'Horse opening mouth'

[Spinal Tap]

I'd appreciate people's views on this. Not judge-bashing by the way, just interested, honest I went to an unaffiliated ODE this weekend with a friend, her horse has always been very fussy in his mouth but she has found a bit (loose ring sweet iron French link snaffle) that he goes well in. He can be hacked, dressaged, showjumped & competed xc in this bit with a plain cavesson noseband. He does lick & chew a fair amount as he goes around, but he stays soft in his poll/neck & doesn't cross his jaw or lock up/lean against the bit. However the judge this weekend made a couple of comments saying 'horse opening mouth' on his test sheet and seemed to mark him down for it. This was just a BE90 eventing test, nothing fancy. My friend's attitude was 'yep, he does open his mouth, fair enough' but I was a bit peeved on her behalf! Mind you one of my pet hates is horses having their mouths ratcheted shut so maybe I'm overreacting.

Any thoughts or opinions - am I being unreasonable? (Won't be the first time ).

 

[Halfstep]

It is a fair observation. Opening mouth will always be marked down, both in the movement itself and in the submission collective. It is an evasion of the contact, and often is a symptom of tension in the body, and especially in the hind legs.

 

[Spinal Tap]

It is a fair observation. Opening mouth will always be marked down, both in the movement itself and in the submission collective. It is an evasion of the contact, and often is a symptom of tension in the body, and especially in the hind legs.

Thanks for that I think my gut reaction was a side-effect of 'so if she sticks a crank & a flash on him she'll do better, right?' - just goes against the grain with me. I didn't notice him being particularly tense but then I'm not a judge

 

[TarrSteps]

Welllll. . . a good judge should notice if the horse is "trying" to open its mouth, even in a flash/drop and penalise accordingly. At the very least, ridability should suffer and be reflected in the marks.

I have to say, though, that's not been my experience. I ride a lot of horses at home with no noseband (and would be happy to do so in competition if it were allowed) but even I would have to admit there's a reason you see so many dressage horses in flashes.

 

[Spinal Tap]

My old cob used to open his mouth & I strapped it shut with a flash, looking back on it now there was no reason to do it other than because having his mouth open was 'bad' or so people told me. I never actually looked at why he did it, I just treated the symptom not the cause. He did really well - scored 78% in trailblazers dressage twice - but as soon as you took off the flash he would go round with his jaw crossed and his mouth wide open My current horse went through a 'gobby' phase but after using a drop for a bit I took it off & just let her chew if she wanted to, and after a while she stopped. She does occasionally have a bit of a chew, apparently she looks like she's muttering to herself in exasperation at me!

 

[coss]

it depends on the judge how much they will be marked down for it but opening mouth is a way to evade the contact hence it will be observed... finding a way to get the horse to accept the contact more though is time consuming - i'm not saying stick a flash on, but i know some horses that are relaxed in jaw etc with a flash and relax more to the contact. if you know its a problem, you know its a problem and i think your friends attitude was right

 

[Festive_Felicitations]

Beau is inclined to do the same thing he trots along chewing/opening his mouth in time to his stride, speed up the trot and he will chew faster to a point - quite funny to watch! The thing is he only does it when he relaxes and starts to really work through his back and be all light and flexible as he has really relaxed his mouth/bottom jaw. The rest of the time he is clenching his jaw so hard or leaning on the bit that he can't open it!

So we have had the same comment on DR sheets, and just hope that one day he will grow out of it, but I'm never going to put him in a flash as he doesn't need it and I don't like them!

 

[Spinal Tap]

Good for you! I don't think this horse will be having his mouth strapped shut anytime soon either, he is happy, so is his mum and they compete to have have fun, it's not about the ribbons!

I'm sure Phillippe Karl thinks that horses licking & chewing is a good thing, mind you he seems to think the whole 'scales of training' thing that dressage judging is based on is flawed. So if anyone asks why these horses have their mouths open, we can say we're following the classical school of Phillipe Karl