Getting a soft mouth back?

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Guinness

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My horse went on loan while I was at uni, and during that time his bit was changed from a loose ring french link to a dutch gag. Hes a cob so I know he can get strong, but does respond very well to your voice so I tried really hard not to let him get a hard mouth and to use my voice more. Since coming home however he seems to have become very numb in his mouth and was just wondering if there is any chance I could get him back to how he was before? Im riding him in a hanging cheek at the moment, as when I tried him back in his loose ring he was just taking the pee! I know it may take some time, but I was wondering if using a bit that acted on a different part of the mouth may help?
 
I had exactly this problem when my horse went out on loan, except they didn't change his bit, they just pulled harder. He too was in a french link (JP), loose link and on the advice of my trainer, I put him in a pelham, on the bottom ring for a number of weeks whilst his mouth recovered. This did actually work as I didn't have to pull so much to control him.
I then popped him back into his french link and worked him how I used to ride him, not how he had become accustomed to. He is now pretty much back to how I had him .... but it did take about year to do it.
 
Id put him in a drop and have a second set of reins attached to the little ring of the noseband and ride him off both reins. Get him listening to seat and voice aids again yet you wont get back into a vicious circle of pull pull pull. Its a kinda old school way of starting off a young horse and of remouthing an older one.
 
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