Lucinda Fredericks of Australia had two items that I haven’t noticed on anyone else for Eventing dressage: a fleece/padded breastplate, and a full-cheek snaffle. I thought that very interesting. I guess the rules are pretty liberal when it comes to bits? And I’ve never seen a breastplate in dressage before, period.
The gentleman I just watched from the Netherlands was using a Boucher bit - first one of those I’ve noticed as well.
Breastplates were very common on eventing horses in the dressage phase for years. Probably because so many of them were wiry narrow framed TB type horses. Don’t see as many nowadays as you used to. Whether that’s down to change in horse physiology or better fitting saddles these days, can’t say.
All of those things are legal, just not commonly used. The rules are not very liberal at all (like showjumping is).
Why is a full cheek considered liberal???
Dressage requires a pretty basic bit and the boucher is about as much as you will see. The full cheeks do a much better job of keeping the jawline straight.
Breastplates are quite common in dressage, especially on very fit eventers whose back and muscling may have shifted slightly enough that the breatsplate helps to keep everything where it should be.
Google USEF Eventing Tack and you’ll find a wealth of information.
~Emily
The dressage bitting rules are VERY strict about what is inside the mouth, but less strict about the rings.
Full cheeks and bauchers are legal for both eventing dressage and straight dressage, and quite common in both.
Breastplates are rarely seenin straight dressage, but quite common in eventing dressage.
It was nice to see a variety of tack out there, says to me people are really looking for what the horse really goes best in. I will say I thought the brown tack on the Japanese horse that is leading looked lovely!
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