Help!!Bit for strong young mare.

[TequilaMist]

My daughters new horse 6yr old 16.2 Oldenburg mare is a babe in every way apart from one.She gets very very strong when jumping.Flat work is great,listens to daughter its just when jumping problem shows itself.Mare is not wound up or fizzy just strong.I am looking for something that mare likes and daughter feels she has brakes with as horse is very foreward thinking and don't want her to turn into a backward thinking horse through fighting with her,just want brakes.Mare is currently ridden in 3 ring gag,previously on 2nd ring,was on 3rd in lesson today

.Have tried myler port snaffle-mare hated it wouldn't go foreward and did bunny rears,also waterford,snaffle..Mare has had teeth checked and done.
Has anyone anysuggestions all greatfully appriciated.

 

[MillionDollar]

tbh i think it might be a schooling issue. I know you said she goes well on the flat but prehaps lots of gridwork will help, as a good line of jumps will stop her going forward and make her listen to the rider, its worked for my horses in the past anyway.

Hope this helps

 

[TequilaMist]

Agree that schooling can only but help.Daughter has been doing grids with instructor, mare just seems to get more power as she goes.(I don't jump so really am going on how it looks)Today instructor thought he'd raise last one(grid of 5) a good bit see if she would back off a bit,mare jumped to nearly top of wings without pausing for breath.Just thinking that a bit that gave her a bit more brakes would be better initially as personally don't like to see mare on last hole (no roundings) and still fight when asked to slow down and would be kinder than the fighting that happens.
How often should horse be doing grids (per week)?Just thought daughter only does these maybe once a week.Should she be doing more?

 

[beaconhorse]

I maybe way off here but she is only quite young yet, are you sure she is not pulling as the bit is too strong, and getting strong because she is anticipating bigger and bigger jumps?

I would school her 3 or 4 days on a trot over low jumps, no highter than 2ft 3in, include grid work every day and get you daughter to use less and less rein, more circles before and after the jumps and see what that does before changing the bit
The idea being that she VERY quickly realises that the jumps are not going to go higher.

 

[MillionDollar]

Yes do the grids a lot more than once a week as she sounds as if she loves her jumping and so prehaps get very excited when she does jump. Also i agree with beaconhorse to stick to around 2"3, this will help.

 

[EllieBeast]

i would play with differant mouthpieces. my mare was strong in this way with a conventional, single jointed 3 ring gag. however, i swapped it for a happy mouth - mullen mouthpiece which she adores, i now use roundings on the snaffle, and second hole, and my mare is an angel. sometimes they use strength as an evasion technique to get away from a sensation that they dont like. in my horses case - the joint of a conventional bit.
Sarah

 

[serena2005]

it comes down to the schooling, if she schools over jumps and the horse gets excited then she must bring her back to a trott and, ask her to trott over the jumps untill she has calmed down.

what information has her instructor given her? what advice about bits has he given you?
is the horse green when it comes to jumping? im worried about you saying he raised the last jump to see if it would make her back off... surely it would be the last thing it would make her do. she would see a higher fence and think, bugger better speed up if im gonna clear that!

ask her instructor about bounce work, thats a great exercise to do that only require small jumps but get the horse thinking, and encourages it to slow down.

when i was teaching a horse to jump, i put up a small cross fence with some short strided canter poles so she couldnt go as fast and went round and round and round and if she went faster than i wanted, id take her back down to trott and trot over them untill she reaslised that the fun would be taken away if she didnt listen.

 

[TequilaMist]

Thanks for all replies.They have given me at least something to think about and get daughter to work on.Bringing mare back to trot and turning her has proven hard without a fight,and difficult to slow down once she's in the grid.Jumps she has been given are usually 2'6 no bigger until 1 single 2'9 ish today.Will give these things a try tho and let you know.Am not expecting any quick fixes.It'll take as long as it takes!!
Pal has got happy mouth 3 ring will try and get a shot of that.
Thanks again

 

[WishfulThinker]

Hey,

Just reading this and it did kinda remind me of Beau when he does XC. Lou has done LOADS of XC sxhooling with him and now he is calmer and listens more - and he is in the bubble bit. We tried the waterford and he just took it and was off!