Bits in history

For six thousand years, we have used bits in horses mouths based on the premise of constant pressure and pain for the horse. I often wondered what would happen if you took all the pain and the constant pressure away? Would the horse run off over the hill and never come back or would it turn to you as much as to say “thank you, where have you been for the last 6000 years?”

From this the idea of the Hippus Bit was created.

A bit is not just some device made to stop or slow the horse, not to frame, collect, set his neck, nor make his head vertical or sit him on his hindquarters; a bit is the front door key, it is the way into a mysterious house, the way you use it it will determine whether you make the house a 'home' or a haunted nightmare.

Around 400 BC, the greek cavalry general Xenophon wrote:
"If one induces the horse to assume that carriage which it would adopt of his own accord when displaying its beauty, then, one directs the horse to appear joyous and magnificent, proud and remarkable for having been ridden".﻿﻿

Photo by Lucas Garcia on Unsplash