I have a 5 year old 14'2 hand mare that I have been training english. She has always had a harder mouth, but would still listen to you in a snaffle (we
rode her in a slow twist full cheek) her owner is a casual rider that just hops on and does a little walk trot 2-3 times a month, very baby beginner. She is
also ridden by some kids/teenagers and I was using her for lessons and riding her occasionally myself. I stopped riding when I was 6 months pregnant (it was
hurting my hips too much) and she slowly started acting up to the point i couldn't use her for lessons...not really bad, just shying about the woods that
are next to the ring and being slow to stop. Now that I have had my son I am back to riding, and she is just plain horrible. She is ok if you ride her in the
small ring, pulls and is reluctant to stop though, in the big ring she is a moron, pulls hard the entire time, will not stop, trying to jig (I am not letting
her though) and is just annoying. She has always been the in-between energy wise, will go till you tell her to stop, but didn't pull and you didn't
have to keep kicking her, one of the things that made her great for beginners.
When ever I have had a horse that was reluctant to stop, I would just work on allot of transitions and everytime I asked for the halt I would make it back up 3
steps, after a couple of times they usually lighten up...not her, she just gets more reluctant to stop and refuses to back. Had her checked by the vet,
can't find anything wrong with her hind end or mouth. The owner is pretty cheap and doesn't want to spend $$ on a trainer and I am not being paid to
train her, but I want to get her to the point where she can be ride-able again. I have tried neck stretchs.
Last time I rode her in a pelham...ask with the snaffle portion, if she doesn't respond use the shank, but I don't like doing this plus her owner
wouldn't be able to ride her like that (doesn't have soft hands). It took a while, but she got off my hands and was listening sorta.
Any suggestions? and since I am not being paid for my time, something that doesn't take forever and a day to fix?
This is SO annoying especially since my mare is EXTREMELY light in your hands and super responsive to leg requests, when i ride them on the same day its like
night and day!
