does my youngster hate his bit or is it me?

[JoshuaR97]

I've posted a few times about this issue but it's still going on. My 4 year old is ridden in a French link snaffle but when a contact is collected he will jerk his mouth and will fight against you and even asking him to stand is an issue. Before I brought him he was in a full cheek neue schule and he didn't do any of this jerking with his mouth. I rode him the other night without a noseband and he was a little happier but still did it a little but today I had a noseband on loosely just a plan cavesson as I know he is still mouthing. Should I try another bit or try and find the neue Schule one he went well in before? I'm no good with bits and never had this issue before.

 

[Sandstone1]

Have you had his teeth checked?

 

[matt_m]

Mouthing is one thing (and a positive) but jerking the head around is not right or acceptable. Presuming you are using the contact correctly and there are no physical issues (teeth, back etc) I would probably try a different bit, is the bit rather thin, it might be an idea to go for something thicker and thus milder on the horses mouth as it sounds like this reaction may be due to discomfort when any kind of pressure is put on the mouth.

I'm not really sure what you mean by 'when a contact is collected' collection is nothing to do with the bit and is a state in which the horse is in self carriage and taking a considerable amount of weight behind and thus lightening of the forehand.

 

[Rlister89]

If you still have the neue schule bit I would try that. My dentist told me that the links of the French link can dig into the tongue with pressure, if you look on Google there are studies/images of injuries caused by them. The ns bits are designed not to be like this so I would try and go back to that to see if it still happens. If it does then I'd get dentist to have a look.

 

[Micky]

I would go back to the neue Schule bit and get his saddle checked, teeth checked and don't rush to get a contact, start with relaxation first..

 

[WelshD]

i would also go back to the NS and see what happens

It may be worth getting someone else to see what they make of it all, I just sent my pony away for schooling with the absolute conviction that he wouldn't tolerate anything other than a happy mouth bit and any contact made him evade the bit - from day 1 he proved me to be a complete liar and is working with a good contact in a lozenge bit, sometimes it just needs a set of fresh eyes