Hard Mouth

[Lindsey_S]

My 7 year old QH gelding has been labeled as 'hard mouthed'. When I bought him, he had the softest mouth of any horse I'd ever owned. We shipped him to the trainer to 'finish him'. This plan backfired. She left him in his stall for two to three hours, saddled and bridled, with a thin twisted wire bit, the reins tied straight back to the cantle of the saddle (western)!!!:eek:

During the past year, I succumbed to the 'bigger bit' teqnique (sp). Yes, I know, bad me.

Now I am working in a sweet iron loose ring snaffle. can anyone give my tips or ideas on how to get his soft mouth back?

[teabiscuit]

french link loose ring snaffles are a nice easy bit to encourage a soft mouth - be sure you don't confuse it with a dr bristol though which is harsh.
good luck with him, (the trainer sounds like a fool, shame you have to undo her damage)

[kedwards]

Ooh, that poor thing. I would like to stick that bit in your trainers mouth and tie it to her ankles, just for a few hours mind you, to teach her to give to it.

It is certainly understandable if he doesn't trust the bit, given the experiences that he has had with them.

Different horses prefer different styles. Some do better in double jointed (a French link or the lozenge type) and some do better in a very thick single-jointed snaffle.

A bitless style might be an option to consider, as well.

[Lora]

I'm with KEdwards... ;) That trainer needs "Trained"

Bitless would be good, or has anyone ever seen one of those rubber coated snaffle bits? I never tried one but maybe someone here has?

[KateWooten]

Hi Lindsey,

Don't worry, your horse will forgive you :)

he's 'hard-mouthed' because he has learnt that no matter what he does, he can't get any release from the pressure of the bit in his mouth ,....so he has learnt to brace against it .... and so he has developed the muscles that support bracing, and lost the softness, the supple muscles that support bending, softening yielding. You have to break that cycle - make it easier for him to soften rather than brace .. but it will take a little while as he has some different muscles to build...

If he were mine, I would not put a bit in his mouth for the forseeable future. Get a decently fitted rope halter, and do the softening exercises from the ground in that, and hold off riding him until you can safely ride in just the halter with a rope tied around for reins.

First the softening exercises : do you get RFD-TV, or read any Clinton Anderson stuff ? You need the lateral flexion exercise first to soften his neck and teach him the really important lesson - 'if you yield to pressure, you will get the release'.

Next you need the 'disengage the hindquarters'. Get that going really well both sides.

All CA's other groundwork exercises are totally worth doing as well - they're really quick to get the horse's attention on you, and his respect.

Ok, if he's ready to ride (I mean, if you're getting a good feeling about it, if you have a safe area - a roundpen, or an arena - I usually find the horse will tell me if he's ready) then hop on, and do your flexing for a few minutes and hop off. this is the other half of the pulliing/bolting/yielding scenario - what tends to happen when we get horses back from 'the trainers' is we take them out and 'see what they can do'. The better this goes, the more we ask of them - so their reward for trying is more work. Sometimes this cycle never stops, and so we get not only stiffnss but also resentment !

So keep rides short and sweet for a little while - just while you're doing the re-adjusting - you are wanting him to flex laterally and be really soft about it. If he does that, good reward him and put him away. Next , you want to work on disengaging under saddle. Just at a halt, using one rein, and one leg, ask him to disengage his hindquarters - should be easy since you've just done it from the ground. That was your first '1-rein-stop' ! Next you need to practice it from a walk - just hold the pressure on him until he steps right over behind. Next practice from a trot etc.

The key with a horse that has become 'hard-mouthed' ie resistant to requests to turn or slow, is to react with 'less sooner rather than more later'. So practice walk - halt transitions a lot. And backing - great exercise for softness. And practice walk- trot-walk a lot - JohnLyons would have you do just three steps at the higher pace and slow again. You want to be asking for the downward transition before that big head of speed has built up - so you avoid the pulling battle altogether. And whenever you do want to slow and stop, just use your one rein because the horse can't brace against it.

Ok, that's enough blathering for me for a while - if I've been talking a foreign language here, let me know, I can talk you through the 2 key exercises you need ... updates on your progress please !!! :)

[CMR]

I have heard that sometimes when people don't ride their horses for a few months, after they ride them again their mouths have become "soft" again. Maybe you could try riding in a bitless for awhile, and then go back to basics, i.e. snaffle. Something that gets my horse listening to the bit better is a lot of transitions. It will take a while for you to be able to barely touch the reins and he responds though, so don't get disencouraged(is that a word?:D ) if you work on it for a week and his mouth really hasn't changed. The key to this is to not start off hard and then go soft, it is to start soft and then go hard. In example, when you ask for a walk from trot. 1.) Think about walking, 2.) Sort of release your energy, relax 3.) Lean Back 4.) Give some sort of verbal command for walking(you can skip this part if you don't like verbal commands) 5. ) Gently touch the reins. If he has not stopped by then then you would continue to increase the pressure on the reins until he stopped. He does feel very light contact, although right now he is either choosing the ignore it, or doesn't understand what you are asking.

[Styric]

The break thing is true. My horse was hard mouthed (my fault, I admit it) and we were reschooling him and myself in a kimberwick. He responded perfectly in it, then went lame.

Four months later, he's sound and I hop on... and he overreacts horribly to the kimberwick. Switched to a low port snaffle and he was perfect.

Somehow the four month break gave me what training was taking slowly to do... a horse with a new mouth.