"Sleepy" trick?

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Kimberly aliakey@yahoo.com
Has anyone literally "put their horse in sleepy mode" by loosely sticking
a lead rope through the horse's mouth, like a bit?  I did it out 
of some strange desperation when the farrier was working on my 
horse, and was suprised... she went from "cranky grumpy mare" to
a sleepy old fart --- almost instantly.  All I did was run the 
thick, nylon lead rope through her mouth to give her something to
occupy her mind rather than focus her crankiness on the farrier *trying*
to work on her (It's hard to work on her "behavior" problems when
she she acts like an angel while *I* work on her feet).  The farrier
always seems to get the "Mr. Hyde" part of the mare, unfortunately.  Yes,
I discipline her (the farrier is very patient) and pay the farrier extra
for his troubles, in case you were wondering :-).  For some reason, he still
puts up with her, LOL!

I was just curious if anyone knows of something that would trigger
this "sleepy, pacified" mode with the lead rope.  I'm going to try 
this one-rat research a few times more to see if it was just a fluke,
or if I really have a cool trick to get her to cooperate with her trims.

Thanks in advanced!

Kimberly

FYI:  She is not a "mouthy" mare, and is alpha in her personality (second highest
in her pasture rank).  She's
never cranky with me, but doesn't care much for anyone else, horse or human.
She's not a mean horse (never bites, kicks, or threatens humans in any way) ---
just is particular about her human/horse buddies.