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Leg. When he puts his head down, kick him. It'll get to the point where you can just squeeze with your legs when he gets a bit heavy and he'll come back up. If he speeds off when you do this, half hault until he slows down. Do NOT pull with steady pressure. If you give him steady pressure, that gives him something to pull against. Half halts will slow him down and he'll learn just to keep his head up when leg is on. Make sure tho, that you don't make this one motion. Don't half halt unless he goes faster. Booting him and sawing on his face at the smae time is just going to make th epony mad and confused.

Okay, thankyou muchly biggrin
Yeah I know about the not pulling back thing and confusing signals I'm not that novice lol

No, the shoulder is for disaplin (like if the horse bucked or refused), behind the leg is for impusion. In this case, you want the horse to come up, so you would do it behind the leg. If your leg aid isn't strong enough, and you're going to use a whip, you use it in the same place.

Joy used to do that (still does occasionally in the snaffle.. that mare just won't go well in anything but the damned mech hack burning_eyes ).. only she also did it at a zillion miles per hour flying around the arena, so we didn't need any more impulsion, thanks. Not to mention at that time she was so defensive about leg cues if you ever dared to actually KICK her, she'd explode into a bucking fit. Ohh those were the days. gonk

Anyways, if the horse is moving out AND leaning, there's a little step by step method I employed that worked well;

1. Collect a bit more rein, just a few inches. Wait for horse to lean on you again.
2. DROP THE REINS. Let them slide QUICKLY all the way through your hands until you're fingers are at the buckle. This will throw the horse off balance (since they were using YOU and the reins to balance on), and they'll lurch forward to catch themselves.
3. Once they've caught themselves and regained balance, take up your reins again. If they lean again, repeat the process.

I had to do this with Joy for quite awhile before she decided having to catch herself from falling flat on her face every few strides was NOT fun. She figured out that she needed to balance on her own, otherwise I'd just drop the reins and she'd have nothing to lean on.

I'll admit to this day she still tries to lean occasionally or lightly on the snaffle when I use it. She just doesn't go well in a snaffle, no matter what I've tried. In a mechanical hackamore, she goes flawlessly, and most importantly, EXTREMELY lightly in the face. I've never met a horse that will lean into a mech hack.

Whatever method works best for you and your guy. 3nodding