Looking for some advice on bridling and older horse that just isn't having it. I took in this mid-teens horse to ride for 30 days...just some wet saddle pads kind of thing. The mare rides around good and actually has a decent handle but she turns into a complete freak when trying to bridle. I'm on day 4 with her now and have been doing my rides in the round pen with a loping hackamore to try and get something done. I've spent some time everyday working on getting her bridled, really just trying to start over with it because she obviously has some bad issues with it that has been created over time.

I'm going to suggest the owner have her teeth checked, I'm sure they haven't done that but short of that being the issue, I don't seem to be making much progress. I spend time each day just getting her head in the right spot, pulling the headstall over her face and just rubbing my fingers on the side of her mouth and she throws her head a lot. If you try for the bit, she gets pretty violent with the head tossing. I have gotten her to where I can pull the headstall over and rub on the side of her face some without it being as much of a fight, but that's about it.

Was wondering if there is anything I'm missing or that I could try to help her.

How's the ES20 Rope horse series coming? Looking forward to that one. 

3 King bred fillies started with the ES20 colt starting program and the ES20 snaffle bit series. Love all your videos/series. Looking forward to the ES20 rope horse series! 

Merry Christmas all! I'm currently binge watching the ES20 colt starting series and loving it!

Got a question on a colt I started. This is the first colt that I've started from scratch trying to follow your program the best I can. So far, I've taken things really slow and I feel like I have a good handle on him at the walk/trot...good overall control at these gates, working off legs nicely and stops when I sit at these speeds. I've loped him around in the round pen and he does fine although his lope is pretty fast. When I go into my large arena (140/250) his loping gets a bit faster and out of control, and by out of control nothing really bad but he gets super fast and really loses his circle by drifting to the outside of the circle really bad and not wanting to respect the rein pressure and legs at this gate. (I'm using a snaffle with a broken dog bone in the middle)

So I'm a bit stuck on what to do here. Not sure if I missed something at the slower speeds or if there is something I can work on to try and help with this. We trot a lot of circles and he does well with that but loping not so much. If you have a video that addresses this maybe you can point me too it. Appreciate all your content and all I've learned so far.

Aaron

Just wanted to say I’m really enjoying this site. I’ve ridden for a long time and always wanted to start a colt and this year was the year. I watched all of your colt starting videos multiple times and started on the journey. So far, I’ve done 3 weeks of ground work and have 4 rides to date. All has gone very well up to this point. I’m developing a very willing partner. I really appreciate your content and look forward to learning more and continuing on the journey.