Help for my friend.....

Supertrooper

Supertrooper

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My friend has had a massive run of bad luck on the health front and isn't as strong as she used to be. She's a good rider but has only just started riding again after spinal surgery last year. She also has arthritis in her hands :-(

So she has just started riding our shire x again and is doing really well. But he's being a twit and pulling his head down to eat grass or turning in to eat out of hedges.

She's quite small and therefore her legs are little on him and also not strong to give him a boot when he does it, she also struggles to pull his head up!

He did this with me but I'm alot stronger and he never tries now, my friend knows that he's really too big for her and she's planning on getting something smaller but in the meantime she'd be devastated not to ride as it means so so much to her.

Any ideas, we've heard of reinbows? But not sure how effective they'd be??

Thanks in advance xx
 
My friend also has arthritis in her hands and we found that her pony responded well to a Myler combination bit, it gave her the extra control that she needed, but acted on the nose rather than the mouth first and so no jabbed mouth.

Grass reins would do the job if he is just putting his head down though.

I hope she continues to enjoy her riding. :)
 
If you don't like the idea of grass reins you can also get a daisy rein which attaches to the d rings on the saddle and then runs up the neck to attach to the headpiece of the bridle so it shouldn't interfere with the reins. I got my daughter one from Robinsons. :)
 
Thanks for your ideas so far :-) the daisy reins definately sound like a good idea, would they go big enough for a shire x???
 
I've only seen daisy reins in pony size. But you could ask a local saddler either to make you one or adapt the part that goes along the neck so its longer. Or just use a side rein fastened to the poll & two flash straps from the other end to each d ring.
 
I often have an IV line in my left arm and can't risk being pulled hard as well as having less strength in that arm. I use either a libby's lungie bungie or the rubber rein that goes from the girth through the bit rings and over the poll. Both, but particularly the lungie bungie, help prevent the horse puts its head down and being too strong.
I also find that I have to ride in a slightly stronger bit than anyone else who rides my horses so they respond better to me.
 
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