Pulling up a stubborn horse

I do honestly apologise if this is in the wrong place on the forum. Please move if required.

Onto the question!!

The entire story:
I used to ride when I was younger but I was never what you would call an 'advanced' rider - maybe intermediate.
I stopped riding for many years (stopped at 14 and didn't start again until 23).
I have recently been getting slowly back into the saddle through hire places that run trail rides etc.

I have been finding that I am finding it fairly difficult to pull up the horses.
Now, because the person that runs the rides considers me an 'ok' rider they do tend to give me the slightly more uncowoperative horses and saves the agreeable ones for beginners but I would really like to know some methods that would help me slow the horse down/stop it entirely.

The methods I have been trying:
Pulling back firm and low (keeping my hands down and gradually pulling them back).
Pushing my feet forward and away from the horses body while doing the aobve.
Trying to turn the horse (which so far has never been successful while doing anything faster than a walk).

Suggestions about how I should be trying to slow the horse down would be awesome.
I'm unsure if I'm failing so incredibly because I am doing everything wrong, or if it's because these horses are purely trail rider horses and they just...tend to do whatever they want?

Thanks in advance for any advice/critique about what I've already been doing.
If there's any further information that might be useful just let me know!

Can you do ground work with this horse? Is this horse the only one you ride? And even so, the method I give you should help. Do you know how to bend a horses neck side to side?
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Nope. No chance for ground work.
The place I go to ride is pretty much:
- You walk in.
- They point to a horse.
- You mount and wait for everyone else to mount and then out the gate.

There is no one particular horse I ride. Though I have had this same problem with 2-3 of them. They were all ones where I was forwarned 'He likes to get ahead' or 'She'll stick with her so if she goes, you'll go too' kind of thing.
Or I've just been forwarned that they're actually hard to pull up.

No, I'm not aware of bending the horses neck. Some further detail would be fantastic please!

Ok! I get it now! Trail horses. Ya good luck ! Their brains are washed! I don't know if by bending their necks would help because those horses are programmed. That sucks! But if you were to get a horse of your own and you ran into that problem, you would want to get that horse to flex side to side. A good trainer that I watch is Clinton Anderson. Respect on the ground. Everything should start on the ground and work up to the saddle.

I guess even when you are trying to pull up these mechanical horses, you may try see sawing the mouth gently. You may get more of a reaction. But if you are trying to hold up while others are going you may not be able to do so. These horses are set on a one way street. If you feel uncomfortable with these types of horses, you need to say so as it is the business's responsibility to match up horses to people. You pay to have a good ride not to sit and try and train while you ride. You know?
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Ah fair enough.

Just thought I'd see if anyone had some suggested methods that may help. But if that's the way the horsey goes then I suppose that's the way the horsey goes.

Thankyou very much for your help anyway :)

Someone may be able to still help but I was a trail guide and I know how those horses work.
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What bit are they putting on for you. Or does it change for one horse to another? Anyway a snaffle you would want to try the mentioned method of pulling one rein and then the other. With a shanked bit just increasing pressure pulling back. Without training the horse there isn't a lot you can do except train while you ride. Most importantly be consistent and stick with what your doing. Probably though you should get easier horses to deal with if you can or else you might get tired of riding pretty quickly. Sorry no help

Unfortunately without being able to actually work with the horse, you can't do much to train it to be easier to stop.

You are paying for their services though, right? Why can't you ask them to put you on a horse that you are more comfortable riding then?

One thing I know is that horses will not stop with one constant pull. If you just pulllllll, they're not going to stop. If you push down with your thighs, keep elbows close to body, and pull, release, pull, release, then you have a better chance of them stopping.
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