Susan Parry DVM

07/31/2025

Please share your thoughts.

I fear most of us are not Brendan Wise.

They are used to steer a horse, but some think placing a hunk of metal in their mouths and tugging on it is cruel. A few riders have found another way.

07/29/2025

06/23/2025

Thoughts?

06/05/2025

A horse should be swallowing when ridden. A foamy, salivating horse has an improperly fitted bit, bridle or both.

Bits, Baucher, and Swallowology

I remember sitting in my graduate dysphagia course, watching modified barium swallow studies and thinking, “How the hell do horses breathe and swallow with a bit in their mouth?”

Dysphagia is pathology of swallow function– in human populations often occurring in individuals with stroke and neurological disorders. People with dysphagia are at risk for malnutrition and aspiration pneumonia. As a speech language pathologist, my dysphagia clients are typically medically complex children using alternative feeds (feeding tubes) for nutrition while learning to swallow safely. Treatment is complex– and often scary. Folks can die from swallowing disorders.

In my horse life, riding and training and interacting with the horse’s mouth through a bit, equine swallowing has been in the back of mind.

I wondered about bits, nosebands, and why I was being told that the mouth should be “quiet” (i.e. closed) at all times while I was riding.

I wondered why I saw in pictures and video of my riding that my horse’s mouth was foaming, drooling, and grimacing against his flash.

I wondered why when my coach said, “Yes! That’s it!” I felt 40 pounds of pressure through my reins.

I came across The Bit Course by Dauphin Horsemanship a couple years ago and was hugely inspired by the information Daniel had to share. I was delighted that he even consulted with a speech pathologist while creating this course. Daniel’s work helped me understand several life-changing concepts in my horsemanship:

-Nosebands are trash, their purpose is to tie the mouth closed.

-Foamy mouths / drooling is a sign of swallowing dysfunction.

-The “two wrinkle” rule for bit placement is a myth.

In recent correspondence with Dr. Kevin Haussler, DVM, DC, PhD, I got further clarification on what exactly is happening when horses have oral discomfort as a result of poor riding.

-Horses may experience reluctance to chew or swallow with the bit, leading to dry mouth, abnormal tongue posture, TMJ stiffness
-Altering normal salivation and swallowing patterns can lead to reduced gut motility, increased colic risk, gastric ulcers due to persistent anxiety and chronic pain
-Chronic oral pain can lead to altered motor patterns, aberrant jaw-tongue-pharynx coordination, (theoretically) causing functional dysphagia in absence of the bit

The structures of the equine tongue, hyoid apparatus, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus are VITAL: for life. Manipulation of these high-value real estate structures has enormous potential for harm.

Bearing this information in mind, when I see bodyworkers and riders posting about hyoid function and being able to influence a horse’s whole body and nervous system via the bit, “tongue release” or “hyoid release” maneuvers, I feel tempted to call bu****it.

I think the best we can do is educate our hands and seat to not disturb the horse. A happy mouth is a swallowing mouth. A swallowing mouth is a breathing mouth. The best indication of relaxation in riding or bodywork is healthy, full range of motion, regular breathing.

Enter: my French dressage horse.

This year I became caregiver to a schoolmaster in his 20s. Throughout my riding career I’ve been tangentially aware of Philippe Karl’s work and Ecole de Legerete but I had never met a horse trained in French classical tradition. Aslan was trained by a student of Jean Luc Cornille, former Maitre de Cadre Noir de Saumur.

Around this same time I met Aslan, I started reading Mills Consilient Horsemanship’s journey into Baucherism and dove into her reading list. I also, by pure stroke of luck, had access to a lesson with Thierry Durand, former Olympic coach and ecuyer of Cadre Noir who taught me my first cessions de machoire (jaw flexions).

In my reading, I’ve come across the following references to bits and swallowing:

“The mere “half-tension” of one rein or both must bring about the mellow mobility of the lower jaw without the horse’s head moving… and the animal’s tongue must then make one bit jingle over the other, which at times produces a silver toned ringing… It shows that the relaxation looked for… should not be limited to a mere “chomping,” but should… include the up and down movement of the tongue and “let go of the bit.” – Racinet Explains Baucher, pg. 31, Racinet

“These first flexions are aimed solely at obtaining a mobilisation of the tongue without any alteration in the position of the head and neck. The symptom of the horse’s yielding to flexion requested by the trainer is a movement of the tongue similar to the movement performed in the act of swallowing….. The best way of accustoming the horse to the double bridle is to let him wear, for a while every day in the stable, a bridle without reins…. and to let him have some oats and bran in the manger during that time. The attempts at chewing and swallowing which the horse will not fail to do are excellent “flexions,” and the rapid success of these attempts give the mouth and tongue the kind of mobility which is exactly the yielding that must be sought and achieved in the Mise en Main. Academic Equitation, pg. 254-255, Decarpentry

“La mobilite da la bouche n’est pas une suite de mouvements convulsions et saccades de la machoire et de la langue qui produisent un cliquetis rageur des mors; c’est un mouvement souple, discret, moelleux d’une langue qui remonte de quelque millimetres, comme pour une deglutition, avec machoire a peine ouverte, tandis que les mors font entrendre le discret mumure.”

Eng: “The mobility of the mouth is not a series of convulsive and jerky movements of the jaw and tongue that produce a furious clicking of the bits; it is a supple, discreet, soft movement of a tongue that rises a few millimeters, as if swallowing, with the jaw barely open, while the bits make the discreet murmur heard.” Beudant quoting L’Hotte, Main Sans Jambes, pg. 22

Now, I am not saying these French masters were particularly kind to horses’ mouths. There are plenty of descriptions of severe, brutal force in these classical texts. Insistence on manipulating the jaw is to manipulate vestibular (balance) function, which to me seems way creepy and invasive.

But is it as creepy and invasive as driving a horse forward into the hand? Putting them “on the bit?” Is it as invasive as 40 pounds of pressure through the reins? What about, “Don’t let him keep going around like that! You HAVE to get his head down.”

I’m still learning and integrating all this information and right now I have more questions than answers. I don’t think learning a certain style or tradition of riding absolves us of the responsibility to do no harm, even while figuring things out. I would hate to go from riding one problematic way to another. I still think “do not disturb,” is a good rule to live by.

But I have to say that Aslan showing me what pole-high, chewing mouth, feather light loose rein contact feels like… feels pretty good.

Sources / continued reading:

Equine Dysphagia, Conturbra et al, 2017
Equine Oral Pain, Mellor, 2020
Evaluation of the association between orafacial pain and dysphagia, Tsujimura and Inoue, 2020
Retrospective Analysis of Dysphagia in Equine Referral Hospital, Conolly et al, 2024
The Bit Course, Daniel Dauphin
Veterinary Compendium, Dr. Kevin Haussler
Three Day Whole Horse Dissection, Lorre Mueller
Mills Consilient Horsemanship, Andrea Mills
Tensegrity Balancing Therapy, Level 2, Tami Elkayam
Methodical Dressage of the Saddle Horse, Faverot de Kerbech
Academic Equitation, General Decarpentry
Racinet Explains Baucher, Jean-Claude Racinet
Main Sans Jambes, Etienne Beudant

05/18/2025

See what's included

05/14/2025

There’s been a lot of talk lately about saddle fit in the upper levels, especially the connection between back atrophy and high-end “custom” saddles that aren’t doing what they claim to do. I wanted to offer my perspective as someone who’s seen the inside of the machine. For a time, I worked as a brand rep saddle fitter for one of the major French companies, the kind that markets itself as “different,” “elite,” and “horse-first.”

It was, hands down, the most disorganized, chaotic, and ethically slippery company I’ve ever been a part of. Orders were managed on paper forms and Dropbox folders, shuffled between departments with zero accountability. Saddles regularly arrived built incorrectly. When that happened, which was often, it wasn’t seen as a crisis, it was just another day at the office. Clients would wait up to six months only to receive a saddle that didn’t match the order and didn’t fit the horse.

The training I received as a rep? Laughably minimal. We were taught how to check wither clearance, determine tree shape, and “balance” a saddle using foam inserts in the panels. No real education on biomechanics. No instruction on how saddle pressure affects movement or chronic pain. No understanding of equine spinal anatomy. And certainly no discussion of long-term horse welfare. When I mentioned learning more from independent fitters, I was told not to. Literally warned by my boss that “those people have an agenda against French brands.” She even insinuated that a certain independent fitter was the reason the last rep quit.

Management also regularly groaned about clients who wanted to have an independent fitter out at the same time as a brand fitter, labeling them as "high maintenance." It was as though questioning the company's methods was a personal affront, rather than a legitimate desire from owners for the best care for their horses.

From the beginning, I felt caught in a system that rewarded sales over ethics, obedience over insight, and pressure over compassion. I was encouraged to focus not on the horse’s well-being, but on how quickly I could convert a client’s concern into a credit card swipe. Even our elite sponsored riders, some of the most accomplished athletes in the sport, couldn’t get saddles that fit correctly. Saddles arrived wrong. Panels were lopsided. Horses were sore. We all knew the saddle could be wrong, and it often was, but the unspoken rule was to get something close enough and push it through. If they can’t be bothered to properly fit the horses that carry their name into international arenas, what makes you think they care about Pookie, your 2'6” hunter at the local shows?

We were explicitly instructed that if a client had a saddle more than a few years old, even if it was still working perfectly, we were to find something wrong with it. The goal was to sow just enough doubt to get the client to trade in the saddle and order a new custom. Not because their horse needed it, but because their wallet could support it.

That’s when it started to really wear on me. I couldn’t sleep. I would lie awake at night feeling sick: not just because we were misleading clients, but because we were hurting horses. Every day I watched animals be dismissed as “hard to fit” when the reality was that the saddle being sold to them should never have been placed on their back to begin with. The moment that broke me came at the end of winter circuit. We hadn’t met our quotas yet. The pressure was sky-high. One of the top reps began pushing saddles onto horses that visibly, obviously, did not fit. It didn’t matter that this would harm the horse over time, it mattered that the sale was made.

Perhaps the most disturbing part is the panel design we used by default, a soft, rounded latex insert, was built not to support muscle growth, but to fill the void left behind by muscle loss. Our whole system was based around accommodating atrophy, not fixing it. We had specialized modifications to make the panels more forgiving to wasted backs, as if the problem wasn’t the saddle, it was the horse’s inability to conform to it. Back atrophy wasn’t treated as a red flag. It was normalized. Built into the product line.

After six months, I started to unravel. I didn’t recognize myself anymore. I had entered the role wanting to help horses, and moved across the country to do so. I had left a steady job that I was happy in thinking this would be a way to combine my skills and my passion. I found myself trapped in a toxic cycle of moral compromise. Eventually, I couldn’t fake it anymore, especially since I had begun my equine bodywork certifications. I told my boss I was done. I remember saying, half-joking, half-begging for her to understand, that “I’m not making enough money to cry every night.” “That’s just part of the job,” she responded.

That was a year ago. Since then, two more reps have cycled through my old territory.

So if your high-end “custom” saddle doesn’t fit… if your “fitter” keeps blaming your pads or your horse’s shape… if your horse’s back is getting worse instead of better: you are not crazy, and you’re not alone. You’ve been caught in a system that was never built to prioritize your horse’s health in the first place.

This isn’t just a string of bad luck. It’s systemic. It’s built into the model. These brands don’t invest in education. They invest in optics. They train salespeople, not fitters. And they sell you the idea of customization while relying on generic templates and pressure tactics behind the scenes.

I’m not saying every brand rep is malicious. Some are kind, well-meaning, and genuinely doing their best within a rigged game. But when you pay someone a tiny base salary and dangle their entire livelihood on commissions, it creates a perfect storm of pressure and desperation. Good intentions don’t last long when survival depends on making the sale. That’s why I left. That’s why I speak up. That’s why I’ll keep urging riders to work with independent fitters: people who don’t make a commission off the brand, who aren’t beholden to a sales quota, who care more about your horse’s comfort than the label on the flap.

That’s why I walked away. I couldn’t keep selling saddles that were hurting horses and gaslighting riders into believing it was fine. I couldn’t sleep knowing I was complicit in their pain. So if something in your gut has been telling you this isn’t right, listen. Trust it. Ask questions. Get a second opinion. Seek out an independent saddle fitter whose only loyalty is to your horse’s well-being, not a sales quota. You deserve transparency. You deserve honesty. Your horse deserves comfort, freedom, and a fighting chance to thrive: not just survive under eight thousand dollars of leather and lies. Don’t let the system convince you this is normal. It’s not, and the more of us who speak up, the harder it becomes for them to keep pretending it is.

03/14/2025

02/02/2025

IT’S NOT NORMAL WHEN…..
Your horse reacts with agitation when you start to girth them
 They are trying to tell you that they are in pain.
Yes, sometimes it is ulcers but more often it’s body pain from the equipment.
Acupuncture, chiropractic, shockwave and controlled exercise.

I can help.

11.4K likes, 210 comments. “ ”

02/02/2025

This is an amazing representation of the psoas muscle group. 
In my experience, psoas muscle strains and injuries are probably vastly under diagnosed in horses.
It can be treated with a combination of chiropractic, acupuncture, shockwave. They also require a slow and steady rehab rehabilitation program.

12/11/2024

Interesting stuff.
It would also be interesting to see the effect of hay nets that are hung at various heights.

How do hay nets on round bales impact the axial skeleton of the horse?

You all asked, and we delivered with more research! And I promise it has been worth the wait!

Last week, the second portion of our study evaluating hay nets was accepted into the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, and this time we teamed up with an equine chiropractor (thanks Dr. Taylor Rieck) to evaluate changes in the axial skeleton!

Introduction: Many horse owners use hay nets. As our last study demonstrated, they have many benefits including a reduction in hay waste and management of bodyweight and body condition scores. Additionally, we were able to explore the impacts on dental health and did not have any concerns regarding soft tissue damage, tooth wear, or dental abnormalities. But that has led us to our next question, can the act of eating hay from a hay net result in changes to the axial skeleton of the horse, specifically relating to the vertebral column?

Materials and Methods: Because I want this post to be able to stand alone (and some of you may have forgotten what we did since the last research post), I will start from the beginning and I apologize for repeating myself. Thirteen mature geldings were used in this study and assigned to treatments based on weight. The study began in September 2021 and all horses received dental work and were assigned to their treatments, seven started on the no hay net control (CON) and six started on the hay net (NET) treatment and all were fed grass round bales. In September 2022, horses received dental work again and switched treatments in the cross-over design. Throughout the study, these horses lived in identical neighboring pens with shelter, ad libitum water, and free choice grass round bales with the only difference being NET horses had their round bale hay placed in hay nets with 1.75”/4.45 cm openings (graciously provided by Hay Chix) while CON horses did not.

During this study, from May through August of both years, changes in the axial skeleton were evaluated. This time frame was chosen as horses were not being worked in undergraduate courses. In May, when the semester ended, an equine chiropractor adjusted all horses to get them to a baseline. Horses were then evaluated for range of motion and pain-pressure thresholds at 4-, 8-, and 12-weeks post-chiropractic adjustment. Cervical range of motion was evaluated using neck stretches for lateral movement as well as chin-to-chest, chin-to-knees, and chin-to-fetlocks. Pain pressure threshold was evaluated at different points on the body using a pressure algometer which documented the amount of pressure applied until the horse moved away to avoid the pressure. Additionally, another chiropractic adjustment took place at 12-weeks and subluxations (misalignment of bones) were documented and rated on a 0 to 3 scale to indicate none, minor, moderate, or severe subluxations. These scores were combined for each location or vertebral region (cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral).

Results: There was an average 8% increase in cervical subluxations observed in NET horses (P0.05) and sacral vertebrae were not analyzed as no subluxations were found.

Another finding was that average cervical range of motion was 5 degrees greater in NET horses compared to CON horses for chin-to-chest and chin-to-fetlock measurements (P≤0.05). No differences were observed in pain-pressure thresholds when comparing treatments (P>0.05).

While not the initial objective of the study, we also saw decreased range of motion and pain-pressure thresholds over time regardless of treatment, which suggests the benefits of chiropractic - but I will save this topic for another post when I can dive into into it deeper!

Discussion: Our main findings were a slight increase in subluxations in the neck for NET horses alongside an increase in cervical range of motion. While these findings initially appear to contradict each other, previous research in humans has found that activities which stimulate voluntary neck movements utilizing a wide range of motion and postures can recruit and strengthen cervical muscles. As a result, prehending hay from a hay net may have simulated exercises to strengthen the neck in these horses, however, these movements may have simultaneously resulted in an increase in cervical subluxations.

Conclusions: This study has demonstrated that hay nets do have the ability to influence the axial skeleton of the horse with minor changes. However, the researchers believe that the proven benefits of hay nets, including reduced hay waste, prolonged feeding time, and weight management, outweigh any minor changes in the axial skeleton observed in this study. Additionally, results from this study suggest regular chiropractic work can be beneficial for horses regardless of hay net use!

What Next? While this study gathered some very useful information to create a foundation of knowledge, I would love to investigate hanging net height and hole size to determine how these factors may influence the axial skeleton and time to consumption for horses in the future!

Funding: This study was funded by the University of Wisconsin - River Falls and HayChix.

I hope you find these results as fascinating as we did! There is always so much to learn!

Cheers!
Dr. DeBoer

10/29/2024

What a great idea for both the horse and the buyer. I see so many failed partnerships where people end up “stuck“ with a horse that doesn’t match them. I suspect that emotionally they could give them back to the previous owner, whereas they would not sell them on.

Of all the horses to come and go from our family over the years, I would say that fully one-quarter of them have been returned to us from a ‘lease-to-own’ situation. Eddie, Tia, Amy, Chica, Betty, Johnny, Pepper, Arthur, Doll, Tee, Henry, Harry, Bobby, Chickadee… are among those who required a second chance.

Rather than consider this a failing on our part to correctly ‘read’ our horses and clients, pair them up and have them ride off happily ever after, I think it’s an indicator of the importance of this purchase option in our sales program.

And so, Credo is home again, after four months into his lease-to-own agreement. It just wasn’t working out as we’d hoped it would, back in June. As someone who loves each of the horses she sends out to the world, welcoming one home when the match isn’t right is preferable to wondering where they’ll end up, should they be unable do the job.

I also value my clients too much to wish them unhappiness, or to be uncertain in any way. I still love this person who honestly tried my horse and couldn't make any headway with him. She really tried.

I get it wrong, sometimes. Selling trained horses is a lot like being the village matchmaker to two good but very different people. How do you make them fall in love? Well, the short answer is, you can’t. The buyer is still a good person! The horse is still a good horse!

Thanks to our lease-to-own agreement, neither buyer nor seller are out big money. No harm is done. I sure do recommend this sort of contract (over a final sale) to anyone who wants to ensure a good end for their sale horses… and for those who have trepidations about buying outright.

Over the coming months, I’ll have Credo back in my hands, working on his solo riding out across country, as he’d got himself bigtime herdbound to the buyer’s mare over the summer. He’d simply come undone. This will happen with a ‘going’ horse who hasn’t been going well for all that long. If he has spent more time not going well previously, it’s a pretty big ask for him to maintain himself, in new hands.

I’ll not be trying to make him into a serious arena horse, for the little Morgan is never going to love going ‘round and ‘round, nor back and forth in deep footing, no matter how hard we might wish it. He seemingly hates anything of a repetitive—read sort of pointless—nature with a passion.

I still say that for anyone who wants a well-schooled, brave little luxury ride for the trails, for gathering cows and maybe the occasional lesson or clinic, Credo’s the one. Mike rode him out, alone, up over the hills yesterday and again today, in a howler of a wind and the little horse was rock solid.

I know that his person and place are out there. Credo's, I mean. Mike's kinda stuck with me.

10/26/2024

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Horses & the science of harmonyHorses & the Science of Harmony features some of the “who’s who” of British eventing, including Mary King, Lucinda Green and Piggy March, as well as some of the top equine veterinarians and researchers in the world - all weighing in on the concept of harmony betw...