I’ve heard this in recent years watching American flat racing – talk of a horse being in the bridle in a race.
Today at Royal Ascot I’ve just heard of one horse being off the bridle, earlier one of the commentators commented that one horse spat out the bridle.
“Spit the bit” is a similar phrase used when horses tire or are otherwise no longer running hard. This has crossed into other areas and I’ve heard it used to generally mean to give up an endeavor.
I’ve never heard any of these expressions in dressage.
I know the term ‘spit out the bit’ for a horse that gives up the contact, pulls up the tongue or comes behind the vertical without contact to the bit.
I don’t think those terms are exclusively dressage terms, I’ve heard them (or variations thereof) in just about every discipline I have ever engaged in. The might mean slightly different things, but everyone’s got some version of looking through the bridle and accepting contact as the ideal.
Yeah, I was going to say the same, any discipline that uses a bit has terms to describe that. They msy however be after rather different effects. The race horse has a very different balance and relation to the bit than a riding horse.
Spit the bit is something I’ve only ever heard in walking horse circles (rail classes), and it’s used to describe the horse that quits showing/quits trying/sulls up
The terms the OP is quoting are not dressage terms at all.
Yes I’ve heard all these terms in both racing and dressage circles.
“On the bridle” means the horse is in your hand and eager to take you somewhere. “Off the bridle” means the horse has backed off, slack rein contact; usually a horse that has run out of gas and can’t keep up with the leaders, but sometimes a jockey wants a horse “off the bridle” down the backstretch (vs “on the muscle”) early in the race relaxed and traveling easily on a soft contact, saving himself to “pick up the bridle” at the turn heading for the wire.
I have heard “on the bit” or “on the aids” in dressage, but not specifically “in the bridle.”
Never heard those in my dressage circle but cool to learn terms from other disciplines!
I’ve heard “born in the bridle”, used for a horse that conformationally finds it easy to go round, and soft, as opposed to those who need to have it explained the them.
In the H/J world a horse being “in the bridle” is one that is taking its rider to the jumps. “A lot in the bridle” often means horse is being a tad enthusiastic or strong. “Too much in the bridle” means horse is dragging you past the distance. “Tanking in the bridle” is, well, pulling like a train and/or decamping. 
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