dressage test. Thank you so much for your help.
Ella Rak
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I know you can’t show in it (which I personally think is silly), but have you tried a bitless bridle to see if he still needs to feel the wind in his tongue without a bit? I’d just be curious to see if it’s just that he has a bit in his mouth at all, although you say he sometimes does it in his stall as well… Just a thought.
Have you tried riding him with no flash and the cavesson buckled loosely enough to allow two fingers to fit between the leather and the horse? I suspect that if he lolls his tongue while in the stall, he has built a habit, but at least that’s worth a try. The two-finger rule has always been the proper way to bridle a horse, but with the rampant use of flashes and crank nosebands too many riders ignore the comfort of their horse for a quick fix.
The tongue lolling is an anxiety reaction, probably acquired when his tongue was tied while racing. If he does it in his stall, as you said, does he get any turnout? Every horse needs as much turnout as they can get, and a stall-bound horse is definitely going to show anxiety by tongue lolling or other vices. If your present stable has no turnout it might be a good time to find another barn, even with 24/7 turnout.
But in your search for a solution to his tongue lolling, please don’t resort to a tighter flash or crank. Tying his mouth shut will do nothing to lessen his anxiety. He needs less on his head, not more. Speaking of that, does he loll his tongue when wearing a halter? If he doesn’t, there’s an answer for you. He does not like confinement, either with a tight bridle or a stall. Try riding him in a halter as an experiment, and get him some more turnout in addition.
If he doesn’t loll his tongue when ridden in a halter, you can slowly re-condition him to a bridle by going from a halter to a bitless bridle to a bridle with no cavesson to a regulation bridle you can compete in. It’ll take time but until you get his tongue back in his mouth you’re not getting anything from competing anyway.
I have the same problem with my otherwise very lovely OTTB mare. I don’t know that I have the solution, but we are making progress (gone from tongue out 95% of the time to as low as 10% when schooling at home and somewhere in between at shows).
What we did:
1. (the easy part) We switched to a Micklem bridle. Not a cure, but made her more receptive to …
2. (the hard part) Riding the mare 100% straight and through. When she is “there”, she keeps her tongue in and is a dream horse. If she is as little as 1/4 inch out or not quite stepping up, it comes back. I didn’t believe my dressage guru when he told me that it could be fixed by addressing those problems, but by golly he’s right. And the mare wasn’t obviously crooked or “unthrough”: in her case it’s a very subtle thing. A clinic or lesson a super dressage instructor (one who believes that the horse should be relaxed, forward and through not a crank and yank) might give you some insight as to whether that’s your horse’s problem.
Best of luck: it’s frustrating as all get out and hard to get any good event pictures from their “tongue” side!
There was an article in Dressage Today about 2 issues ago on this very topic. Turned out that the tongue-hanging-out was a secondary effect of some other training or flexibility issue. Was a good long article, too, several pages IIRC.
When I read frugalanni’s post, I thought of something. My Lusitano mare has–actually HAD, it’s better now–a very busy mouth. The only way to quiet her mouth was to ask her to do something all the time. She had no time to devote to her mouth b/c she was completely focused on the task at hand. What frugalanni was doing with her mare–getting her 100% straight and through–is basically the same thing: requiring the mare to concentrate entirely on what is being asked of her. The mare had no time to fret about other things.
Try that with your boy. Keep him busy all the time, and expect him to be “with you” all the time. If the tongue lolling is just a habit now–not an anxiety reaction b/c you’re not giving him anything to be anxious about–notice if he keeps his tongue in when he’s thinking about what he’s doing vs daydreaming. Expect more of him.
I’d suggest taking a few lessons with an instructor who understands the human/horse connection, who can teach you how to keep him with you, mentally, as you ride him. It’s easy to say,”Just keep him thinking about what you’re asking,” and much harder to know how to do that. I thought I was a pretty good rider, but not until I took some lessons from a natural horsemanship trainer did I learn of the importance of the human/horse relationship. Regardless of the discipline you ride–in my case dressage–you still need to connect with your horse and him with you. Good luck.
I’d suggest taking off the flash completely, and loosening up the noseband immensely–even taking it off.