bit advice

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dreamchaser

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I know its asked time and time again but I could use your advice.

My mare was until recently going nicely in a sweet iron fulmer, but has taken to hanging on me hands in the school and while hacking tends to cross her jaw and effectively walk through any requests to stop.She is a solid girly and can be opinionated at times. i have had her teeth done and both back and saddle checked and am now looking into other options when it comes to her bit.

She has a fleshy mouth and HUGE lips, so something to taken those into account would be good. She is far too big to be arguing with!! Breaking/steering also needs addressing too.

Any advice rewarded with sloe gin and gooey chocolate cake
 
My cob went through a state where he would just hang on my hands until i did what he wanted. He also crossed his jaw when we went for a gallop or jumped etc so i tried a full cheek (turning was also an issue) waterford and a grackle and he's never been better :) i would say that if you have soft hands then a waterford would be great because it moulds to the shape of the mouth so it makes enough space for the tounge. Hope this helps :)
 
The fulmer is designed to encourage the horse at the start of it's education to come long and low on the bit ,so when they start to lean all over it it is time to change .If you want something for dressage try a sweetiron snaffle with a lozenge or link the thinner the better .If there is a lot of flesh in their mouth the dentist will normally file a bit seat to make more room for the skin.Sounds like you need maybe a drop noseband .
 
dreamchaser said:
I know its asked time and time again but I could use your advice.

My mare was until recently going nicely in a sweet iron fulmer, but has taken to hanging on me hands in the school and while hacking tends to cross her jaw and effectively walk through any requests to stop.She is a solid girly and can be opinionated at times. i have had her teeth done and both back and saddle checked and am now looking into other options when it comes to her bit.

She has a fleshy mouth and HUGE lips, so something to taken those into account would be good. She is far too big to be arguing with!! Breaking/steering also needs addressing too.
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I have had similar problems recently. My horse is a BIG boy but not normally strong. I've been riding him in a NS Verbindend which has been going OK ish. But he can be a bit stiff/wooden, lean a little, resist a constant outline and his downward transitions are often very slow. He's also a spooky horse which is slightly frustrating schooling when trying to tackle the above problems, and INCREDIBLY frustrating when he's hacking alone because he totally ignores me and giraffes looking for things to flinch at. However, all could be tolerated until recently when he decided to ignore me when hacking and took off in full gallop when I asked for a canter. He refused to stop until he felt he had blown enough of the cobwebs away. Needless to say I was NOT impressed! The yard owner gave me a kimblewick (with low port but no chain) to try and WOW he was a totally different horse. Steering wasn't as good (he might have just needed more time to adjust to it) but he was definitely listening to me, he went in a beautiful outline, carrying his own head and promptly stopped whenever I asked him to. So took him out on a hack in it and despite feeling he was pumped up waiting for me to open up the throttle, he respected the bit, kept at whatever pace I asked and continued to go in a nice outline on an extremely light contact. And as he was in an outline, focussed on what I was asking he had no opportunity to giraffe for things to spook at. Brilliant! So I'm strongly considering buying this bit for hacking. The only problem is it isn't dressage legal and probably not great for jumping either so I've got to find something else with the same 'listen, hold yourself up and stop when asked' for in the school :-(
Looking around on the internet it is mind boggling trying to find something right. But horsebitbank.com allows a 30 day trial, as well as advice on what to go for so that's a very good place to start your search.
 
Thanks for your replies. I have been loaned a Grackle to try before I buy and we tried it out last night. It seems to have helped with regards to the jaw crossing. Now to fry whats left of my brain in my continued search for the 'right' bit for her. As you say Spacie, the bit bank is great and the trial option is fab.
 
My lad is now bitless (hackamore) full time as he hates any bit I've tried. After 20 minutes, he'll be chowing down on it and getting himself upset. The hackamore has been a revelation. Ignore his siggie pic - an old one !
 
I've got a similar chunky type with a big fleshy mouth, and with him I've found basically the actual mouthpiece makes no difference whatsoever; sweet iron, salox, happy mouth, alloy, he doesn't care - same with whether it's straight bar, french link, snaffle, thick, thin. Therefore I found with him that playing around with different types of snaffle really made no difference whatsoever - for him, it's really only what's on the outside that makes any difference if he's in a leaning type phase.

I found the same as Spacie with a kimblewick though, made all the difference, and at the moment I'm schooling in a pelham with two reins - I have the curb rein SO loose, but just having the curb there seems to make a big difference to him, both hacking and schooling - instead of leaning he's incredibly light. I'll then go back to a snaffle once we've both remembered how light and nice he can be!

Interestingly, mine also doesn't like nose pressure.
 
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