27/07/2026
Have you ever wondered how much room there really is inside your horse’s mouth?
You might look at a large horse and assume they have plenty of room for a bit. But some heavier horses have thicker tongues and fuller, fleshier lips—leaving much less usable space than their size might suggest.
At the other end of the scale, finer breeds such as Arabians may also have limited room due to the individual shape of their mouth and palate.
The truth is, you cannot judge the size of a horse’s mouth simply by looking at the size of the horse.
Just like us, every horse is different.
Some have thicker tongues. Some have lower palates. Some have less space between the upper and lower jaw, while others have full, sensitive lips that may be pinched by the rings of a conventional bit.
And this is not something we have simply made up.
A veterinary study involving 554 horses and ponies found considerable variation in mouth width, tongue thickness and the distance between the upper and lower jaw. The researchers also found many horses were wearing bits that did not fit correctly—including bits that compressed the tongue between the jaws.
(Anttila, Raekallio & Valros, 2022, “Oral Dimensions Related to Bit Size in Adult Horses and Ponies,” Frontiers in Veterinary Science.)
When a bit takes up too much room, a horse may try to tell us by opening their mouth, tossing their head, putting their tongue over the bit, chewing excessively or resisting the contact.
Sometimes what appears to be a training problem may simply be a horse trying to find comfort.
This is one of the reasons the P*e Wee Horse Bit was designed with a slimmer mouthpiece—to give the tongue more room and allow the mouthpiece to move as the horse chews and swallows.
The rings fold away from the lips to help avoid pinching the sensitive corners of the mouth, while the outside bars provide a clear, gentle lateral signal.
Because good communication begins with listening to the horse. 🐴
Australian-designed and patented, the P*e Wee Horse Bit has been helping horses and riders communicate more comfortably for over 20 years.
Research link in the comments.