Bit-less Horse Bridles

Video Transcript

"It's not uncommon when people start out young horses that we look at the options available in what we would call a bitless bridle. That can be as simple as your halter and lead rope put together so that a rider could have control simply off the pressure of that noseband and the side to side pull that would come from the reins attached at the side rings. That's a great way to start a young horse and to get them just comfortably used to moving away from pressure. We can advance and go onward to other kinds of bitless bridles. I happen to have today, one of my favorite Hackamores. This is the kind of bridle where you have a rawhide nose band, very similar to what we might also call a bozell, that's a different piece of equipment where this rawhide noseband would continue around and come to a firmed connection here in the back. This one goes based on leverage. You have your rawhide noseband, the S shaped side and a chain that puts that leverage into place. When the rider pulls back on the reins the noseband is going to come slightly down and the leverage created by this chain against the back of the horse's chin will create the kind of pull that you can non manipulate, to either be somewhat side to side, to start getting that horse to want to follow his nose as he moves around, as well as to back him off of the forward pressure. This Hackamore is also very useful and oftentimes I go to a bitless system when I have a horse that I feel is getting a little nervous about his training. If we take away that piece that goes sensitively in their mouth, sometimes you can get more forward progress out of a horse that's a little bit nervous."