black_n_white
Well-Known Member
My horse is very sensitive in the mouth and when I first had him he was ridden in a loose ring straight bar happy mouth snaffle. I found this was too "dry" and rubbed the corners of his mouth and he wouldn't take a hold of it and work into a contact. He would also open his mouth and fuss a lot with his head.
I swapped him into a metal egbutt snaffle on the advice of my instructor but although he was less fussy with his head and worked better in a contact he would open his mouth and lean on the bit to evade and put his tongue over the bit.
I swapped the snaffle for a sweet iron loose ring french link with a flash noseband so he can't put his tongue over it (I'm not happy with this as it is not getting to the route of the problem in my opinion). Even in the sweet iron his mouth is dry). He hangs on the left rein in both the snaffle and the french link and this causes the left corner of his mouth to split. I have tried putting vaseline in the corners of his mouth before bitting but this doesn't help.
He also tends to be overbent/ too deep. When he does this I have tried riding him forwards and raising my hands but can't get him to raise his head. He doesn't do this out hacking (I do make him work in an outline) but does it more when schooling and I did a dressage test the other week and he was very tense and spooky and went like it for pretty much the whole test.
He isn't particularly strong in that he doesn't take a hold of the bit but does run through the bridle when we do exciting things like XC when I use a 3 ring gag with a curb rein added for emergency braking.
Help please!!! What else can I try and he isn't happy in his mouth at the moment??
I swapped him into a metal egbutt snaffle on the advice of my instructor but although he was less fussy with his head and worked better in a contact he would open his mouth and lean on the bit to evade and put his tongue over the bit.
I swapped the snaffle for a sweet iron loose ring french link with a flash noseband so he can't put his tongue over it (I'm not happy with this as it is not getting to the route of the problem in my opinion). Even in the sweet iron his mouth is dry). He hangs on the left rein in both the snaffle and the french link and this causes the left corner of his mouth to split. I have tried putting vaseline in the corners of his mouth before bitting but this doesn't help.
He also tends to be overbent/ too deep. When he does this I have tried riding him forwards and raising my hands but can't get him to raise his head. He doesn't do this out hacking (I do make him work in an outline) but does it more when schooling and I did a dressage test the other week and he was very tense and spooky and went like it for pretty much the whole test.
He isn't particularly strong in that he doesn't take a hold of the bit but does run through the bridle when we do exciting things like XC when I use a 3 ring gag with a curb rein added for emergency braking.
Help please!!! What else can I try and he isn't happy in his mouth at the moment??