Horses that suck away from the contact.?
What do you do when you have a horse that sucks away from the contact?
I'm currently working with a green mare (Started in December) and she's coming along amazingly well considering that. However, she has always sucked back. It's gotten better, don't get me wrong- You used to get on, think of touching the reins, and she'd curl like the posterchild (Posterpony?) for rolkur. Now she just goes behind the vertical- Still far from desirable. Right now it's mostly down to trying to coax her to reach down and out, which only works until you take some semblance of a contact again. I literally go on the lightest contact I've ever ridden a horse with- If I went any looser the rein would be slack. I've lunged her in the chambon a bit, but it's only helped so much. Part of the problem is that, left to her own devices, she likes to stand with her back hollow and neck up, so the muscles she needs to reach are tight and underdeveloped. She has a ton of movement from behind, but doesn't quite have the balance yet to do a very good stretchy-type circle without falling on the forehand, which is another problem. We've also been working a lot on caveletti and hill work to try to strengthen both her hind end muscles (Which is an odd balance- She needs to come more underneath herself and she needs the muscling to do so, but left as-is she overstrides at the walk by 6 inches.) and to strengthen her abdominals, but she's coming off of a month off so it's a work in progress.
Pictures: http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/268029_1999107535495_1177726117_1898984_5240086_n.jpg
What happens if you put on any amount of contact (We were supposed to be pushing the hind end over for help with her depart- The crossover behind is about as dramatic as her angry ears) http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/268056_1999106815477_1177726117_1898980_6324788_n.jpg
And this is about as stretched down as we can get. http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/267495_1999114055658_1177726117_1899023_3538104_n.jpg
SO. What do you do when you have a horse that sucks away from the bit?
And I have her, literally, in the mildest bit we own. It's a D-ring 2-jointed with a bean in the middle. The two pieces that aren't the bean are slightly curved. We've tried rubber coated bits but they're either too thick for her mouth or they're a style she doesn't like. And no, we haven't tried a bitless, just because 1) She's still a green horse liable to spook, rear, or buck, 2) We don't yet consider this a major problem, more like a stage/green horse thing, and 3) They aren't legal for competition.