Re: little horse TOUGH MOUTH

[Linda Cowles <linda_cowles@mentorg.com>]

Heidi, DSS is very good, and can address this very well. I had an
opportunity to watch DSS recently, and was very impressed with her. I
plan to take a few lessons with her in the next couple of months. Also,
I promote "Natural Horsemanship" methods because I have seen very
significant improvements in a short period of time with them. NH methods
focus on having a very "light and responsive" horse that works off of
it's haunches. 

Until you find someone to help, I did a post on mental rushing a few
days ago, and while that horse didn't physically hang on the bit,
mentally she was just the same. This horse comes down hard on her
forehand as Heidi describes below. I train these types to balance back
on their butts by asking for circles, and then trigger that response by
starting the "ask for a circle" sequence and dropping the sequence as
soon as the horses weight shifts back. This circling stuff involved seat
and leg "aids" and most of my personal horses will respond to my weight
shift alone. 

If you try it and get frustrated, email me and I'll try and explain it
better.

John Lyons tapes supposedly cover much of this very well, but I haven't
had the opportunity to watch them.

Good luck - Linda


> <<  but I realllllly have to pull back to get her to stop and
>  I don't like this!!!
> 
> Tough mouths are developed when people try to stop horses simply by pulling
> back.  To get a horse to stop properly, he needs to shift his weight onto his
> rear legs.  To accomplish this, the rider needs to sit firmly down, use the
> legs to cause the horse to drive the rear legs up underneath himself, and use
> the bit only as a barrier to forward progress, not as something to cause the
> stop in the first place.  ... Someone correct me if I am wrong--I have not
> been to a Donna Snyder-Smith clinic, but I understand that she is very good at
> explaining this.  If so, you might want to consider attending next time she is
> in your area....
> 
> Heidi