[PiaffePony0412]

Wow! You have a very beautiful horse with really lovely movement, I hope you do dressage with him!

A snaffle with the bean in the middle is an alternative. A french link snaffle has a small piece in the middle so it is less harsh in the horse's mouth. I personally ride my horses in this bit.



There are definitely people on here who could assist in your saddle fit if you get some pictures with it on him and some with you in it, on him.

Excellent idea to wait for a trainer's help. Having patience and doing the correct thing will save you lots of time of having to fix mistakes later. If he was worked in side reins enough to be bumped up some notches, then even if you can't work him on the ground that way, you can work with him from in the saddle. Just walk for a while and work on keeping your reins straight so you feel his mouth, but soft and moving with him. Show him that he can trust your contact and you aren't going to hurt his mouth. Focus on being relaxed and don't resist his movement. You are on top of him, so if you are tense he can feel it and will be tense too. He will slowly start to take bigger and more relaxed steps.
You said you are inexperienced, so I'm assuming you aren't using your seat aids, but I could be wrong.
While walking around, practice stopping. After being relaxed and walking around with soft contact, give little squeezes on the reins with your fingers at the same time as doing short multiple squeezes with your thighs. Stay soft and keep doing this until he stops. Say 'Whooooaaa' if it helps. If you stay soft, he will stay soft.

Keep practicing this simple exercise of walk halt walk halt walk transitions with the 'half halts' I just talked about from your seat and fingers. Once you have mastered this you already have created at least a little relationship with the contact, and a slightly more relaxed and obedient horse.

-Piaffepony0412

[kmdstar]

Originally Posted by IIIBarsV

Personally, I like the "no gadget" approach better because you can really get a feel for the horse, and encourage him to develop the "right" muscle groups at a nice leisurely pace, rather than risk over-working them too early and damaging something. Even the hardest-mouthed horses will respond eventually to inside rein/inside leg... but you might need more "inside leg" power than usual. LOL

Definately agree with this! I've made the most improvement with my mare the day I decided to use nothing such as side reins, draw reins, running martingale, whatever on her until AFTER I got her relaxed. Just tonight when I rode I could see tremendous imrpovement and though it may take longer without a gadget, it's VERY rewarding!

[kmolen2]

Piaffepony0412-- that sounds very helpful. I think this sounds like a good way to start until the trainer is able to work with us. I'll look for a french link snaffle as well.

IIIBarsV- I also like your on the ground idea. I'll try that out too!

[meljean]

Drop your hands. Where the hands go the mouth must go. Take a light hold on him, and then bring hands to just barely above withers, and ride him like that.

He will possibly test you at first a little, but just keep hands low, until he settles for you.

I realize that I can not see you, but this is a problem I see often in horses that stargaze, is the riders hands are too high, and the horse raises head and then the rider raises hands again and so on and so on...

You can also put bight of reins behind cantle of saddle, not cranking horse back, and only do with snaffle bit, never shanked bit. The reins should not be tight, I never tied, reins just as would ride, long enough for horse to bring head down and move out nicely. You want him to get used to traveling with head lowered. Put him on long line and work him at walk and trot, nice and easy.

And another thing I do is to take palm of hand, and starting at center of forehead, smooth down the face to the area noseband lies on halter, keeping a slight pressure as drawing hand down face, increasing until horse tucks nose slightly towards chest, and give a "back" command. This teaches horses to bend and drop head, and then as you are giving a little more pressure, he moves off of head backwards. This will help reinforce him giving to your hands, and backing up also.

[JBandRio]

Start by not lunging. The only "control" you have over his head and neck at that point is with force - don't want to do that.

Do in-hand work and teach him to lower his head at the halt first. Then walk, and yes, then the trot. You're right beside him every step of the way.

If you can teach him to touch the end of a stick (not that difficult), then you can hold the stick out in front of you to give him something to visually see, to go after, and to lower his nose to.

THEN you start working him farther away from you.