Struggling with the Bit...until I did it the easy way.

Okay I've been trying for a month to figure out the easiest way to have Gracie accept the bit.  Being a bit naive I thought you just put the bit in their mouth and there you go.  I had tried to find articles on getting horses to accept the bit and really found nothing...

But I have a horse with a neck to Jesus high and stubborn as a mule to boot.  So put those two together and you have an owner ready to pull her hair out and send Gracie down the road.  Thursday we tried again and my ever so smart BBFF suggested ever so sweetly (since we don't give unsolicited advice) that she had a friend with a A-rab with a neck to Jesus as well and she had this great way of getting the bit into her geldings mouth...well I shrugged it off at the time because at the time I was so frustrated and ready to give up that I really wasn't listening..

But today was new day and I thought what the hell...

So I got the training head stall (with clips for the bit) out took off the reins and unhooked one side of the bit and grabbed a pan full of grain.

Step one:  Grab a handful of grain. 

Step two: Give uninterested pony some grain

Step three: When said pony is happily eating grain from my hand put headstall over her ears. (She HATES this part normally with a PASSION)  Prior to this lesson I had taken the brow band off of my other bridle and had been trying to get it over her ears this way much to my dismay this route did not work.  But as she was eating the grain from my hand she hardly noticed I was playing with her ears.

Step Four: Grab second handful of grain.

Step Five: Slip bit into unaware pony's mouth clipping it to the other side of the headstall.  

Step Six:  Stand back and stare proudly at Pony who was outwitted.

After the above steps I put the rest of the grain that was left in the pan and let her finish it with her bridle on.  

It was amazingly easy and I want to send a shout out to JP1 for giving her unsolicited advice to a very frustrated young horse owner.