My new horse has a bit of fussiness towards bits. As in, she throws her head every so often. In general, she is a sensitive mare. When I tried her, she was going very well in a Waterford. However, now, she seems to be increasingly offended in it. Nothing too bad, but I just want to find something that she’s completely happy in. I’ve also ridden her in a thicker 3-piece snaffle and while that went better, she still threw her head a few times. I am planning on riding her in a rubber Pelham (sans second rein) to see if she likes a single joint rubber mouthpiece better. For context, she has had her teeth done recently and besides the head throwing holds herself very well undersaddle. I will add a caveat that she is coming back from an injury, but from videos, I know the head throwing is a past issue. Any ideas are appreciated.
What’s happening that makes her toss her head?
What does “holds herself very well under saddle” mean to you? I’ve ridden horses who will head toss if not ridden forward off the leg, others might have allergies or irritation, etc.
In my opinion, prolonged contact with the reins. I just don’t think she likes the way it sits in her mouth. Ie she goes best in a light contact but if you go to adjust her every so often she’ll head toss.
What I mean by that is she naturally goes in a very correct frame. She’s naturally forward and in my opinion, uses herself quite well. I’ll attach a photo that illustrates this.
That’s more than likely not a bit issue if she was going well in the bit when you tried her. It’s either training - as in someone used the Waterford to “fix” a problem, without training the problem away - or it’s the rider.
Riding with a very light contact can make any use of the reins too abrupt from the horse’s point of view. Riding with a very light contact can make an unstable hand tolerable for the horse, and also make actual aids unclear or again, an abrupt change from the horse’s POV.
If the rider’s hands are steady, and the use of the rein good, the horse may lack true acceptance of the contact. This can be covered up with bit changes, but if the training isn’t done the bit change only temporarily covers up the problem. I have bitted up on more than one occasion in order to break the horse’s automatic resistance to the rein, and then used that period of grace to actively train the horse. In every case I was then able to put the horse back into a softer bit and retain the training.
Obviously I can’t see the problems you’re experiencing so can’t offer any opinion on specifically what might be behind them. You may indeed find a different bit solves the problem. But if you don’t do any specific training and it pops up again in a few weeks or months, it’s probably not the bit. (For what it’s worth, in my limited HJ world experience Waterfords are only used to “fix” issues.)
My head tossing bit sensitive mare turned out to have allergies…it wasn’t until they progressed to the coughing sneezing stage that I put 2 and 2 together. Putting her on zyrtec stopped the head tossing. That said she is still bit fussy…she prefers a baucher…and we’ve had the best luck in the Fager Maria baucher. She gets really angry with anything with the other metals but is okay in stainless and titanium (thinking also allergy related).
