He is a very sensitive horse (i call him my premadonna) and since I started him in a bridle a long time ago he is what I called "mouthy" constantly chomping at the bit to the point I had to put a flash on him to stop doing it whenever, didnt matter if nothing was on his mouth or he was in long lines. Finally he quietted down in the round pen when just working but when his nerves kicked up on the long lines or in the cart you could hear him chomping again but I was able to stop using the flash.
Another thing I was aware of that he was light in my hand at home but as soon as I put even the tiniest pressure on his mouth his head would jerk up like I just jammed him in the mouth and I am very quiet with my hands coming from an eventing side where I learned dressage.
I was talking with his breeder about maybe trying another bit and she had two of the jointed rollers and I had looked into them but never personally used them on any horse in my riding career so I wasnt sure. But we were thinking maybe he had a smaller mouth in the sense that when the snaffle bent in his mouth it was smacking him and causing discomfort and this bit independantly pivots and doesnt bend. So I tried it at the last minute when I was there prepping them for the show and immediately I noticed no chomping even with his side reins on etc and he wasnt fighting the bit as hard as he usually does in the side reins.
So the moment of truth was when we harnessed him up and even then he wasnt sitting there chomping on the bit like he usually does. Then when we got into the ring, he never leaned into my hand, was quiet enough where I could actually work on his headset and strides and not having to just hold him back and get through the class.
Evidentally he must have been so good that the judge came up to me at the end of the class and said she absolutely loved him and the reason she didnt place him at all was because he wouldnt back for me (the grass arena had bad ruts and he hit one backing up and stopped and started to panic but he is green and we will work on that by backing over things like poles etc)but if he would have backed he would have won the entire class.
It was disheartening but my gelding was being driven in the same class (debut class) and won it haha. But I was proud of my boy it was a 100% turn around from what he did at the show prior when he did two classes at that show.