Too much salivia or not?

[Gorgeous George]

When I was watching the video of us doing our dressage test yesterday I noticed that George was producing loads of salivia and it was ending up all over the place. I think I'm right that it's good if they have a 'wet' mouth but is salivia flying all over the place a bad sign? He doesn't chomp the bit and wears a french link fulmer snaffle and drop noseband.

Thanks

 

[AmyMay]

I read quite recently - but can't remember where - that too much saliva, aka ice cream mouth, is not a good thing. Can be a sign that the bit is too thick.

 

[Shipley]

Its always good to have a bit, as it shows they are relaxed with the bit. too much I am not sure There was an article on it cant remember where though so not a lot of help really.

 

[UCD2007]

It is thought to be a good thing when a horse salivates. It shows that the horse is relaxed, accepting of the bit and generally light on the bit. If you look at videos of most top riders (especially dressage) the horses generally salivating quite a bit.

 

[AmyMay]

Knew I'd read it somewhere; The study tested horses in a combination of different bits and looked at the rate and ability to swallow whilst being worked in canter with a flexed poll.

The study concluded that certain types of bits affected the rate at which the horse swallowed, with a myler bit (low port) resulting in the least occurance of swallowing.

 

[merlinsquest]

I also thought I had read that it was bad for horses to have excessive foaming, but I thought it was myler that said their bits allowed the horse to swallow and were therefore superior.....

Now merlin foams excessively even when hacking and I wondered if he has trouble swallowing while tacked up

but he manages to eat mints and stuff with his bridle on so cant think that that is the case

I would say its better to be foamy than dry anyway

 

[Gorgeous George]

hmmm, it's happened since I changed his bit to the fulmer and noseband to the drop (goes much better in them), you can just about see in this picture the salivia flying about!

The bit is plain metal and not particularly thick. He seems to have no trouble eating mints and grass!

 

[Abbeygale]

A yard I used to work on with dressage horses, one of the old boys, who was retired from competition used to start literally frothing at the mouth as soon as he had the bit in his mouth. I think some horses will produce more saliva than others - this old boy used to dribble quite a lot in general though.... Bless him....

Maybe George was just doing his best "posh dressage" tactics with an aim to get higher points by salivating more! - and it looks like it worked!!!

He looks very lovely in your pic

 

[SAL66]

My gelding produes a lot of salivia when in the school or in a test, it would appear the more he has to concentrate the more he produces.
On a hck when he is relaxed he does foam up at all, it is probably nothing to do with his concentartion level at all .

I'm not overly concerned I would worry more if his mouth was dry as a bone.