Horse becomes nervous when ridden without contact on reins?

[gracecatherine14]

The past few months, I discovered an interesting problem with my horse: if i put him on a loose rein, he trots around like a giraffe and is very wiggly/nervous.

If he has contact on his mouth, he will go in a frame fairly easily and be happy as can be. This is kind of a new issue for me since most horses ive ridden had the opposite problems, they didn’t like contact on the mouth and were much happier being ridden on a looser rein. whats also funny about this issue is he carries himself beautifully on a loose rein in the walk, and the canter, but the trot is a bit of train wreck if i don’t have contact on him.

I’d like to try to fix this issue just because if i’m not constantly giving him contact or have him on a loose rein, he doesn’t carry himself well. I did some lunge work and it has helped a bit, but would like to try some other things to help him out undersaddle. Please note I have had his saddle fitted, teeth floated, and tired multiple bits (even tried no bit) to try to fix the issue with no such luck. I’d like to try to avoid tie downs if I can (draw reins, side reins) but i’m not entirely opposed to it if it’ll help and not hurt.

Any help or advice is appreciated!

I was also looking at micklem bridles to see if maybe this would help, has anyone had any luck with them with this kind of issue?

[Dutchmare433]

How much contact do you have on the reins when he’s in a frame? Is he light and steady in the bridle or is the contact fairly heavy?

I wouldn’t just go from contact to nothing–it’s like you’re dropping your side of the conversation. How does he do if you ask him to do a true stretchy trot–will he follow your hand down and forwards if you slowly give him more rein, while maintaining a light contact?

[gracecatherine14]

he’s fairly inconsistent. He’ll kinda of give in to the contact and then resist.

Stretchy trot he doesn’t usually do. He has done it on some occasions but usually the more rein I give him to stretch down he’ll just put his head up more.

[CFFarm]

Check the usual (bit fit, teeth, bridle fit, etc). Then work on actually getting him “on the aids” and not depending on the reins to keep him balanced. Your connection should be elastic, not all or nothing until your horse knows what a free rein means.

[digihorse]

THe problem is the horse is not actually accepting contact, but allowing you to “frame” him. This is a difficult problem to fix once instilled in a horse. He has to go forward through his body, and learn to seek the hand. Going around like a giraffe is not bad. Its just uncomfortable for the rider. It says to the rider… your horse is not honest in your hand, and is not forward. Fix those issues… and everything else will fall into place.

[netg]

How much training does this horse have? What does your trainer have to say about the problem?

My mare’s first six months under saddle we couldn’t have a truly loose rein - very, very light contact was ok, but because she was naturally insecure, she communicated a lot through the bit and felt more insecure with zero contact. Now we go for long trail rides on looped reins, but we had to build to it rather than just throwing the reins away as was mentioned above.