By Patty Wilber
Part of what makes horse training fun for me is finding the best way forward for each horse. MH has been a challenge because of his head flipping and general level of tenseness. In his defense, he has not acted on his tenseness, so I had to find MY way forward with that.
The head flipping has been a journey of discovery, and as we have worked forward, it has become clear that for him it is an issue with layers. Like an onion! We are peeling back the layers!
I started with a snaffle bit, and he flipped his head like a horse playing in water. I tried lunging him with a little pressure on the reins. I tried letting him carry the bit around. I tried letting him carry it around with a bit of pressure. None of that made much difference when I got on. Head flipping to distraction.
I tried a shank bit with a solid mouth, but he got his tongue over that bit immediately, and there was lots of head flipping.
I tried a correction bit, and while that kept his tongue from coming over the bit, and did mitigate a lot of the head flipping, it was just too much bit for a young horse, and he wasn’t happy.
I got a sidepull. That seemed to work very well. As we used that consistently, his head flipping all but disappeared, and as he became more focused, he started to master his baby horse basics. Walk, trot, lope, stop, back, sidepass, logs, bridge, gate, and steep and rocky trails. He is also quite soft (a lot of the time). But of course, WHAT ABOUT A BIT?!
I tried a Mylar D ring like this, but there was head flipping, AND I noticed it was rubbing on the side of his mouth a little.
I got bit guards. The bit guards alleviated the rubbing, and there was almost NO head flipping! He is still much lighter and more content in the sidepull, but he is OK with this bit, and he no longer puts his tongue over the bit!
Getting to this point has been a combination of time, and trial and error. Training in the sidepull, time to get more accustomed to a bit, and alleviating any discomfort played key roles in moving him forward!
We are getting there!
