What Do Wednesday: Bit Warmers

Another Wednesday, another day of me asking my readers What Do!

This will be an incredibly short post, since I apparently cannot human today. I had several ideas for other topics, but never got around to typing the posts, so this one will do.

For me, here in the "north", in Ohio, it can get pretttty cold. Like so cold. Not Canada cold, but still freeze your face, hurt your lungs, destroy your toes, cold. Last night the windchill was about 8*, but in the barn it was a balmy 23*. STILL COLD, but doable in the ways of riding. Even when I lived in MO, sometimes it got even colder, which is perplexing.

Be it that its the friggin arctic, I've constantly run into the problem of frozen bits.

And cold saddle. But thats another topic.

It has been a constant battle for me on how to warm the bit so it doesn't burn the shit out of my horses' mouths, but I had never really found a great way to do that until now.

I had tried everything. Putting the bridle in my jacket, setting it in warm water (if you can even find warm water), warming it up with my hands and breath (NO), and setting it on the tack room heater (the opposite of cold- BURNING hot), to name a few.

Nothing has really worked for me until I saw this handy little guy on Riding Warehouse over Christmas. 

Sorry such shitty quality

Essentially, it's a little pouch that wraps around your bit & is insulated. 

I've used it a few times now and I've decided I REALLY like this guy. The catch is that you have to "power" it with hand warmers, and if you forget to open them about 15 minutes before you need to warm the bit, this product doesn't work.

However, I've taken to leaving the hand warmers in my car, opening them on my drive to the barn, and by the time I get there, its nice and toasty. Then, you just stick it in the Bitten pouch and velcro it around your bit. BOOM. Perfectly warm in ten minutes.

Then, I take the hand warmer out and put it in my hoodie pocket while I'm riding for emergency hand warming. It amazing. 

Its like a two-in-one type deal and I'm in love. A few more steps/hassle than most people might like, but it gets the bit the PERFECT temp and then I use the hand warmer to keep  my hands toasty during my ride/untacking. I'm sold. 

So, this brings me to my question (for those of you that deal with it), how do you warm up your bits? What do?! Feed me your secrets, I must know.

Also sidenote, I got "bridle tags" (wine glass tags really) off etsy for my bridles and breastplates and for less than $5/tag, I think they're ADORABLE and perfect. Bonus deal.