Brakes for an old horse that should know better!!

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toomanyhorses26

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I have a 22 year old 17.2hh new forest x something who in past weeks has been getting a little lively shall we say!!He has always been a strong and hard pulling horse but with copious amounts of schooling and exercise( I have to ride him for about 8 hrs a week) it has always been managable. However in the past few weeks I have had several close encounters with hedges,dog walkers the local gallops to name but a few and its starting to get beyond a joke. At the mo I have him in a mullen mouth pelham and when I first changed he was brilliant it but now he doesn't respect it at all. In the past I have had him in a cheltenham gag,three ring snaffle with various mouth pieces which he hated,a waterford and a double bridle to name but a few. I can kind of handle being carted with ( as odd as it sounds) because he will pull up eventually but I worry about the fact that he is on working livery at riding school and does occasionally get used for hacking and also the fact that he isn't getting any younger. He is out at grass for between 6-8 hours a day and has 1/2 bale of hay over night with a scoop of spillers senior conditioning mix and a scoop of conditioning fibre which he has been having for over a year so don't think this is the cause and all teeth,saddle back etc has been checked in the last month or so. Any advice much appreciated as my arms are starting to look like arnie!!!!
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i'd teach him to halt on voice command first, i think! he's not listening to your aids or to the pain in his mouth, so you need to get through to him some other way.
also, does it turn into a tug-of-war? if so, give the reins, then yank hard, then give again, then yank hard. give him nothing to lean on or pull against, and try to shock him a bit... my golden rule is that if they're being lovely and soft and obedient, i'm lovely too, but if they're being b****y rude and dangerously unstoppable, i can be as rude back as necessary...
best of luck.
 
I have a similar problem with my 18 yr old mare. I tried all bits from soft to severe and it seemed that she had totally lost all respect for me. She was lovely on the ground but a red mist would descend when ridden. I have decided to start again with ground work, no ridden work for now, and I know this isn't very fashionable to admit this but trying parelli. I am also going to look at a treeless saddle. Things going well so far - much less spooky and she enjoys being with me more. Much more cuddly and responsive. Long way to go but worth a try?
 
Have you tried a kimblewick. Was the only thing I could hold my eventer in. Ended up having to get one without a port though as he didn't like the one with!
 
Have you tried changing the pressure areas? Maybe a combination or even bitless could be used for hacking? This may have the desired affect as it will change what hes used to...
 
At the mo he has an elasticated grackle as for some reason he can't stand the fixed leather types (typical precious ginger!!!) not done up particulary tight just normal thougth perhaps going for a combination noseband but don't have any expierience of them and it seemed a little excessive for an old man but may have to give it a whirl!!If I do go down the bitless bridle route any recommendations???
 
My old boy is 22 pulls like a train, always open mouthed & hated his mouth jammed shut until i found a bit with the right mouth piece (jeffries rotating peanut mouth) which was comfortable in his mouth (he has low roof of mouth and thick tongue) now i have the noseband as tight as i can get it and he copes (& i can stop him). does he have odd mouth conformation? or does he just like the noseband loose so he can evade the bit? The tightness of the noseband really makes a difference with mine.
 
I asked my dentist about his mouth and he said he did have a low roof to his mouth but everything else was fine. This prob why he hated any single joints on bits. with the noseband it just seems to tense him up further that he puts all his energy into trying to open his mouth. Have bought a hackamore today so am going to give this a whirl and see what happens!!
 
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