bitless bridle

[Chianti]

I'd like to try my pony in a bitless bridle. I'd want to buy one - not mega expensive as I don't know if we'll both like it. What should I be looking for. I see some advertised as 'cross over'. Do I need that?

 

[paddy555]

I use an English hackamore. The link below is very cheap to try, just take your bit off and attach the hackamore to your existing bridle. I think that a fair few horses don't like cross overs.

https://www.thesaddleryshop.co.uk/p_3788_shires-english-hackamore

 

[cauda equina]

Kramer do some bitless things - there's a flower hackamore (gives you various options, none of them severe) and a sidepull noseband that just fits onto the cheekpieces

 

[palo1]

I'd like to try my pony in a bitless bridle. I'd want to buy one - not mega expensive as I don't know if we'll both like it. What should I be looking for. I see some advertised as 'cross over'. Do I need that?

One of the cheapest and easiest ways to find out if bitless would suit your horse is to use a simple rope or leather headcollar with either reins attached to the sides of a headcollar (leather) or use a long rope to create a length of rein for a rope headcollar. Most folk have one or other of this sort of thing in the tack room I reckon. If you are using a leather headcollar make sure it fits ok otherwise you will put unneccessary and unpleasant pressure/friction on your horse's face though. There was some interesting research a few years ago suggesting that the pressures of bitless bridles are about the same (though in different places obviously) to bitted bridles so you just have to experiment with what works best for your horse. I have a horse who has been worked and competed in both bitted and bitless but after a few years I found that in general terms he preferred a bitted bridle even though he had told me for years that he didn't really like a bit...I find generally that a bridle itself can make a huge difference too so that may be worth considering. There is so much choice out there that you probably need to narrow down why you want to try bitless as that will help find a direction for choosing what sort of set up you go for.

 

[soloequestrian]

I've found the English hackamore is the one that seems to be accepted most easily, though I've had one horse who just hated it (much preferred a bit). It seems to be very personal to the horse, the same way bits can be - I tried my youngster in a Transcend (a posh sidepull) and a scrawbrig and she hated both of them but was instantly happy and comfortable in the English hackamore. My project horse loves the Transcend.