Schooling queries for rushing and snatching - advice please?

[Jericho]

Pony in question has a tendency to rush in trot, we have noticed that she seeks a soft but consistent rein contact but will get faster and faster. Shortening the reins results in shorter quicker strides and tenseness. Instructors seem to differ in opinions - half halts, outside rein pressure only, lots of transistions (makes her more tense), lots of circles. The onl thing that I found to have worked is to do a lot of walk work but we need to progressing a little more than this! She is very light mouthed and does work weell from the seat in that she isn't strong per se. The schooling session always starts really relaxed, pony on loose rein and steady head carriage.

The more trot work we do, the rushing builds up and then it is often the accompanied by a snatching of reins or leaning as daughter attempts to slow the speed. Again instructors have said raise hands or just a correction with outside rein when snatching but to me this is making the pony distrust the contact so I have said to daughter just keep hands steady and ignore the snatching, even if it is annoying and unseating.. Think soft and forward. We also had the suggestion of kick on when snatching. There seems to be some confusion whether we should be working her to a contact or just leaving the head alone (pony is rising 6) - I am favouring towards letting her go forward on a looser rein but instructors are constantly telling daughter to shorten reins which is when the problems - rushing and snatching - really escalate . Of course the obvious answer is that the bit isn't comfortable but we have had her teeth checked by EDT and vet and although she has wolf teeth they are tiny and on both sides and the bit we use is a fairly thin curved mouthpiece with central roller and EDt said is perfect bit for her mouth. She is fine when lunged in it (loose and with elastic side reins). Also had saddle checked.

In both situations - rushing and then snatching, does anyone have any advice or schooling exercises they can share? Thank you

 

[blitznbobs]

She sounds like she's got too much tension. If walk chills her out I'd be walking her til she's relaxed (relaxed jaw and neck etc) then ask her to trot on on a normal contact. If she rushes half halt but if she ignores this or gets more tense make her walk and walk til she's chilled again. Then she will begin (and it takes time) to associate the half halt with a downwards transition and a nice 'safe' walk.
And thus should start to chill out.

 

[be positive]

I think I would want to rule out the wolf teeth being an issue, they may be tiny but if there is any contact with the bit it can be enough to cause her to become tense and try and avoid the contact, the fact that she is happy on the lunge is irrelevant as however careful the rider is they will at times move the bit, in fact it probably is relevant and may prove the teeth are part of the problem, sorry that is a bit rambling but typed as I thought and felt it best left.

I would work in walk really asking her to take the contact, a light but consistent one, get her flexing both ways do plenty of small turns and circles, work on leg yielding etc then when moving up to trot repeat the same things, keep her soft and moving from the leg, if she rushes make the circles smaller by leg yielding in then out so that her body is moving as softly as possible but not worrying at that stage about where her head is in a physical way trying to get her using herself more mentally so she really does not set off in a straight line and speed up, if she tries to just ask for some sideways then walk.
One really good exercise is to ride a 20m circle in trot, between B&E, at B or E start a 10m and do a downward transition using the tighter turn to assist rather than the reins, as you come towards B/ E ask for trot going onto the 20m again, by using the circles as half halts it allows you to ride forward more softly, it is a really hard exercise to do well but is very beneficial for those that rush or have contact issues. Hope it makes sense as some riders really struggle with it at first.
The other exercise is to use spirals, in to about 10m or smaller if they can balance well enough and leg yield out, again using the bend/ leg to achieve the half halts, the hand can be passive once the bend is established and transitions can be done at any time with little from the hand, usually just sitting deep can bring them back to walk once the circle is fairly small and they are working correctly.

 

[Jericho]

Thank you - that is really helpful. With the snatching, would you just ignore it?

Yes I am conscious that the wolf teeth could still be an issue - contact and tenseness seems to have too much of a correlation to be just a coincidence, doesn't it...

 

[mummymole]

I would start with relaxed free walk 10 mins both reins ,then gradually start picking the contact up putting some 4 sec halts in random places .When pony is soft lots of praise .Introduce the trot as soon as shows rushing & tension back to walk to halt and start again .It will be a slow process .I find sometimes when they ignore half halt and run thru the transition double half halts for a while .The snatching sometimes appears when they have hade a rigid contact from rider ,but i would close the fingers everytime he does it with a big nudge forward as it is rude .With regards to the trot a small ammount of good work is better than expecting too much so as he gets better try to bring back to walk before the tension starts .We had a welsh that had learnt to be strong and snatching was his party piece flat out ,he was pretty scary .It did take about a year for him tpo learn to accept the leg and contact but was amazing eventually doing lovely dressage tests .good luck

 

[be positive]

Thank you - that is really helpful. With the snatching, would you just ignore it?

Yes I am conscious that the wolf teeth could still be an issue - contact and tenseness seems to have too much of a correlation to be just a coincidence, doesn't it...

I would just ignore it but really think the wolf teeth may be part of the cause and removal is fairly easy so getting that done would at least mean she does not have that as a reason or excuse.

 

[Tnavas]

Have your daughter slow her rising trot - this encourages the horse to slow down.

She needs to rise a little higher and sit a little longer. She will then be able to maintain the contact on the reins and once the horse slows to the rider setting the rhythm with the rising she will be able to use her legs more to balance the horse.

The snatching may be tension - have you tried the horse in an unjointed bit with a Cambridge mouthpiece? (slight port) This takes pressure off the tongue and places it more on the bars.