Fabric in racehorse mouth - Why??

[Shannon_Clover]

I was a local races last week and i only just notice a few horses have a piece of fabric tied around their bottom jaw in of bit - why is this?
I never seen this before.

 

[No_Angel]

It keeps their tongue down.

 

[Shannon_Clover]

Ahh, so some racehorses have floppy tongues. Can they choke if they didnt have something to hold down their tongue racing.
learn something new every day.

 

[curlycal]

They do it a lot over here in the US, tie their tongues down to stop them getting it over the bit

 

[standardbred]

Its a tongue tie, basically stops them playing with or swallowing their tounge and avoids choking.