Long Reining the Baby Horse

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Buckingmad

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Morning All,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the crisp winter weather!

Just a quick one for you guys, I am currently breaking my baby thoroughbred in, 3 years old and very gangly. I have broken horses for a number of years and all seem to take well to long reining, but this pony is very gobby and leans a lot one way, and naps towards the fence, on the other rein he is perfect, mouth soft. My thinking is that he is more developed and stronger on the one rein than the other, therefore gradual circle work in walk and trot should build up the muscle, but how do you stop the pulling on the mouth when he falls out?

Do you find your young horses to be a lot worse on one rein than the other? Also, I dont lunge the young horses, espcially the long gangly ones like him, so I am long reining him off of the bit with a straight bar happy mouth fulmer, any other bit suggestions?

Thanks
 
A lot of horses work one side better than the other, can you break down what you are doing into smaller steps, and just work one part of the process at a time, show him what you are looking for and reward him when he gets that small part right.

Maybe giving him to much in one go to tackle.
 
We never start long-reining babies off the bit. They're learning to understand steering and stopping, they're starting to develop (hopefully) the right muscles and to 'level up' the normal crookedness any unbacked horse has. So we long-rein them off a lunge cavesson so that any 'confusion' does NOT result in the mouth coming under pressure!
 
I wouldn't be long reining off the bit at the moment.

Put a headcollar on under the bridle and clip onto the side rings (you can run the lines through the bit rings before clipping onto the headcollar if you want).

Where are you long reining him currently and how big is the area?

To start with I'd want to be doing very big oval shapes/circles and less serpentines etc until he understands forwards and soft without the napping.
 
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