Help with trot.

I

igglepop

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When i am trotting the tb mare i share she leans on the bit to the point it painful on my arms she also refuses to change the speed of the trot and will refuse to go back to walk. In some cases i am embarrassed to say i have to full on yank to stop her when she starts to runs away on her forehand, when i do this she is a lot better for a round 10 mins, i assume because it hurt her not what i want. I also cant ride her on a longer rein as she gets faster and faster and isn't safe. She is light in canter and responsive. I ride in a snaffle and don't really want to put a harsher bit on as i sure there is something I'm doing wrong or forgotten but I'm out of things to try. So far i have tried:

Trotting poles which she refused to trot over and cantered instead.
Circles to build up muscles.
lunge work over poles/ small jumps for muscles
lunge in pessoa then eqi ami
voice aids work a little bit but not enough.

I cant try shouldering etc as she has no concept of them and no intention of learning.

Any suggestions would be greatly received.
 
What type of snaffle is it? My old horse was heavy in anything with a single joint, but great in a loose ring french link. Is there anyway you can try a few different snaffles?
 
Tried several she has a loose ring snaffle, a sweet iron loose ring snaffle, d ring one and an egg butt one. She get bored every month or so and works better if swapped both the horses i share are like that.

She raced (badly) as well if that makes a difference.
 
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She needs to go back to basics, she is "refusing" to listen because she does not understand what you are asking.
Walk her to start with doing lots of transitions to halt then walking on, praise her for listening, when she does and keep repeating until she really listens and understands. You can do poles in walk, random ones around the school are good for getting a horse thinking , also try some turns on the forehand to get her moving away from your leg, once she is listening proceed in trot doing the same, lots of transitions to walk before she runs on in the trot, use your voice to help and again praise when she listens to you.

Encourage her to stretch down on a long rein, if you can do this at the start and end of each session she will gradually relax until you can use the stretches to help her relax at any time during a schooling session, take advantage of her being a little tired at the end of work to teach her that it is a good thing for her to do.

She will learn, all horses have the ability to learn new things but the trainer needs patience to be able to teach them, if something does not work either keep repeating the exercise or find a more simple way of doing it.
 
the Tb gelding I share leans on the bit a lot in the school too, I just give him little half halts when he feels heavy but keep my leg on!
 
Thanks will try that, the quick transitions from walk to trot sounds like a great idea. She can cope with change of pace in walk and canter trot is just taking longer.
hollieeb sadly half halts currently are a unknown concept in trot at the moment but shall keep trying.
 
I would have as steady and slow trot as possible put knee boots on as precaution and let her start to lean then slip the reins a few inches. She should learn after that that u are not going to carry her
 
I had a go with the walk to trot this afternoon it didn't go too well and ended up in a jogging/trotting mess. Decided to try it with halt to trot transition and it was amazing how much she change. We started with transitions every 4 fence post and lengthened gradually. After around 30 mins she managed a calm figure of 8 so proud of her. Little bit embarrassed that i didn't think about it sooner i was doing quick changes but obviously not quick enough. I will keep you all posted.
 
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