bit advice for strong horse

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horserider03

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May 4, 2015
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Hello
My horse is currently in a French link D ring snaffle. However he is fairly strong whilst jumping and likes to rush towards jumps in the last few strides. I have been schooling him up and he is improving but my loan owner is a nervous jumper and has asked for him to be in something stronger. He is also in a running martingale as tends to throw his head up. She wants him in a gag but I have tried this before and he tends to throw his head up more and gets really tense across hi poll as does not like the poll pressure. Is there any bits that anyone could help recommend to give us that bit more control when jumping? Thanks
 
It sounds like he needs schooling, and she could do with more lessons on him to improve his way of going and her confidence.

I don't think a change of bit would be a good investment long term - he'll learn a way to evade anything and you'll get stronger and stronger.
 
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ponylover88 said:
It sounds like he needs schooling, and she could do with more lessons on him to improve his way of going and her confidence.

I don't think a change of bit would be a good investment long term - he'll learn a way to evade anything and you'll get stronger and stronger.
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I have suggested this but she doesn't want to jump him until he is in something stronger.
 
Unfortunately a nervous rider and a strong rushing horse isn't a good or safe combination for jumping, and I don't really think changing his bit is going to make much difference. For one thing, putting him in a stronger bit will not stop him from rushing the jumps. Rushing jumps is usually a sign of enthusiasm or excitement and/or inexperience or poor technique, and his bit will not change that. Also, if she is pulling / hanging onto his mouth to hold him back because she's nervous, having him in something strong is more likely to wind him up than anything else!

What exercises have you been doing with him to work on the rushing? Have you tried pole and gridwork?
 
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joosie said:
Unfortunately a nervous rider and a strong rushing horse isn't a good or safe combination for jumping, and I don't really think changing his bit is going to make much difference. For one thing, putting him in a stronger bit will not stop him from rushing the jumps. Rushing jumps is usually a sign of enthusiasm or excitement and/or inexperience or poor technique, and his bit will not change that. Also, if she is pulling / hanging onto his mouth to hold him back because she's nervous, having him in something strong is more likely to wind him up than anything else!

What exercises have you been doing with him to work on the rushing? Have you tried pole and gridwork?
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I do lots of pole and grid work and also figures of eight over a double so he learns we aren't always jumping straight and jumps on a circle to keep him thinking.
 
He sounds like he could do with lots of grid work with poles to set him up, he may attempt to rush it but from experience if you leave him alone, don't play with him, he'll sort himself out and get himself out of the mess he created and slow down for future approaches.

I'd also be tempted to get him to trot into all fences. If he starts rushing, circle and bring him back to walk. Then ask again.
 
The owner of my old loan horse Bailey used to insist that he wore a gag to jump in. I never understood why because all this did was make him ultra sensitive to any rein aids. He used to rush jumps and would often duck out to the side, but this was just because he was inexperienced and didn't really understand what to do. The gag made him more more difficult to ride and when we went back to the snaffle the jumping improved quickly. He just needed time and lots of repetition over poles and small jumps to get the hang of it.

If a horse has a tendancy to run off after the jump and you need extra brakes then a stronger bit may help, but otherwise it sounds like he needs lots of calm and patient schooling.
 
If someone's nervous their first reaction may be to use a stronger if not the strongest of bit in order to feel they can stop the horse. I used to jump a lot and know some horses/ponies are just naturally excited when jumping and although schooling helps it will not stop all horses/ponies being hyper at the thought of jumping although it will help them become balanced and therefore more controlled. As for bits, mine use happy mouths or snaffles at the moment although have used copper roller snaffles quite often in the past with success. Sometimes its really not about a bit being stronger but find the right bit for the horse/rider. I used to have a ja pony who rode fantastically in a hackamore but had to be ridden in a bit to compete(due to rules) if I held her back in a bit she would cat leap, so we had to do an awful lot of grid work to get her to the point I learnt to jump without hanging on to her at all. x
 
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