Bitless Bridle/Hackamore Issues?

[CERT]

@Guilherme I didn’t know the Marchadors had a broken diagonal gait too. I imagine it would be similar to a Fox Trot? Interesting stuff!

My crew go both bitted and bitless personally. I went to bitless as I teach a lot of beginner lessons and it made my lesson horses so much happier to not have grabby, novice hands in their mouths. My philosophy is “whatever the horse goes best in” and sometimes that is with a bit and sometimes not.

@beau159 I am inclined to agree that the headgear doesn’t matter the more I’ve thought about it.

[Guilherme]

Using bitless devices with new riders makes sense. Lesson horses generally are pretty steady and newbies are still trying to figure stuff out. I’m still not on board for general use but this limited use is OK!!!

G.

[akdraft77]

@CERT

It is more of a “what if” than anything. IF the horse stumbles would the nose pressure from a bitless bridle be more likely to cause the horse to go all the way down over a bit that acts within the mouth?

I think you are asking about working against the horse’s balance in trying to get back up if he needs to use his head and neck to balance himself?

I don’t think you are going to be changing much there as far as leverage goes as long as you aren’t using something that is super severe - I have seen some pretty harsh metal hackamore-like contraptions that might cause the hose some pain in the nose while he is recovering, but nothing that I think would impede his ability to actually get back up.

I’d ride with whatever my horse responds to best.

[CERT]

@akdraft77

I think you are asking about working against the horse’s balance in trying to get back up if he needs to use his head and neck to balance himself?

I don’t think you are going to be changing much there as far as leverage goes as long as you aren’t using something that is super severe - I have seen some pretty harsh metal hackamore-like contraptions that might cause the hose some pain in the nose while he is recovering, but nothing that I think would impede his ability to actually get back up.

I’d ride with whatever my horse responds to best.

I am definitely in the “ride in what works best for the horse” camp.
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Yes, if the rider/driver was to interfere with the horse’s balance in trying to pull the horse’s head up. It sounds like my initial impression is confirmed. I didn’t think it would interfere much if at all unless it was a particularly extreme, leveraged hackamore.