Bitting problem, please advise

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dany

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I have a gorgeous new horse, who's only vice is his refusal to bridle easily. So ok, it isnt taking hours, but maybe 5 mins each day, which is really annoying.

Now normally Id treat of cote in a nice tasty, sugary substance and be done with it. But! he is firstly a stallion (so I dont want to treat him) and secondly and PRE and ive been told not to allow any sugar / molasses in the diet.

Do I just use it for this purpose? will it have an effect on him really? the last thing I want is to turn my relatively sane pony into a tense monkey man!

I really dont want to treat him tho, as its taken 2 weeks of boundry setting to stop the nipping.
 
is he the same when you put a head collar on or take it off or is it just the bridle? has he had his teeth checked? and does the bit fit him correctly ? also is the bridle pinching him anywhere? x
 
No problem with head collar, deffo mouth and not ears, also fine when taking the bit out. The vetting did state wolf tooth, but he is brilliant to ride, no obv teeth problems when ridden.

He just throws his head up when you ask him to open up, trouble is because its a fight everytime the bit actually goes in I can hear the bit bashing his teeth, which cant be nice.
 
Maybe try a happy mouth or something non metal for a while then if it is bashing his teeth while he is objecting then it wont be such a big deal.
 
have you every thought of bitless bridle for him?? i would maybe get dentist out again just to see if there is a problem. it could be he has had a bad experience with the bit, maybe it banged his teeth to hard once and it upset him and now he remembers it and trys to avoid it. now everytime you have a fight over him accepting the bit it happens because he is fighting it already and so on and so on... maybe you could try him with the same bit but with rubber covering it rather than just the metal? what type of bit are you using on him at the moment? x
 
Trev is a PRE and has no issues with sugar - when I was looking nobody mentioned a sugar intolerance, although I have since heard that some PREs can have this.

Trev was also quite gobby with regards to food, so I first taught him to move his head back into an outline for treats, rather than trying to mug me.

I think they use quite strong bits out in Spain, and certainly Trev was quite tense in his mouth, although he is getting better now. Maybe Coliseo has had quite a harsh bit used and remembers this? Trev is now in a full cheek jointed snaffle, which seems to suit him.

I didn't ever have a problem getting the bit in his mouth though - the opposite in fact, he puts everything in his mouth. I did try a happy mouth to start with, but he ate that.
 
hey depurple x x

I liked the suggestion of a rubber bit, but then I think he would eat it too. Ive just had to change from a single jointed snaffle to a KK, as the joint pinched the tounge where he tends to play with the bit (which also isnt helping the mouth). He was ridden in a KK in spain, it was a very good stud.

The only other comment I can make, is that the other part of the battle is (if I dare to say) to stop him from biting my boob, so he will dive down to get me, then I growel and he throws his head up! its almost like a concentraition thing.
 
I struggled today and then tried that, which did work a min later. Im just worried that I run out of ways to get round him, rather than fixing the problem x
 
dany said:
hey depurple x x

I liked the suggestion of a rubber bit, but then I think he would eat it too. Ive just had to change from a single jointed snaffle to a KK, as the joint pinched the tounge where he tends to play with the bit (which also isnt helping the mouth). He was ridden in a KK in spain, it was a very good stud.

The only other comment I can make, is that the other part of the battle is (if I dare to say) to stop him from biting my boob, so he will dive down to get me, then I growel and he throws his head up! its almost like a concentraition thing.
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one of mine has a rubber covered bit as she has sensitive mouth and used to fight when i went near her with a bridle it may be worth a try, lol yes they do chew it and eventually it will start to break up abit and show the metal bit underneath but that will not be for a good year or two and think that a bit costs about £20 it is not even a £1 per week to replace if chewed. plus if it doesnt work you could always sell it on ebay or another site ext people always want bits x
as for the boob thing... when he goes to do it let out a high pitch squeal like a a horse does in the field when playing or even fighting with other horses and stamp your foot ! it sound strange i no but it does work... horses do it to tell others to back off out of there space. try it next time he does it x
 
Thanks everyone, I might just try something a little sweet on the bit and hope the boob lunging doesnt get any worse lol and then also get the vet to double check the wolf tooth just in case its getting knocked on the way in.
 
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