Poor training of the horse to understand and be confident with the bit results in horses with bad associations with the bit. The flow on effects of this negative association sees me rate it the number one root cause of behavioural and training issues that I resolve in dressage horses. My aim for this blog is to present four simple tests and observations you can make to assess the quality of your horse’s education, understanding and confidence with the bit, plus also to spread the idea that teaching the horse to understand the bit and allowing it to get confident with the bit is more important than contact or the horse working a “frame”. In fact contact and good posture are the end results of good training not things that are introduced too early because they can be detrimental and I believe that awareness of this issue can improve horse welfare, safety and performance.