Bits are for communication; not to pull a horse to a stop by sheer force. A bit with a shank is a leverage bit with a different action to a snaffle bit and they can cause a tremendous amount of pain (as any bit can) if used with heavy hands. I'm not suggesting you are or are not as I have no idea how you ride. On that basis I think it would help us if you could tell us some more about how you ride, in what circumstances she won't stop, how long it takes her to stop, how do you ask her to stop, things like that.

Horses are into pressure animals - too often the cause of not stopping is use of or bad use of too strong a bit. If your horse won't stop you should try less bit & more training. My Apollo had been used for polo & had been ridden in a gag - his head carriage was very high & I tried almost everything under the sun, including nosebands that tightend when you pulled the reins. Nothing was really effective so I used a thick, rubber, straight bar bit. It was as good as anything else but if I pulled really hard at least I didn't damage him, further. This was 30 years ago. When he retired from competition, at the age of about 26, we tried some western stuff. I bought a bridle with a curb strap which was leather & could be left long or adjusted up, like a curb chain. Because the bridle worked on pressure behind the ears as well as on his chin, he had not been desensitised &'we got 'finger tip control' . Had I known then what I know now, & had Monty developed the dually at the time, which he hadn't, I would have used it to retrain Apollo. Those options were not available then but I still found a solution without pain. At 5 you should be able to regain or retrain, although it takes very little to destroy the vital nerves in the bars of the mouth. Try this experiment. Gently tap the back of your left wrist quickly with your index & second fingers of the left hand for a minute. You will find no pain in this but you will have a numb wrist for a while afterwards. The bit in your horses mouth puts pressure on the same spot repeatedly & if you are too heavy handed the sensitivity will be lost for good. I would school this horse to the dually & use it as a bit less bridle, in tandem with a soft bit. If she ran off I would try to ensure it was in a very open place where I could circle her, very widely if at high speed. Circles, even really big ones, are hard work. Use the Uni videos - you don't have any accreditations yet. I found them very useful & interesting. Be fair with your mare. She is still a baby, even at 5. If her mouth has been damaged it may be possible to repair that damage, but you would need to be ultra gentle for a year or so to allow the nerves to grow back. Using the dually instead of a bit would allow that. Good luck. Cheers, Jo.

Sorry, that should be fingers of the right hand - what I've posted is impossible! Jo

A 5 year old is an unbalanced baby; if you are pulling, she will pull back - into pressure - I have ALWAYS trained them off the nose first, way before trying to slowly change over to using a bit.
In those days, we used a drop noseband to attach the reins to but it was done up so you could get 2 fingers between the strap & the jaw, it wasn't there to tie the mouth shut.
You say you used a snaffle, i presume it was a single jointed snaffle which has a nut cracker effect, clamping onto the jaw & pinching hard!
There are much more comfortable bits available now such as the Neue Schule "Team Up "bit, it has a short lozenge in the centre so it acts on the tongue, but the joints don't press onto the bars of the mouth like the old fashioned French link bits.
I used the Dually to do all my mares groundwork & early ridden work, then tried the team up bit etc but we have gone back to a bitless bridle now & by that i most certainly DON'T mean a hackamore which are very severe & should only be used by professional riders in my opinion!
More severe bits are not the answer - less is more & training is the answer, so train in a safe enclosed area & use very light rein aids, try to make them as light as you possibly can plus use your body weight aids, the rein should be the very last part of asking to stop, turn etc.

We'll said everybody. As Vicci and Beryl know I have a 4y.o that I'm bringing on. I work on the K.I.S.S (keep theory,

Bloody phone!! As I was trying to say Keep It Simple Stupid theory, not that I'm saying your stupid. Both of mine are in loose ring sweet iron bits with a lozenge in the middle. Having a nice horse that responds to leg & rein aids without harsh actions comes from plenty of schooling, transitions changes of direction, working from your leg into the hand! Having someone knowledgeable on the ground really helps they can see if the horse is working from behind.

yes indeed, someone on the ground really helps, i so miss my lessons. I had a wonderful instructor when i had my beloved Rocky, she taught me so much.
My lovely mare has taught me to ride even better - well, I'm actually not so strong & stable nowadays, but she's taught me more, although i do have to work hard for what i get from her - Tee Hee!!

Mind you finding a good instructor, who will tell you why & how to get the horse doing this and that is hard and what you should be doing to put right any bad habits,and we all have them, I lean forwards slightly amongst other things, lots of them just tell you how well your doing anyway!!

you are sooo right, I'd rather ride by myself & have learnt to examine what happens if i do something as to the effect i get from the horse, thats the best you can get without a GOOD, KNOWLEDGEABLE INSTRUCTOR.
I will not pay someone to stand in the middle shouting abuse at me to mask their ignorance, it serves no purpose.
I was very lucky to find Maggie when i had Rocky & her training has really helped me.
I'm finally starting to be a thinking rider.

oh yeah, Maggie was always getting down on all fours to show what the horse was doing or meant to be doing & explaining exactly where your body should be to get that.

Beryl, now I've managed to stop laughing at that image of your instructor on all fours I can reply, sorry:)

I don't mind, yep, our lessons were fun & she taught me more in the time she was teaching me than in all the years before, it's also stayed with me & i've been able to build on it - thats the measure of a really good instructor.

Yep riding is supposed to be FUN, well at least for most of us! I'm very lucky the instructor I've got for Winter used to event she's in her 60's and competed against Richard Meade, Lucinda Green etc at Badminton so she knows what she's on. My other instructior for Tiggy has evented as well and now does dressage to Grand Prix!! But they explain things if you don't quite understand what/why you're doing this or that without making you feel like an imbecile!! They both shout at me when I slip back into my bad habits, which is good, makes me a better rider!