Tongue over Myler ported snaffle - suggestions!

[nicnag]

Hi, I have a 5 year old TB mare who was broken last August, she has been coming on really well and I couldn't be more pleased with her but we have one little niggle! She has started putting her tongue over the bit, gets her knickers in a twist once she has done it then once she gets it back she is fine. She started doing it a few months ago although we did see a little of it when we first backed her but that stopped fairly quickly. She has had her teeth done by an equine dentist just over 5 months ago and he is due back shortly so I'll get it checked again but my feeling is that it is becoming a habit to entertain herself rather than a issue with teeth etc. I started her in a loose ring french link and moved to a Myler low port comfort snaffle about three months ago. She has accepted the Myler very happily and takes a nice steady contact in it, I changed over as she wasn't settling well in the french link and I felt she needed the tongue relief. We never see this habit in schooling sessions or on the way out on a hack, only on the way home which is why I suspect it is her entertaining her very active brain once she has looked at everything on a hack. I only have her in a cavesson noseband and I don't really want to strap her gob shut unless I absolutely have to, I suspect I will have to upgrade the brakes eventually as she is 17hh and a big strapping girl who has it in her to take a bit of a hold when she gets excited and one thing the myler hasn't got much of is braking power!
So hot chocolate and cream cakes to all for making it through all that but any suggestions on what I could try next? Higher ported snaffle ? Grakle ? I don't want to chop and change but I also don't want to let this become too much of a habit! should add the comfort snaffle was fitted by a myler trained person so I'm confident it is sitting in the right place.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Your bit may be in the right place for the bit-fitter but possibly not for the horse. I'd try putting it up a hole. I agree though, you need to sort out the problem, not mask it with a noseband to hold the mouth shut.

 

[Darremi]

Even though logic tells you that the port should give her more room for her tongue and therefore discourage her from trying to put it over the bit, from personal experience of riding a fussy mouthed TB mare in a curved myler she just was almost worse in trying her darndest to get her pesky tongue over it!

I think sometimes that because they are curved, the mylers end up sitting a bit lower down the tongue and therefore are more uncomfortable for those horses with a big/sensitive tongue. Might be worth a change to something without the curved mouthpiece.

 

[tda]

I bought a Ported Myler for my Dales mare who constantly put her tongue over anything jointed. It did not help at all and I found the steering was non existant.

She ended up in a mullen mouth Pelham and has beedn ridden and driven in that all her life.

It is worth tightening the noseband initally just to discourage her, and also my mare has not very deep lips/small mouth,(not a good description ! ) so she has to have more wrinkles at the corners for the bit to sit properly in her mouth

 

[TigerTail]

Mine does this in everything tbh. Shes now in a simple plastic mullen with a drop noseband. It doesnt strap her mouth shut - only comes into action when she tries to open her mouth far enough to get her tongue over.