Lots of good stuff here and I’m on a road trip otherwise I’d expand on it - I do understand that it isn’t a constant hold 
That would be unbearable for a horse, for sure!
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I’m sorry you removed this because I thought it was quite good.
I teach my horses both to come through and to halt parallel to the person being longed. It is a difference in body language. If I drop my longe hand, I expect them to turn in, as my next movement may well be to switch the longe to my right hand to perform a turn.
However, if I say woah, and keep my arm up, I expect them to halt parallel.
They all understand this pretty quickly!
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I don’t disagree with you, but here’s a pic of Nuno at extended trot:
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I appreciate this - several people have said this through the years and I did find it a bit disturbing.
So let me understand this, if the goal is self carriage, is there a role, beyond communication, that being “on contact” plays?
I have read things about the mobilization of the jaw and movement of the tongue, which is accomplished in part with a bridle horse with the use of the cricket - the horse does it, not the rider. I’ve also seen dissections which claim that there is a connection between the hind end and the tongue.
Oh very nice and good to see! Notice how the legs move parallel to each other, there is not the disjunct between hind and front legs we see rewarded today. It doesn’t look like current dressage trot
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There is a rather brutal strand of current dressage lessons where the rider can be told to lean their entire weight on the reins. This happens. It’s not good. I’m sure every discipline contains trainers that do brutal shortcuts.
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I think there is a connection between the hind leg and the tongue, and think of it as “through”. I’m striving for relaxation, both in my body, and my horse’s. Tension kills relaxation. I can’t tell you how many times I think my horse is tense, self-audit, and realize I’m holding tension in my ankle, or my wrist, or my jaw. When I consciously relax that part, the horse also relaxes. Every time, and right away.
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Oh absolutely - and I’m definitely not throwing any stones at dressage. There are western folks who do bump the mouth and that’s very wrong IMO.
Contact can be extremely light. Nuno rode with the weight of the reins and draft of the boot.
If I hold my hands in front of me, palms facing each other, fingers spread and lightly touching the other hand. Then close my eyes and feel for the connection between touching, and not touching. I can feel a stage where my fingers are not quite touching, and yet touching. I’d guess that’s how much a fly weighs. It’s enough. It’s taken years of practice to be able to hold the reins firmly enough that they don’t slip through, and yet evenly and softly enough that I’m close to non-touch with the horse’s mouth. I want my horse to be in self-carriage, and he wants me to be, too.
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Ok, stuck in traffic haha. I think precious few disciplines focus on the softening everywhere, including your gaze! As the rider of a horse who is naturally quite tense and tightly wound, I have to focus on all of that.
I do think it’s good that a softening of the contact (hand or body) exists and rode that way always prior to my switch.
I haven’t ridden in too many other western disciplines, though I did try ranch horse out. My primary interest is the bridle horse tradition, which is closer, I think, to dressage than say reining (and definitely closer than WP)
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I think sometimes that approach unfortunately gets stopped at people who only understand the theory so far, and can’t go deeper. School was not much fun until advanced degrees, because I wanted depth.
Much appreciated, and I think I would enjoy learning from you!
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Had a thought about this - this is what the romel does with a bridle horse bit. Despite the rein being what a dressage rider would call slack, there is weight that when lifted, is enough to softly signal. Otherwise it hangs and the weight of it makes a soft contact.
Similarly, in the bosal, it is always there, but the lift of the reins rotates it on the nose (the goal being then to release quickly) that is what the horse responds to.
I don’t think we’re as different as it seems.
No, not on the hand. A youngster or any horse not conditioned will be heavy on the forehand that doesn’t equate to a heavier hand, esp with a youngster. I ride young ones with a very light contact, then as they gain strength they learn to balance then they do more exercise and learn to carry their weight more evenly, they develop more balance, get stronger, their balance shifts back, rinse repeat. All the while, if I am also doing my exercise I can ride with an independent seat and keep a soft contact. Can everyone manage this? No likely not but it is the goal.
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Appreciate that. I have definitely read that here, so I’m glad to hear that there are people who don’t believe that.
I do wonder if some of the invention of the bridle horse way of bringing a youngster up via the bosal was to avoid the perils that could come from a young horse not being balanced enough yet on uneven ground, while still serving the function of helping them learn to balance.
If you were using even a snaffle on a contact, you might end up damaging the mouth if, say, they were to stumble, no matter how light your contact was - and while a horse in an arena can stumble, it’s less likely than out on the range.
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Maybe. Also the bridle horse developed in a place and time where all gear was locally made. A jointed snaffle is a tricky thing to make. A bosal can be made just out of rawhide, no forge or blacksmith skills. Then you eventually move up to a custom made curb or spade that has lots of decoration but doesn’t need to engineer the jointed mouthpiece. I think that would be easier for a local blacksmith metal worker to make.
Likewise all the horsehair bridles and mecates are hand made. And the bosal is rawhide. You don’t need to source tanned leather for your strap goods. You might get tanned leather on your once in a lifetime custom saddle but saddles can also incorporate rawhide.
The traditional cricket has quite a few moving parts. Now I’m not sure when they were invented, but I don’t think it is just about ease of smithing.
Edited to add - appears to be very old, Roman in invention.
And just a reminder to folks, the bridle horse tradition came from la jineta, which is dressage, of the Spanish tradition, adapted to the needs of the range. That is also why I say it is a cousin of modern dressage.
Maybe. I haven’t ridden with a bosal, so need to ask a question. When the rider is letting the rein hang, is there sufficient touch to transmit anything? Or does transmittal have to wait until the rider lifts the reins and the bosal rotates on the nose?
When I’m having a really great ride it’s almost like I can feel my horse’s tongue, and the contact is like a bit of rubber cement between my fingers. Very light, very elastic.
Yes, and we can see an intermediary form in Working Equitation.
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I think every leverage bit including a bosal works so that the horse feels the bit move before the reins are anywhere near taut. Going from bosal to curb makes more logic than snaffle to curb because both function on the same principle.
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You close your fingers on it, similarly to an English rein. The action is immediate. There is enough play that the closing of your fingers will rotate the knot but not so much that you have to move your hands a lot.
There is a bigger drape with a spade, but the spade bit is not intended to rotate or work on leverage despite its visual appearance of being like a curb bit. The idea is that the horse carries it on the tongue and the romel buttons hang, the feeling of them being lifted as little as 1/4” immediately transmits to the horse.
This is a great article about the spade if you are interested in learning more and understanding
