Not my preference and yes, I’ve seen a properly fitted loose ring pinch a horse’s lips. .
I have used loose rings on young horses with no issues. My young horse went in his first show with one and he won the class… I’m not much of a fan of them because it doesn’t give me the feel and connection I like but my trainer preferred it at that time in his training.
I think often people worry too much about what other people are doing… if it is working for your horse and he is happy then don’t worry about it. Just don’t use a flash 
And make sure it’s legal to use.
I was riding Dressage for a few years and used a flash. Went in a hunter class and totally forgot to remove the flash. Yeah…
Thanks everyone! The bit we’re going in right now is the old school rubber type, I’m sure it has some wire in it but it’s super floppy. I can’t find the same mouth piece on a D (or anything else for that matter), which is why we were freaking out about the loose ring being illegal. Rubber loose ring also doesn’t scream unconventional to me, unusual yes.
Three of our horses are going beautifully in them right now and we were approached at the show by a trainer we thought knew her stuff about the loose ring being illegal. Of course we’re like uhhh why? But when asking others they also believed they were illegal but couldn’t tell us why or where the rule was. The judge couldn’t find anything on it either and definitely didn’t discriminate against it (we won our hack and our division!). I’m glad we’re not the lone loose ring in the hunters!
Most better made loose rings today have a sort of short sleeve on the ends of the mouthpiece that are curved to match the curve of the rings and the actual ring runs thru that. It’s still just as loose but there’s nothing to pinch. Don’t need guards.
The flash is to Dressage what the martingale is to hunters
people put one on because everyone else does. Not that the horse needs it, mind you
I was scribing a dressage class once and the judged commented to me, " I wonder why that horse does not have a flash on its bridle"
I said " Perhaps he does not need one."
sheep, so many people like sheep
[QUOTE=hoopoe;8416772]
The flash is to Dressage what the martingale is to hunters
people put one on because everyone else does. Not that the horse needs it, mind you
I was scribing a dressage class once and the judged commented to me, " I wonder why that horse does not have a flash on its bridle"
I said " Perhaps he does not need one."
sheep, so many people like sheep[/QUOTE]
Eh, it depends. I know a LOT of people who ride dressage and don’t use a flash.
Just because it’s your experience does not make it universal.
I’ll use it if the horse needs it, otherwise they come off.
