Success!

I don't know if you can tell but in the above picture of Lorna on Hottie, Hottie has a bit in her mouth!

One of the perks of Lorna working with a trainer is that Lorna gets to take her horses down and get help working with them. Lorna not only gets help but she also learns a lot about fixing certain problems.

We had tried a number of things here at home but the trainer had a few tricks of her own. She ended up getting hay string off of a bale of hay, braided it together and got Hottie to accept it in her mouth. It wasn't easy the first time but she eventually got it in her mouth a few times. She left the string in the horse's mouth for about an hour while she and Lorna worked with Sierra who's new favorite thing is rearing. A little later the trainer went back, wrapped the bit in vet wrap to keep it from clanking on her teeth, and worked on getting the bit in. After just a few tries it worked! She again left Hottie in the bit and went off to work with a different horse.

I was afraid that we weren't going to be able to duplicate this at home but it wasn't a problem. One thing we found was that once we got past getting the bit in Hottie's mouth she hated having something put over her ears. We've been working on this whole process at home and she has finally stopped tossing her head around while we try to bridle her. She still needs to learn to keep her head dropped while we are putting everything on but she is progressing!