Here's the Bit: Is it humane to use bits in horses?
Today I discuss bits: a commonly used piece of tack used to control the horse by the mouth. They've been used for thousands of years and come in many different variations. But are they ethical to use? Are they painful? What is a good alternative?
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zoognosisjoy...
Mimbres School: https://mimbres.study.garden/
Sources
Bennett, Dwight G. "An overview of bits and bitting." In Proceedings Focus on Dentistry Meeting. 2006.
Cook, W. Robert. "Pathophysiology of bit control in the horse." Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 19, no. 3 (1999): 196-204.
Cook, W. R., and M. Kibler. "Behavioural assessment of pain in 66 horses, with and without a bit." Equine Veterinary Education 31, no. 10 (2019): 551-560.
Duberstein, Kylee J., and Edward L. Johnson. "Bits 101." University of Georgia Bulletin 1379 (2014): 1-6.
Lee, Robert Emmons. "Ancient Roman curb bits." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 11 (1900): 151-157.
Mattfeld, Monica. "Machines of Feeling: Bits and Interspecies Communication in the Eighteenth Century." Equestrian Cultures: Horses, Human Society, and the Discourse of Modernity (2019): 11-26.
Mellor, David J. "Mouth pain in horses: Physiological foundations, behavioural indices, welfare implications, and a suggested solution." Animals 10, no. 4 (2020): 572.
Taylor, William Timothy Treal, and Christina Isabelle Barrón-Ortiz. "Rethinking the evidence for early horse domestication at Botai." Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (2021): 7440.
Tuomola, Kati, Nina Mäki-Kihniä, Minna Kujala-Wirth, Anna Mykkänen, and Anna Valros. "Oral lesions in the bit area in Finnish Trotters after a race: Lesion evaluation, scoring, and occurrence." Frontiers in veterinary science 6 (2019): 206.
Images
By fr:User:LardonCru - fr:Image:Mors-Simple.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Tsaag Valren - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By derivative work: Una Smith (talk)Polo_070922_18.jpg: User:Nelly2 - Polo_070922_18.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Kati Tuomola, Nina Mäki-Kihniä, Minna Kujala-Wirth, Anna Mykkänen and Anna Valros - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/..., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Magic Foundry - 043 Lindum 2008, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Tsaag Valren - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Weronika Klecel, Elżbieta Martyniuk - From the Eurasian Steppes to the Roman Circuses: A Review of Early Development of Horse Breeding and ManagementProvided under CC BY 4.0 license (page 1):Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
“On Horses,” Noah Trap (2023). Used with Permission. / penkeeper
By The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Amélie Tsaag Valren - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Alex brollo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...