19/09/2025
🍒The Bridleless Bit Returns🍒
Story time📚
Dusting off ye olde leather bit was not on my to do list this week, but here we are!
The overwhelming majority of horses are great bitless and being that we have a variety of mouth pieces, will also find a bit here that they get on with. So long as your hand signals are clear and your horse has no body issues, finding something comfortable to attach the reins to is really not difficult. I don't think so anyway.
5 years ago, I had a very hot, very bracey fleabitten grey Cruzado in for training. His name was Zeus. He was extremely sensitive and responsive, yet had no response to pressure either on his face or in his mouth. At my wits end, I put a rope in his mouth- that was the day Zeus gave at the poll for the very first time!
The next day, I took a curb chain, wrapped it in copious amounts of vet wrap, attached some reins, put it in his mouth and took him for a ride. The relentless one paced Morris Dancing ceased, he finally quit star gazing and looked where he was going and he suddenly had three defined gaits. At 17yo, Zeus was finally relaxed and rideable; he remains this way today and remains the only horse whose ridden problems were resolved simply by putting a thin, soft piece of material in his mouth. The various chin straps and flash nosebands I'd fashioned into bits for him sat in the spare parts drawer, gathering dust and eventually I forgot they existed.
Cherry is just a love. She's sweet, tolerant and hard working. Yet her response to the rein was never great; bitless, she would drop her chest and bob her nose up, leaning on the noseband to the point of rubbing it raw. We tried many bits, but she was always the same- resistant one way and ducking behind the vertical rather than truly softening. She'd gape the moment any rein pressure was applied in canter and slam the brakes on. She was cleared by both the physio and the vet, so, due to guest season taking up all my time, I had to shrug my shoulders and chalk it up to just one of those things beyond my current skillset. She worked over guest season well enough and we sent her on holiday.
When she came back, I had two unsuccessful dead end sessions with a neue scheule lozenge snaffle and a sidepull. She was obedient but wooden and even had a pain face on. I folded my arms and frowned at her, in that way where everyone thinks I'm pi**ed at them but I'm just hypothesizing; if only we had a bit made of something soft and pliable...! Our working student Vesna reminded me of the spare parts drawer and we decided that tomorrow morning, before it got too bright for me to be outside, we'd resurrect the leather bit!
When I first put it on, cherry gaped the same way she did with every other bit. Then she began to gape and shake her head, before chewing thoughtfully while blinking slowly; finally, she slipped her tongue under the strap, swallowed and sighed deeply. I let go and voila, she held the bit in place herself, ears forward, neck stretched up and out. She followed the reins when I tested her lateral flexion without a hint of resistance and gave to both reins willingly. Finally I put Vesna on board and told her to give her a ride and see what she thought. The general consensus was that Cherry still had the same stuff going on as previously: falling through her right shoulder and always stopping with her weight over her right foreleg. The difference was, we could could correct these things without her getting stressed and resistant. We will stick with the leather bit for now and see how we go! For now though, we've really turned a corner 🍀
*For everyone wondering how it stays in place, the horses tongue being relaxed and in the right position is what keeps it there. The horse can put it where he likes, hence they won't go out of their way to spit it out. Yoi can see here that Cherry likes it extremely low! It does fall out when they chew excessively if you don't do up the chin strap tight enough, but if the horse won't tolerate it that tight then you're better off just putting it on a headstall like a normal bit.
