09/11/2026
People see a spade bit and flinch.
I understand it. You look at that mouthpiece and it looks like too much to be putting in a horse's mouth.
But a lot of what people believe about that bit is backwards, so let me tell you how it
actually works.
Start with what it isn't. It isn't a leverage bit. A leverage bit works off the curb strap. You pull, the bit rotates, the curb tightens, and the horse answers pressure.
A spade is a signal bit. The horse carries it. He isn't bracing for pressure, he's reading a
message, and he learned to read that message a long time before the bit ever went in his mouth.
That's the part that gets missed. The bit isn't doing the work. The education did.
Now, about the size itself, because that's what people react to.
A wider mouthpiece spreads pressure out instead of concentrating it. So a properly built spade can actually put less pressure on any one spot in that horse's mouth than a thin, narrow snaffle does when somebody is really pulling on it.
Same pounds. Spread across more of his mouth.
That doesn't make a spade safe in just anybody's hands, and I'm not saying it does. It means the size of the thing is telling you close to the opposite of what you assume when you look at it.
Here's another one that turns heads. A lot of kind, well meaning people go looking for a mouthpiece with more tongue relief because it sounds gentler. It's usually the opposite. A horse braces his tongue against the mouthpiece, and that's part of how he gets comfortable. Carve out a bunch of room under there and you've taken that away from him. The bit that was supposed to be softer ends up being harder on him.
Now the part I want to be clear about, because it matters more than the rest of this.
Not everybody needs to end up in a spade. A lot of good horsemen never go there, their horses are happy, and there is nothing wrong with that. The road runs through the hackamore, then the two rein, and it's measured in years rather than months. It's a personal thing and a traditional thing. It isn't a rank, and getting there doesn't make anybody better than anybody.
What I care about is the horse in front of you being comfortable and sure in whatever he's wearing.
