bitless bridle advice please!

[JackFrost]

I would like to try a bitless bridle but have no experience of them and would appreciate advice. The pony is my 4 year old (the avatar), broken in at home and in ridden work for 6 months, mostly hacked out alone. She is presently in a myler roller hanging cheek snaffle, and I have also tried a french link snaffle. She is ok in a bit but I just have the feeling she would prefer not to be in one, and I don't always feel the snaffles are giving her the clearest signals.

She is genuine, never strong or silly, so the bridle/bit is mainly for communication rather than control, and also sometimes for balance as we have some tricky terrain. In schooling the focus is encouraging her to move into a contact and I am not sure how this works when there is no bit as the contact. All advice and tips gratefully received, the pros and cons of the different types, also any thoughts on whether to introduce bitless at this age and level of schooling.

 

[Scotsbadboy]

Why not invest in a biting specialist to come out and talk you through the different bit options. Perhaps you just havent found the right bit for her yet? I cant help with a bitless bridle opinion as if i dont ride in a bridle i ride in a headcollar and two lead ropes, which is my 'bitless' bridle, lol!

 

[webble]

Maybe try a matrix which gives you lots of options depending on how you fit it

 

[soloequestrian]

I ride two of mine bitless and they are very clear on what they like. I tried my young mare in a scrawbrig and a Transcend simple and she hated them both. As soon as I put a standard hackamore on she was happy and seemed to understand how it worked instantly. The older gelding is happy in both the Transcend (for school work - it's really a glorified cavesson noseband and I like to have at least the illusion of brakes when out!) and a standard hackamore for hacking. So I think it really depends on the horse, but the hackamore has been the one that seems to be most acceptable to most horses.

 

[Fluffypiglet]

I have an orbitless on mine. He's usually in a bit but we use the bitless for a mooch about on gentle hacks to give his mouth a rest (especially if he's been over excited in a jump lesson the day before). I like it and he goes well in it on the whole. Definitely takes some getting use to but it has different options as to the impact so I used it for nose/chin pressure rather than poll pressure as he prefers it. If he gets full of it it can be a bit interesting (!) But that's a schooling issue in fairness and not related to how good the bridle is.

 

[JackFrost]

Thank you Soloequestrian, really useful to know your experiences.

 

[JackFrost]

I have an orbitless on mine. He's usually in a bit but we use the bitless for a mooch about on gentle hacks to give his mouth a rest (especially if he's been over excited in a jump lesson the day before). I like it and he goes well in it on the whole. Definitely takes some getting use to but it has different options as to the impact so I used it for nose/chin pressure rather than poll pressure as he prefers it. If he gets full of it it can be a bit interesting (!) But that's a schooling issue in fairness and not related to how good the bridle is.

Thank you Fluffypiglet. Once I get my head round the options I can guess which one might be right.

 

[Jellymoon]

I used a standard hackamore on a horse that preferred bit less. I tried the Micklem options, and I think I also tried a Cook’s??? It was a while ago so I may have got the name wrong.
He preferred the standard hackamore, and I felt like I had much more influence. I didn’t like the other ones tbh.

 

[Shysmum]

We are bitless now, Shy goes best in a German Hackamore for steering.We used an English Hackamore in the UK, but since moving to France, hes become a lot more of a handful ?The key to bitless is very light hands. Good luck !