Anyone ride a cob/draft type in a bitless bridle?

cblover

cblover

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How do you find it? Which type of bitless do you use?

I have a dr. Cooks bitless for my older cob and a made to measure matrix bitless for my recently backed 4 yr old. My 4 yr old was backed and ridden away after being mouthed with a single jointed loose ring but he's not settled in a bit and my intention was always to have him bitless.

He's a big boy and it would be nice to hear some positive stories from those riding draft types bitless.
 
Yeah mine goes bitless, have a Dr Cook but he's not that keen as it doesn't release fast enough (it's a synthetic one), so have converted it to a sidepull with the judicious use of some duct tape and he much prefers it. Looks a bit daft but we don't use it for outings, just schooling, hacking and lessons sometimes. He's so good though, you could probably ride him with a bit of string round his neck and still be safe, he's a real poppet. :)
 
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Baby cob goes either way...he was started bitless and only had bit added once he was fine off nose pressure and seat :) Don't know what make mine is....just a leather one with simple rings on the side of the noseband. Nothing fancy, no cross over action (I'm not a fan of the cross over ones personally).
 
Mine isn't exactly 'draft type' but she is a Fell X, built like a tank and capable of being extremely strong if she feels like it. I ride her in vaquero made rawhide sidepull.
She has only been under saddle a couple of months and still very much a work in progress, and I will be sticking with the sidepull until she is ready for some refinement with a snaffle.
 
cblover said:
Thanks hollybear, he sounds a fab dude. What breed is he?
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No idea cblover, heinz 57? Trimmer thinks he has some draught blood as his front feet are relatively flat, which is a trait in draughts apparently, some people think he looks like a Fjord, but I think that's just because he's a buckskin, could be anything in there!
 
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I ride my 5yo traditional in a side-pull rope halter/bridle combo that I bought from Easy-Does-It. It has a cordero-style noseband. Had it custom sized to fit him exactly. He's been fussy in a bit since he was backed (teeth checked and a couple of different bits tried to see if they made a difference) Tried him in a Dr Cook and he didn't like the total head pressure of the cross-under style. Tried him in a leather sidepull and had no brakes but he has a respect for the rope one and I don't have to apply much pressure for him to slow down. I started hacking him out in his bitted bridle but with a rope halter and a 12ft line tied under his chin and we mostly worked off the rope unless I needed a bit of fine tuning for opening gates without getting off. Once I had clearance from my insurance company that I was covered to ride on roads I ditched the bit and I really feel that his is happier and more responsive in the rope bridle.
 
I used to ride my boy in a Dr Cook for a year as I tried to figure out his bitting issues.

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It took about a year to unbuild the under neck muscle he gained from bracing on the noseband. :o
 
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I tried riding my heavy cob in a Dr Cooks. He was a lovely mannered boy. He still bogged off on various occasions while wearing it - he was just too strong for a little bit of nose pressure to really register.
 
Breez said:
I tried riding my heavy cob in a Dr Cooks. He was a lovely mannered boy. He still bogged off on various occasions while wearing it - he was just too strong for a little bit of nose pressure to really register.
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^^ this. I also felt that I had to have quite a heavy contact all of the time. The bridle didn't release very quickly at all, and I felt it was very "unsubtle." It was great for playing horseball and games in though as there was nothing to catch in his mouth; but if he felt like it I had abslutely no brakes at all (and I'd never had him in anything more than a snaffle bit).

Eventually I went back to firstly a myler confort snaffle, and then to a NS verbindend which he really liked. At the time, though, there was the Dr cook or a headcollar, there were no other commercially available bitless. If i had to do things again, I would probably have tried other bitless bridles (though the lack of brakes is a serious worry!)
 
I have in the past ridden Genie in a headcollar... including in open fields. She loves the nose pressure but as we do dressage it's not a regular thing!

This photo is from when she had been on some meds that made her mouth sore, but vet wanted her ridden...

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(She's a Welsh Cob)
 
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Rode a Suffolk punch last week in a dr cook - he was just too strong for it to be effective and I hated having to yank him :(
 
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