Chances are if you have a sweet iron mouth piece on your bit you have seen some rust! Anytime we see rust on our equipment it can make us GASP. I mean really. We spend so much time cleaning, wiping and polishing our equipment, how could rust happen!!?
You may be relieved to know that rust on sweet iron is common. And actually supposed to happen. When the bit starts to rust, apparently, the sweetness of the iron really starts to come out. I know my sweet iron really makes Sky get the foamy “lip stick” now that it has a little rust on it.
So if you see a little rust on your sweet iron bit don’t worry! You can still take the time to wipe it clean and dry it before hanging it back up, but the rust is completely normal and your horse may even like it!
** I would like to add if you have another type of mouth piece alloy, rust is NOT normal and you should NEVER use a rusty bit of any other type of metal on your horse. If your “stainless steel”, copper or brass mouth piece has rust please get rid of that bit and buy a new one.