pulling

[blitzen_]

my mare pulls like a freight train when we're trail riding, especially if we do anything faster than a walk. i have been riding her for the past two years in a loose ring, double jointed snaffle & although i'm very happy with how she goes in the arena, she just gets a bit excited when we're out in the bush & hauls on me. i know it comes down to

Comments

[penella22]

Sage hauls on me all the time on the trail because he wants to eat. I have no thoughts at all on changing bits but I do know that I have been doing a lot of flexing with him and bending to a stop AS SOON AS he hauls on me and it IS making a difference. I have to ride him with a lot of intent and focus and have a plan but giving him those boundaries at first means that for the last few rides at the end I could ride him down the road on the buckle and he was great.

[lantairvlea]

If you want to change bits be sure you use it in the arena first and see how she responds before heading out with it

[buymeaclue]

On the baucher you might try one with the same mouthpiece so you have a similar feel in her mouth, but a little leverage to back it up.

A baucher is not a leverage bit.

[lantairvlea]

Apparently there is some debate on the matter. I admit to not being terribly familiar with the baucher and understand that if it does have any leverage it is the vaguest kind and nothing compared to the true leverage bits.

[buymeaclue]

It's just physics -- there is no lever.

[buymeaclue]

Training beats desensitization every time. If she's fine in the ring but tricky on the trail, that's useful information -- means you need to bring way more of your ringwork out on the trail with you and prioritize the training while you're there.

If she runs hard and fast every time she gets out of the ring, frex, that sets a very different expectation in her mind than if she gets out of the ring and does the same million transitions and steps of lateral work, etc., that she does every other day of her life.

I am a fan of long, long walks for green trail horses (and established trail horses, for that matter). Also of using the trail to warm up for/cool down after/take a break during an arena schooling session rather than having them be separate events.

[imaginethewolf]

I would urge you to try the training advice before switching bits

[failuresofine]

Switching up bits to something 'harsher' is definitely the "band aid" type short term fix, and I will admit to having done it once because I was so fed up with the nonsense my mare used to pull on me out in the open. She was an eventer, but came from a riding school, so had developed a zillion bad habits thanks to having to haul around a zillion bad riders... who then took her out and evented her. :\ I ride my horses in nothing more than a plain snaffle and I worked for months on that mare to get her to stop trying to pull me over her head (all done in the snaffle) but she'd revert to being kind of obnoxious in the open/on the trails