Bitless- roadwork and advanced dressage movements

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stormox

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I have a question for people whos horses go in bitless bridles or headcollars.
I have seen several videos on you tube of people performing advanced dressage in bitless bridles, headcollars or even no bridles.
So to you people whos horses do this, or hack out and compete bridleless, are your horses first schooled it a normal bridle and bit then graduate to no bit, or are they schooled right from first being broken with no bit?
 
I took the bit out of my IDx when he was four as he had such a big jump over just a pole that I didn't want to catch him in the mouth, so to answer your question, he was broken in with a french link snaffle. He now solely uses a bitless bridle, whatever we do, and I have never had any issues, apart from dropping six places in a RC event because even tho we were fourth and it was his best test ever, we were penalised 10 points for not having a bit. Make the sense of that one. I've done x/c, s/j and endurance with him bitless. Our Connie was bitted until the ID went bitless, then we tried him as daughter had always had issues stopping him. He is now a much more polite pony. Ditto competitions.
 
I have a mare I trained to Grand Prix (dressage), and she was backed in a snaffle, is ridden all the time in the snaffle at home, and has competed in a double bridle since she was at Medium. Last year she had a tooth removed, and the vets said to not put a bridle on her for two weeks, so I just used her normal headcollar and clipped a lead rope to each side of it and rode like that to see what would happen. It really was no problem at all, I hacked her out round a route we know well just in walk and that was fine, took her in the school, and I didnt have the same finesse I have in a bridle, we had no problem doing medium level work and a bit of piaffe and passage. So no, she had no preparation for this, and I'm sure if I had continued riding her in the headcollar I could have improved the finesse quite easily, but she really didnt find it a big issue to swop to no bit after being ridden all her life in a bit.
 
My little mare has never been ridden in a bit. We’ve been everywhere and done a bit of everything in a bitless bridle, and though her dressage skills are hardly advanced she can collect nicely and do basic lateral work. The latter is in no way down to the lack of bit, but my lack of time to ride/school.
 
daffy44 said:
I have a mare I trained to Grand Prix (dressage), and she was backed in a snaffle, is ridden all the time in the snaffle at home, and has competed in a double bridle since she was at Medium. Last year she had a tooth removed, and the vets said to not put a bridle on her for two weeks, so I just used her normal headcollar and clipped a lead rope to each side of it and rode like that to see what would happen. It really was no problem at all, I hacked her out round a route we know well just in walk and that was fine, took her in the school, and I didnt have the same finesse I have in a bridle, we had no problem doing medium level work and a bit of piaffe and passage. So no, she had no preparation for this, and I'm sure if I had continued riding her in the headcollar I could have improved the finesse quite easily, but she really didnt find it a big issue to swop to no bit after being ridden all her life in a bit.
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Wow. You must be an incredible rider. (Also, this is a really odd question, but is piaffe comfortable to sit ?) (Sorry OP I know it's irrelevant).
 
I break mine in using a headcollar first, before progressing to a bridle and bit, so even although they are now both rising 8, I can still school them nicely in a headcollar.
 
My mare has been backed bitless and dislikes bits she hasn't had one in her mouth since she's been with me she will do leg yield in a bitless bridle and has never been comfortable bitted.
 
Chinchilla said:
Wow. You must be an incredible rider. (Also, this is a really odd question, but is piaffe comfortable to sit ?) (Sorry OP I know it's irrelevant).
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Thank you Chinchilla, thats very kind, but somewhat misguided, you havent seen me ride! Piaffe is very comfortable, it feels like your not doing very much, passage is the exciting one to ride, and if the horse is very powerful, that can be harder to sit to.
 
Our late Arab was bitless all his life, something about having his mouth occupied just didn't agree with him although we'd had him since a foal and knew he hadn't had any bad experiences.

He normally wore a scrawbrig, a western type of bridle which works mainly on the nose. With this, he was lovely to hack alone or in company, showjump and school. He was fairly well schooled, could do half pass, flying changes most of the time, and shorten and lengthen although he always went more like a showjumper than a dressage horse! He was also weight trained, and would pirouette and rein back on weight alone like a western horse.

For exciting sponsored rides and showjumping at scary arenas, he had an English hackamore which have some extra breaks.

For lobbing about in the paddock at home, he went nicely in a head collar with a couple of ropes clipped on it.

For what it's worth, all of mine have gone in a head collar for messing around - it isn't much different to leading them.
 
buzyizzy said:
I took the bit out of my IDx when he was four as he had such a big jump over just a pole that I didn't want to catch him in the mouth, so to answer your question, he was broken in with a french link snaffle. He now solely uses a bitless bridle, whatever we do, and I have never had any issues, apart from dropping six places in a RC event because even tho we were fourth and it was his best test ever, we were penalised 10 points for not having a bit. Make the sense of that one. I've done x/c, s/j and endurance with him bitless. Our Connie was bitted until the ID went bitless, then we tried him as daughter had always had issues stopping him. He is now a much more polite pony. Ditto competitions.
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You will have been penalised because RC eventing runs on the same rules as normal eventing but with generally a bit lesser penalties, there are rules about what bit you can/can’t use and if you don’t use it you get penalised.
At lower levels this means a snaffle generally, so if you turn up bitless or you turn up in a running gag you get penalised just the same. BE they would just straight up disqualify you

If you want to compete you need to read the rules, if you don’t like or agree with the rules then don’t compete
 
I've backed quite a few bitless, and at that stage it's not a great deal different from having a bit in. No particular reason for backing some bitless, just what I fancied doing at the time.

With a lot of horses I often prefer show jumping bitless too, again I have no great reason as to why, I just like the feel I get (generally with a hackamore).

Young horses generally switch pretty easily between a head collar with reins and a bitted bridle - it's us riders that find things more of a struggle
 
My ex-racer was always bitted but didn't like it. He had a wolf tooth which was in a tricky place, so that came out. It helped a lot, but he still preferred a plastic bit. Then when we were rehabbing from KS surgery, I was basically bored with all the walking, so tried him in a hackamore unearthed from the depths of the tack room just to see what would happen. He went the same bitless as bitted except that the contact was steadier, so we've carried on. It's getting on for 3 years now. He is a lot easier to bridle bitless & really prefers it, and I feel a lot less mean not to be shoving something in his mouth that he doesn't like. And I don't have to go through the faff of rinsing & drying off the bit every time I ride, which is a big plus!
 
daffy44 said:
Thank you Chinchilla, thats very kind, but somewhat misguided, you havent seen me ride! Piaffe is very comfortable, it feels like your not doing very much, passage is the exciting one to ride, and if the horse is very powerful, that can be harder to sit to.
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Anyone who has trained a horse to grand prix has to be good. Also thanks for answering the utterly irrelevant question! :)
 
I'm sure it would be possible to school all the way up bitless but I think most would have used a bit at some point if not for the majority of the work. In my case my advanced horse was trained in a snaffle, would compete in a double and he was fine to ride bitless. I used a micklem with the reins straight on the noseband so very mild, could still do changes, lateral work and pirouettes but compared with the snaffle they didn't have the same quality. Maybe if I'd stuck with it it would have got better but I didn't like the feel of the contact, it just felt fuzzy and not right. I didn't hack out in it as he wasn't particularly trustworthy in a snaffle but did jump bitless. Despite me being a bit apprehensive at the start I actually found him much easier to jump in it, I think I was less in his way so he was able to get on with it without me interfering.
 
My horse was backed bitless, then was bitted for the next few years (just because that’s the done thing and it didn’t occur to me not to). He has been completely bitless for the last 2 years. Once I tried it properly I never saw any reason to go back. My horse may be unusual but I feel I have exactly the same finesse bitless as I did bitted, in that every little half halt and nuance on the rein is noticed by him, we can have the same conversation along the reins as when he had a bit, but he is much happier (especially in this cold weather it seems much nicer not to have a cold piece of metal in his mouth!). We are not at the dizzy heights of piaffe or passage but I believe he could learn it all bitless if I could learn to ride properly! He hacks, does trec, does XC and all his schooling in a simple rope sidepull with gel pad on the nose. He will also jump and do trec ptv courses without a bridle...we haven’t mastered bridleless dressage yet.
 
BBP said:
My horse was backed bitless, then was bitted for the next few years (just because that’s the done thing and it didn’t occur to me not to). He has been completely bitless for the last 2 years. Once I tried it properly I never saw any reason to go back. My horse may be unusual but I feel I have exactly the same finesse bitless as I did bitted, in that every little half halt and nuance on the rein is noticed by him, we can have the same conversation along the reins as when he had a bit, but he is much happier (especially in this cold weather it seems much nicer not to have a cold piece of metal in his mouth!). We are not at the dizzy heights of piaffe or passage but I believe he could learn it all bitless if I could learn to ride properly! He hacks, does trec, does XC and all his schooling in a simple rope sidepull with gel pad on the nose. He will also jump and do trec ptv courses without a bridle...we haven’t mastered bridleless dressage yet.
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I've been meaning to ask for ages - where did you get your sidepull from? I always admire it when you post photos :).
 
I have a bitted horse, but he has fleshy lips that occasionally get sore in the corners so have used a hackamore in the past to give them a break, I just stuck it on and went and didn't think anything of it. No issues. Also happy to jump on in a headcollar for a potter and again no issues.
 
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