In my group lesson on Saturday, I got to ride this rather stocky pinto who "does not respect the bit." That means he likes to ignore subtle pulling on his mouth so he can steamroll right through to rejoin his friends on the other side of the ring. He likes to spontaneously canter, can't stand still, and, relatedly, was trained in his early years to rush fences with all his heart and soul.
When I was more of a beginner this would have been sort of terrifying. But I was very secure on him because he has this lovely swayback that holds you in place no matter what (you just never know what unique gifts how a horse might offer). At one point, I got him framed up really nicely by doing a bunch of half halts and had the most glorious sitting trot of my life. I also got to practice sitting back when approaching fences (and generally sitting back all the time to get him to slow down).
It was true that he required serious pulling on the reins if you tried to slow him down that way , which is sort of unfortunate. Sometimes, if I did it right and the stars were aligned, I could literally sit back and tighten my abs and he would slow down. It just goes to show, they can be sensitive to your body language even if they "don't respect the bit"...Anyways, now I'm suffering from a soar neck and upper back because he would pull the reins out of my hands whenever we were standing still.
When I was more of a beginner this would have been sort of terrifying. But I was very secure on him because he has this lovely swayback that holds you in place no matter what (you just never know what unique gifts how a horse might offer). At one point, I got him framed up really nicely by doing a bunch of half halts and had the most glorious sitting trot of my life. I also got to practice sitting back when approaching fences (and generally sitting back all the time to get him to slow down).
It was true that he required serious pulling on the reins if you tried to slow him down that way , which is sort of unfortunate. Sometimes, if I did it right and the stars were aligned, I could literally sit back and tighten my abs and he would slow down. It just goes to show, they can be sensitive to your body language even if they "don't respect the bit"...Anyways, now I'm suffering from a soar neck and upper back because he would pull the reins out of my hands whenever we were standing still.
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