Bit suggestions

[Toast]

for a 13hh welsh x exmoor, shes eight years old but quite green as shes not had the best life before she came to us.
Shes currently ridden in a snaffle...but...
She can be a bit fizzy and strong, not without breaks totally however (unless going for a gallop up a hill) and tends to pull her head down aswell.
Shes got quite a fleshy mouth too.
What do you knowledgable people think?

x

 

[ngrace]

im not knowledgable people..! but have had a similiar thing with a horse. i tried a bit to bring his head up, it had a curb strap which was very loose - he hated it and leaped about even more. i decided to keep the snaffle in the end i feel i can ride comfortably in it without the bit intefering..if you know what i mean?

so all i would suggest is whatever you try, try a mild version first!

 

[Toast]

She doesnt carry her head down all the time, often its stuck in the air imitating a giraffe, but every so often she'll alternate and snatch at the reins and stretch her head down.
Odd animal!
x

 

[Achinghips]

I'd get a sweet bit - one with a lozenge, so she can enjoy/accept. Ask little of her, just gentle transitions at trot and walk on very wide circles to get her used to it for a month or so.

Whilst, you're doing this, lunge her on this bit, alternating with a headcollar/lunge cavesson and do some join up (in both), so she WANTS to work with you and for you (and you with her - it can be so soul destroying sometimes, lol). Don't expect too much and work slowly and gently, establishing voice commands on lunge before you expect too much in the seat.

Forget about her being quite strong for now in the seat. Don't play that game with her - in fact, forget about the seat in the very immediate future and concentrate on the joinup, then her strength will reduce on its own in this context, and transfer (hopefully?) to the seat.

Get some nice stable licks too, to remind her of the pleasure of the mouth (mine love the respiratory low sugar ones and they have biotin)


Hth's