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We all have habits, it's just an ugly fact of life. If you think about it, many habits involve the mouth: drinking, smoking, chewing, eating, biting fingernails, sucking pacifiers or thumbs, biting your cheek or tongue, chomping on gum, chewing pens and other stuff, jaw clenching, grinding teeth... you get the point.
The truth is nearly every horse also has a mouth habit: playing with the bit, constantly working the mouth, cribbing, chewing on things, etc.
There are also a few mouth habits of horses which we do not recognize, because they are subtle. Here are two main habits, which I see on a regular basis.
Tongue sucking
Jaw clenching
Both of which usually coincide with irregular breathing or the holding of breath. These habits quickly cause detrimental issues, such as breathing and swallowing difficulty, choking, bleeding, pneumonia, coughing, presumed allergies and colic.
So, what is it about the mouth, that generates so many habits? First of all, why do we need habits anyway?
People and horses also, feel the need to have a habit or three or five, to relax from situations perceived as stressful... but, what is so significant about the mouth?
Using the mouth stimulates cranial nerve #9, which is primarily for salivation. Salivation is important to keep the mouth moist and aids some in digestion.
However, cranial nerve #9 also plays another significant role. A reset button for the nervous system.
The stress reactive and non-thinking side of the nervous system (sympathetic) instinctively responds to situations that are stressful, fearful or threatening.
The calm and thinking side of the nervous system (parasympathetic), also known as "rest and digest", is the side which we all, horses included, prefer to be on.
It's the side, which we must be on if we want to respond appropriately to circumstances, learn new things, remember useful information or feel tranquil, calm and relaxed. Without the parasympathetic, there is no enjoyment in life. No thriving, only surviving.
Stimulating cranial nerve #9, serves as a neurological short cut to move out of the sympathetic back into the parasympathetic.
Horses are naturally tranquil and cooperative creatures. Therefore, they desire to live their lives in the parasympathetic, without any drama!
(I know a few people, who could use a lesson on that... just saying)
Anyway, with that said, horses were created to eat, drink, fight, breed and die. Nothing we humans do with a horse is "natural" or tranquil for the horse...it's all stressful!
Mouth habits in horses, begin at a very young age. Depending on how soon training is introduced and how much emotional relief the horse needs, determines the extent of the habit.
Tongue sucking and jaw clenching are the main go to, for horses, because they are quiet sneaky habits, which humans rarely notice. Hence, these habits (pacifiers) are rarely untrained or taken away.
So why does this matter? It matters because when a horse continually sucks its tongue, the epiglottis (the flapper between the airway and esophagus) becomes entrapped.
This entrapment leads to swallowing and breathing issues, usually misdiagnosed as allergies. Furthermore, the added stress on the lungs causes lung spasms.
Most horses with this habit eventually become nebulizer bound, to "pull the gunk" out of the lungs and decrease inflammation. That "gunk" is actually food and dirt, which has been inhaled and aspirated.
Due to the continual strain on the lungs, to sustain life and meet the demands of competition, these horses eventually become "bleeders".
Jaw clenching also leads to swallowing and breathing issues, with the added distress of poll restriction/pain, esophageal torsion and tongue retraction.
Poll restriction leads to cranial nerve impingement, causing behaviors such as head tossing, head shyness, ear sensitivity, pulling back and rearing, not to mention dental imbalance.
Dental imbalance leads to poor occlusion, therefore poor mastication
(grinding of food) and eventually impaction colic.
Esophageal torsion and tongue retraction, nearly always result in choking. This torsion and retraction also wreak havoc in the frontend, causing lameness, imbalance, mobility restriction and coffin bone changes / pain, usually misdiagnosed as navicular.
These habits are quickly, easily and successfully resolved with Equinitryology and Gnathology techniques, a little dedication, accurate timing and amygdala reversal.
Have yourself a very Knotty day!
Love Jennifer
"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken"
- Warren Buffett
www.knottyequine.com