Hey all I hope I did this right. I'm new to the website so bare with me. I'm having some problems and I'm hoping y'all can help. I have a horse Who is easy to control in an indoor area. Listens well and does put up too much of a fight. But in an out door area it's very hard for him to slow down and turn nicely. I've worked and worked on slowing down but nothing seems to work. I run him in a short shank Sherri cervi. Indoors he works a great but outdoors it's a fight. What kind of training ideas or buy ideas do you guys have in mind? 

More details would be helpful!

How old is your horse?

How long have you had him?

How long has he been running barrels?

How long have you been running barrels?

Do you have a video you can post?

I adore the Grasshopper by Charmayne James – the chain chin strap can have a lot of bite. Always worked well on my free runners. When is comes to running outdoors, I had to do more than a bit change for my free runner.  When running outdoors, I had to sit earlier and ask him to rate down by bumping both hands prior to the barrel to help him prepare for the turn. Indoors he was great, outdoors I had to help him. It took some time but eventually we got out timing down.

I am very, very very conservative with bits. Very. I hate almost any "barrel racing bit" you throw my way. I'm pretty well versed in bit mechanics and overall a picky person.

Up until last summer I did jackpots on my mare in a smooth o ring snaffle. Then she would take the bit and RUN with her head chopped off and blow through my aids. So I had to take a couple steps back and do "snaffle boot camp".. And slow things down. I had to do a lot of slow work where I had to concentrate most of my aids through my seat, and do exercises on the pattern where we would trot up to the first, circle it twice, stop. Stand still. "Okay"- and trot up to the next one. Then to the third, but surprised her again with circling the barrel twice, whoa and stand, then let her do a controlled, slow lope home.

For awhile I would switch between my smooth o ring snaffle and a basic argentine with a copper roller mouthpiece that she did fantastic in. I try to get her consistent in both.

Some things also to consider is your horse's mouth anatomy, and what kind of mouthpieces he works best in. For example: my mare hates anything "busy" in her mouth on the pattern like my copper roller argentine, so we don't run in that. Some horses have lower palates, and sometimes just adjusting the bit to sit in their mouth higher or lower can do a huge difference too. Some horses like solid mouthpieces, some like a Myler mouthpiece, some work better with single-jointed bits. Also, bit mechanics: I don't use sliding gags, but how the mechanics on a sliding gag work is that it signals to the horse to put its head down, yet up at the same time. The pressure on the poll, the mouth, and the chin can be a lot for horses to "process" and will try to blow through aids to escape the pressure. It can be very confusing, even when you use light pressure on the reins, just due to how the bits are designed to work. A bit with long, straight shanks will pull down and put more poll pressure on with less effort and with almost no presignal than a tinier curb with more curved shanks would.A snaffle that is a tad too small can pinch the lips, and that's when you either need to size up or put bit guards on. Just some examples.

I don't always discourage from "bitting up", but a lot of people don't take a step back to tweaking the foundation of the horse to make things go smoother on runs.

I definitely see your point! Great advice! My main problem is just outdoor areas. He does amazing in indoors and is soft in them. It's just until we hit the outdoor pen he goes silly!