I can’t be alone in this struggle. A horse that is super sensitive, yet has the ability to get incredibly strong over fences? I have literally tried everything. The horse hates a flash. He hated a figure 8. And backs off to the point of not wanting to move forward with anything other than a snaffle.
Suggestions on bits, or other training aids? In 30 years of horses- and my trainer agrees- this is the trickiest horse I have ever seen. I’m curious to see what you other thoroughbred owners have used if you have dealt with a similar circumstance.
I have one like this. Uber sensitive until he’s not. Honestly…mine improved with his flat work and just training. He’s also one I have to jump a bit more often…even over little stuff to keep him more rideable otherwise he just gets too excited about jumping to help himself. Lots of jumping and halting, jump and turn, jump on an angle toward the wall/rail…I will occasionally push for a long one or leave a stride out (you have to practice moving up to a fence, just not often) but that is immediately followed with an add or several quiet and deep. I do not let him build without doing something to stop it. Keeping him guessing and busy is key…but make sure I’m soft, calm and not pulling even if I have to do a hard half halt…make sure I don’t keep pulling. I work hard to keep my aids quite and subtle too. Most of the time I just need to think move up and we do.
Good luck. No quick fix that I know but mine is such a fun ride for me that’s just fine. He is totally a finesse ride most of the time but is not easy…just totally my ride but he wouldn’t suit everyone.
Thank you,
Thank you for taking the time to respond! It sounds like we are on the right track, as I am doing a lot of what you mentioned.
agree with BFNE. I rode mine in bits with stability on the sides and KK type mouthpieces for the most part (full cheek KK/oval mouth, happy mouth French link baucher, eggbutt KK). and stay for the quiet, steady ride because the instant I started doing anything moving up the rideability would go away and he’d be all MY BRAIN IZ FRIED FOR THE WEEKENDZ!!??!?! At home, tons of dressage, tons of changes within gaits, tons of lateral work to get him rideable. but always a delicate balance to do this without blowing his sensitive side so also a lot of long walks on a loose rein, and trot sets on a loose rein where he could just decompress.
I also found, at the direction of my GP trainer, that that horse needed to jump around on a longer rein than is traditional. Pretty much all my pics on that horse I am riding with “too long” reins. But that was on purpose. he didn’t like even a fairly light rein so on course, I’d ride him with my reins about three inches too long and just let him flow around on the lightest touch. I kept a supportive leg but not very active, the kind of leg you ride a sensitive horse with. it worked for him. On the flat I made him deal but my trainer was big about riding the horse you have, not the one the books say they ought to be.
I ride a lot of my horses in a plain loose caveson, I think they are highly underrated. Some sensitive horses don’t like to have their mouths manually shut and will fume about that instead of thinking about their jobs.
I experimented at times with a 2 ring elevator and frankly it was not a great bit for him for jumping. it made him boing around like a pogo stick and just made him more spastic. Plus it would make him hang up going to the fences instead of flow forward which a lot of TB types need to preserve their scope, especially when the jumps get big.
during the winter I would hack him out in a gag for control but I didn’t jump him in it.
I have the same horse, only had him a little over a month but super strong over fences. Some days on flat hes stronger than others. Right now I just flat with a basic loose ring full cheek bit and over fences I do a full cheek waterford. Waterford has been working but I am noticing the effect is slowly going away. He will not refuse a fence whatsoever, however if I have offended him or get too much in his mouth with a “harder” bit he will run out as he doesnt like it when I catch him on the landing side of a jump and it takes a bit to convince him I wont do it again. Super sensitive.
I am thinking of trying a 2 ring elevator bit for flat for those days he gets a bit forward, but definitely interested to see what others do.
In my barn and in my trainer’s barn most of the TBs (including my own) go in HS Duos or nathes, or a loose ring French link, and the focus is on dressage. This sort of nothing bit takes away the anxiety about the hardware in their mouth and you can get back down to working on their responsiveness to leg and seat, not just hand.
It doesn’t work for every horse (and it might not for yours!), but I’ve seen horses come in with gags, lifters, complex Mikmar setups- and when all of that is taken away the change is remarkable: the horse isn’t defensive any more and the training can progress from there. I had a very strong, sensitive TB who used to just sort of run off with me so I had cycled through an amazing variety of increasingly bigger bitting set ups. The first time I rode with my trainer we were in a Cheltenham gag for jumping, with a standing martingale and a flash. My (new) trainer took all of that off and stuck him in a loose ring French link. It was incredible how quickly our communication improved when my horse wasn’t fighting against the bridle.
Good luck- OTTBs can be a bit complex to sort out at first but at heart they are often very easy and really just want to be your partner.
My sensitive TB also goes best in a Sprenger Duo.
Also like fordtraktor’s horse, this guy prefers what I feel is a slightly too long rein and you just have to stay completely out of his way/mouth to the fences or he becomes a hollowed out hot giraffe.
He is very rideable on the flat and is lovely and soft and over his back; but, like a typical TB, cannot tolerate the feeling of being pushed into strong contact or “bottled up” without blowing a gasket.
I also find these types seem to love lots of quiet, supporting leg. It’s like they need to hugged by your leg. If there’s too much movement there, it can also light them right up.
[QUOTE=bornfreenowexpensive;8684885]
I have one like this. Uber sensitive until he’s not. Honestly…mine improved with his flat work and just training. He’s also one I have to jump a bit more often…even over little stuff to keep him more rideable otherwise he just gets too excited about jumping to help himself. [/QUOTE]
^ Same.
Any time I am in the ring schooling, I will ask my guy to plop over a cross rail or two once or twice in the ride. I deliberately make no big deal out of it, and sometimes it takes him by surprise (his ears flip forward and you can almost hear the ‘whuh?!’), he jumps over it and then it’s right back to your regularly scheduled programming. This makes jumping very mundane. He’s still very green (we are W/T/C working on contact) but when we have jumping schools it’s really NBD for him because he just thinks it’s “another day in the sandbox”.
We also are schooling over poles daily, which I think helps keep him transfixed on being quiet and keeps his mind used to seeing and stepping over poles daily.
What are you riding in now, and what have you tried? You aren’t alone, my guy above is very similar – he is so wonderfully soft in the mouth you’d never think he has some rides where he’s as unresponsive as the side of a rock face… His thing is he might get super resistant and when that happens you need to “feed him” the reins - contrary to what most people would want to do, which is strong-arm the head down…
Have you tried a waterford D-ring? NOT legal for dressage but it seems to be very good for the horses who get very strong over fences but don’t need extra bite on the flat.
I agree there is no quick fix, but plug away and it’ll become a distant bump in the road long gone.
IF you do go for more bit…I agree, a Waterford would be a consideration. I’ve actually had good luck with a cherry roller snaffle (on sensitive horses who prefer thicker bits).
This one looks interesting to me…my collection just has the single jointed cherry roller.
http://www.bitworld.co.uk/ourshop/prod_2696161-Pessoa-Cherry-Roller-with-Barrel-Loose-Ring.html
Another cool looking one found via google 
http://www.justequine.co.uk/Bomber-Cherry-Roller-Loose-Ring
(I’m hiding my credit cards now before I start buying more bits!!!)
ETA:
Anyway…I still probably wouldn’t change bits but did have good luck with a cherry roller with my ultra sensitive and reactive TB mare who got very strong (especially xc when we moved to prelim). The cherry roller gave me more control so I didn’t have to fight with her…but also avoided the head flipping ears in my face over reaction of just about every other bit that wasn’t a simple snaffle.
My current young horse isn’t super duper sensitive but he is strong at times and a gnawer and likes a thick bit. he is loving the Novocontact eggbutt single joint. It is surprisingly thick. I was really shocked when I ordered it how thick it was, but he adores, adores it. He’s going in a plain loose caveson now that he’s not fighting the bit, before I had to have him in a flash because he’d get his tongue over the mullen I had him in before which was a safety issue (he’d get pretty upset about that when he did).
The plain strong off the track but uncomplicated I don’t worry about, that has just gone away with good flatwork and a basic bit.
Not cheap but I actually bought it for my other horse who goes in a Duo but was chewing them up too fast, which is a VERY expensive habit. He’s going fine in it too but it has made a real difference in the gnawer. The other horse is super sensitive but has never been strong so he’s not all that relevant to this thread.
[QUOTE=fordtraktor;8685319]
agree with BFNE. I rode mine in bits with stability on the sides and KK type mouthpieces for the most part (full cheek KK/oval mouth, happy mouth French link baucher, eggbutt KK). and stay for the quiet, steady ride because the instant I started doing anything moving up the rideability would go away and he’d be all MY BRAIN IZ FRIED FOR THE WEEKENDZ!!??!?! At home, tons of dressage, tons of changes within gaits, tons of lateral work to get him rideable. but always a delicate balance to do this without blowing his sensitive side so also a lot of long walks on a loose rein, and trot sets on a loose rein where he could just decompress.
I also found, at the direction of my GP trainer, that that horse needed to jump around on a longer rein than is traditional. Pretty much all my pics on that horse I am riding with “too long” reins. But that was on purpose. he didn’t like even a fairly light rein so on course, I’d ride him with my reins about three inches too long and just let him flow around on the lightest touch. I kept a supportive leg but not very active, the kind of leg you ride a sensitive horse with. it worked for him. On the flat I made him deal but my trainer was big about riding the horse you have, not the one the books say they ought to be.
I ride a lot of my horses in a plain loose caveson, I think they are highly underrated. Some sensitive horses don’t like to have their mouths manually shut and will fume about that instead of thinking about their jobs.
I experimented at times with a 2 ring elevator and frankly it was not a great bit for him for jumping. it made him boing around like a pogo stick and just made him more spastic. Plus it would make him hang up going to the fences instead of flow forward which a lot of TB types need to preserve their scope, especially when the jumps get big.
during the winter I would hack him out in a gag for control but I didn’t jump him in it.[/QUOTE]
Ditto all of this, for my horse that was similar - down to the stable bit, plain noseband, no martingale - and the riding advice with a long rein. In all my lessons with this horse my trainer would be yelling “RELEASE THE REINS” on the landing side of every jump as he was running MACH 1000, and she meant a serious release like a loopy rein and DO NOT TOUCH HIS MOUTH! for at least 3 strides on the landing side before picking up a light contact to half halt, when we were retraining him. But it really did work eventually, and he never could be ridden with the same type of contact as most of the other jumpers.
I had a TB horse years ago…named “Mazzerati”, but was actually a cross between a Mack truck and a Titan missile!! I tried all sorts of bits…he would just curl behind the bit and charge…as much on the flat as over fences. My “usual” bit was a three ring gag with two reins, but on a whim one day I put a French snaffle on him and he was WONDERFUL!!! I think trying a variety of mouth pieces - I never tried a Waterford…keeps such a horse “thinking/wondering”!!! Force and pain doesn’t work!!
Full cheek…
Thank you for your insight. I do a lot of random x-rails, I agree this keeps his mind la-Dee-dah about jumping. :lol:
I currently have him in a full cheek dr. bristol. This has been his happy place. Anything less… or more… and he is offended. I recently realized if I don’t crank down on his noseband, I actually have a happier ride (happier… not perfect!) I guess as I am reading thru all of your wonderful replies, that consistency is key. Even if it takes longer than a horse show on a hot day! 
I recently tried a single loop elevator happy mouth and he wanted nothing to do with me, my hands, my legs, or this bit! So… back to our happy place.
I lessoned in the full cheek a few days ago, and he seemed grateful to have that back in his mouth.
I have heard waterfords can be useful, I know there is one at the barn. I will have to give it a try!!
Add me to the list of Nathe lovers. My TB is sensitive, mouthy, and can get strong and frustrated. The key with him is to stay soft and relaxed and not touch his mouth - picking at him makes it so much worse. I try to make adjustments with my weight and body as much as possible.
He is working on getting changes mid-course right now and we, too, found that giving him the loopy rein over the fence and three strides afterwards to reorganize before starting to set him up for the change was the best. Any quicker than that and he would grab the bit and run.
Sometimes a Baucher is miraculous. Or this one, https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/reinsman-stage-a-trail-dee-stainless-double-five-snaffle-13131 which functions the same but doesn’t look as silly on a large head.
I’ve had a few horses who really liked the stability.
I ride a powerful big horse. She is sensitive, she is willing and forward.
She has never been allowed to take charge and is brought to a halt as firmly as necessary, praised, and continue on as if nothing has happened. She seems to get it. She jumps and does x-c in a Nathe, and now a Trust (D-ring mullen mouth plastic bit). She goes beautifully in it, no pulling at all. We use a lozenge snaffle for flat work but it is the same method, I just feel this bit allows for more finesse.
OTTB’s have had a different background, but more flatwork is usually the answer and with me less bit is more…always has been.
Four Socks and I seem to be on the same page.
My horse also needs more rein over a fence - she will shorten her neck to accommodate the length of rein, but jumps better if there is more “allow”.
Learned that from a clinic with (Sir) Richard Meade.
Besides really concentrating on the flatwork skills that usually get skipped because they take so much time to master, there’s one exercise I think really helps-because it is an extension of flatwork. Show you where the training holes are in a hurry. IME most of the inconsistency you get and a lot of the 'sensitivity" is simply the horse does not understand the question and/or lacks the confirmed skills to answer. They get a little excited jumping and what you thought they knew vanishes. We get anxious Jumping too and forget to use LEG in a consistent fashion.
Clinicians often use this excercise since it’s simple and can be done over poles, low jumps, big jumps or whatever. Just do poles to start, harder then it looks.
Set two poles in a line at about 60’, it’s not critical, just set for a comfortable 5.
Get your canter on the other side of the ring, carry it all the way around the corner and put 5 strides in the line. Repeat. After you consistently get 5, shift gears and do 6. Get that canter before you come around the corner to the line, hold it around the corner after. NO halting after. NO starting from a stop, tight circle or short approach. It’s about getting and keeping the desired step and straightness all the way around the corners then holding it-which is basic flatwork. Adding the poles carries the skills a step further. Raising the poles to jumps adds another level to challenge those skills. It’s also going to show you if the horse is tracking straight or crabbing behind or leaning on a shoulder to avoid correct response to leg and hand -meaning instead of staying straight, balanced and controlled, it’s evading by being crooked and rushing because it’s HARD to do thise things when fences get added…sometimes not mastered on the flat either. Hope that makes sense, easy to visualize, hard to explain.
Eventually you will do it in 4 and alternate 4-5-6 using the whole ring but only after you master the set step and the add and get really good holding the same canter around the corners. This is much harder then it sounds, especially the adds for one that likes to get strong. It gets rid of over anticipation and various evasive techniques, including rushing and going around the corners after the line like a motorcycle.
No, I’m not going to say you should just use a fat rubber snaffle but anything you use only works until it doesn’t until you fix the underlying cause. Sounds counterintuitive but adding leg when they get strong to keep them on the aids is your friend. Horse may not like the fact he HAS to but they’ll learn. Patience and consistency.
Friend has a highly sensitive time bomb of an ottb, and the ONLY combination he is rideable in is a Nathe loose ring and Nicole bridle WITH the bit clips. And the bit MUST be a size big because he does NOT take kindly to the rings touching his lips. Yeah…he’s a princess!
