I recently received an email from a lady with a question about a tongue issue that her horse had all his life. His tongue often comes out of the front of his mouth, c. 4cm, and goes back in, almost like a snake’s. It sounds like a licking motion. He has a tendency to worry and to get distracted.
Since I don’t know the rider or the horse my advice had to be relatively general, suggesting several possible causes for this phenomenon that she can investigate on her own. And then I thought that this might be an interesting topic for others as well because mouth and tongue issues are not uncommon, and they can be caused by a variety of factors.
Any time a training problem occurs, we have to look for its underlying cause in order to be able to come up with a remedy that works. Very often the root of the problem is in a different part of the body than its most obvious symptoms.
Many people will immediately think that mouth and tongue problems are caused by a hard hand, and of course this is one possible reason, along with dental problems and ill-fitting tack. Checking these three areas first is always a good starting point. But there are several other possible reasons why a horse may stick his tongue out, chew excessively, or foam excessively.
My Answer:
This sounds like an interesting problem. Mouth and tongue problems can have a variety of causes that you can explore. Usually the tongue issue is a symptom of something else that has nothing to do with the mouth, which is why changing bits typically doesn't help. It would be interesting to ride him with a cavesson or other bitless bridle, just to see if he does without a bit in his mouth, too. If he does it with the bitless bridle as well, then you know for sure that it doesn't have anything to do with the mouth or the bit.
Nervousness
You say that he tends to worry a lot. This could manifest itself in the excessive tongue movement. Nervousness can manifest itself in excessive chewing, salivating, and perhaps also excessive licking.
Neck and Poll
Sometimes these tongue and contact issues have to do with the horse's conformation. As a Spanish stallion, your horse has a pretty big neck. This can sometimes make it challenging to supple the poll in all directions. This would show up more in collected work where the elevation of the neck is higher and the longitudinal flexion therefore also has to increase. You can check this by doing flexion on the ground or in the saddle. There are a variety of traditional flexing techniques involving the reins and the bit or the cavesson (cf. François Baucher, or Ernst Friedrich Seidler).
You can also check the flexibility of the poll and neck by putting one hand on the bridge of the nose and the other one on the side of the neck, and then try to move the horse's skull gently laterally towards you and back to the middle. Any stiffness or muscle blockage will show up when you do this. You can essentially check all neck vertebrae for mobility by varying the placement of your hand on the side of the neck. And if you find a place that is stuck, you can loosen it with these flexions, too.
In this context it would be interesting to know whether your horse shows this tongue behavior all the time, or only in specific situations, i.e. does he do it only in more collected, more demanding work, when he has to flex his haunches more and elevate his neck more, or does he do it also when you're letting him stretch forward-downward? This would be interesting to explore. Vary the frame by alternating between letting him stretch and picking the reins up again. Is there a balance/frame/posture (engagement/elevation/poll flexion) in which the tongue stays inside the mouth, or in which it seems better at least? Is there a balance/frame/posture in which it is clearly worse? This will give you clues as to where the origin of the issue lies.
Hindquarters
Another possible cause for tongue issues are the hind legs. If a horse finds it difficult to flex his haunches and to sit behind, he may open his mouth or chew excessively when you are asking him to support more of the body mass with his hind legs. If this tongue issue is worse in a higher degree of collection and better when you ride him in a more casual frame, it could point to discomfort in the hindquarters.
Back
Another possibility is that the tongue issue is caused by discomfort in the back. The fact that he doesn't show excessive tongue movement at the longe line could point to this as well. It would be interesting to find out what the tongue does in work in hand or long reining.
For instance, if the tongue stays quietly inside when you increase the degree of collection in hand or at the long rein, it points to the back, rather than the hindquarters as the root of the problem. If the tongue is quiet at the longe line in a less collected posture, but it comes out when you increase the degree of collection in hand or at the long rein, it points to the hindquarters and/or poll as the possible cause, rather than the back.
To explore the back as a possible root of the problem, you can compare sitting trot and rising trot, for instance, and you can play with your seat. Do you tend to sit with all your weight on your seat bones, or do you distribute your weight over a larger area? Is your horse's back sensitive in general?
If a horse's back is touchy, then he may react with tension and contractions if you sit very much on your seat bones. If you let your body weight flow around the horse's rib cage so that it's spread out over the insides of your thighs as well, there is less pressure per square inch on the horse's back. That sometimes makes a big difference. You can play with the amount of stretch in your seat and engagement of your deeper core muscles.
When a rider sits very relaxed, with low inner core muscle engagement, they can feel very heavy on the horse's back, like wet snow on a roof that is soft, but so heavy that the roof may collapse under the load. If you engage your deep core muscles more, you support yourself more, which makes you feel lighter to the horse.
In addition, you can emphasize the upswing of the horse's back from time to time. Sometimes the horse will then lift his back more, get rounder, and relax his poll and jaw more.
And finally, you could observe your own lower jaw and tongue. Do you clench your teeth or tighten any of your jaw muscles when you ride? Some people do things like that when they concentrate very hard. Any tension in our own body transfers itself to the horse, sometimes in funny ways.
Crookedness
Another common tongue issue that this horse doesn’t have, but that many other horses have, is the tongue hanging out on one side. This is often a straightness issue. You can research this by asking one hind leg to cross a little for a few strides and observing wether the tongue stays out or disappears inside the mouth.
Then ask the other hind leg to cross and watch what happens to the tongue. In many cases I have seen, there was a direct correlation between one particular hind leg and the tongue. When the rider engaged this hind leg, the tongue went back inside. If the tongue came out again after a few strides, it was a sign that this hind leg was no longer engaging under the body. Many horses let their tongue hang out on their stiffer/convex side, where they lean onto the rein more, and they use it to cushion the pressure of the bit on the bar. By bringing the escaping hind leg under the body again, the horse stops leaning onto the rein of the stiffer side and carries himself better. The unpleasant pressure of the bit on the bar disappears, so the horse no longer needs to let his tongue hang out.
If your horse has any tongue or mouth issues, try and explore these suggestions and options. They will probably lead you to the underlying root cause of the problem. And when you know the cause, you can usually eliminate it. Discovering the cause very often also contains one possible solution.
