Bridleless riding

[FreedomStar]

I haven't been on NR for awhile, but when I achieved this I just had to share :)

Yesterday I had a lesson on Ebony with her owner, who trains and teaches with Natural Horsemanship. Her horses are to the point where she has ridden all three without a bridle, and only a simple stiff coil of rope with two knots. I've always wanted to try riding like this so yesterday I had a riding lesson with this funky rope 'bridleless bridle' and it was wonderful! As I said before, it's just a stiff coil of rope with two knots spaced apart about seven to eight inches. These knots go right at the base of her neck and I use a little bit of pressure from the knots along with leg aids to get her going. I was able to have her bending and stretching without a bridle! PLUS when we got up to the jumping part (really tiny jumps, about a foot high which is roughly 30 centimeters) she was jumping much rounder and smoother and without reins to mess me up, I was able to correctly cue her to land in the right lead :D *dances* It was so much fun, and so amazing to feel her responding to me with such little equipment.

Then my instructor asked me 'what are bridles for?' I had to think about it for awhile, and eventually I was able to understand that while most people might use it for control it was actually created to help direct our horses. I thought about that awhile; I had always thought bits and reins helped us to control our horse, but then I realized that I was controlling Ebony just fine without a piece of metal and a bunch of leather.

I think now I shall ride like that more often. Instructor said it's fine as long as I've got fences around me, which I completely agree with. Plus I don't lean forward as much and I use my legs a lot more. Just to prove myself it wasn't a fluke, when I went today to ride her I used the loop again instead of a bridle, and we had another beautiful ride. :D I'm so happy that this experiment has turned out so positive. I just know that of the two lease days a week that I ride, at least one of them is going to be riding without the bridle.

[Mathew]

well that is totally kewly i ride without a bridle but i leave the halter on.
isint it great?:D :D

[mayoguinness]

Yeah its fantastic:) I do sometimes with Mayo but I just have his halter in my hand and when he doesn't come off my weight I swing it forwards near his eye to yield his front round:) nEventually I'd like to ride out like this too:) Sounds like your doing really well with it:D

[Montana]

Hi Freedomstar,

Great post, and nice to hear from you again, I remember your earlier posts:)

I've been playing with a neck ring off and on since Christmas time, and love the way it feels too. Your instructor sounds great, wish I had some help like that. My sister does this kind of work a lot, and brought me the neck ring, but she lives over in the states, so not much use on a regular basis!

I posted here:

http://www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=101671
about my experience with the first time trying this if you're interested - pics attached:p

I love the way that actually, some of his responses get through so much quicker without the (pretty simple!) equipment I normally use - really great fun and a good exercise in how much does your horse really listen:D

[FreedomStar]

Thanks y'all for the responses :)

Montana, thanks for the lengthy reply! I'm glad that someone else who has done this commented. I too live in the states, and I'm hoping to ride like this as often as possible, but only with a set of fences around me :D. I read through your thread and saw the pictures; you and your horse look amazing. I completely agree with getting better responses without a bridle. Up until I rode without the bridle I did not realize how much I relied on a set of reins, even if it was just the rope tied around the halter. I don't need to use as many aids, and I can feel the responses much easier. The bending and stretching of the neck and spine especially. If you've got any suggestions or tips you'd like to share with me that would be awesome! I can also post share of what my RI told me.

She says, like I already mentioned, that a bridle is merely for extra aid in directing a horse. With a well trained horse, who is firmly grounded in the basics and can let go of a thought (ex. a horse see's something outside of the arena but when you ask for his attention he focuses back on you). The knots are similar to the bit, except the pressure is at the base of the neck. With a bit of pressure on the outside knot and inside leg I can get Ebony to drop her head and bend. (We call the bending outline of the neck, which a lot of people call a frame, just the 'bend'). To get her to change gears I need to first make sure she's bending and then when I ask for a trot or canter the transition is uch smoother.

With this I can also halt, back up, do turn on the forehand and haunches, and ride in circles. It's merely using my leg and body properly, and being aware of it all. I guess riding like this helped me to become more aware of myself and where all my body parts are.

It's just so amazing. I know I keep babbling like a fool, but it honestly amazes me how I was actually able to ride like that. :)

Anyone else have cool experiences riding without a bridle? Please share!

[smaggi]

Every time I ride Cisco, I try to ride a little while with the reins around my saddle horn. We weave around obstacle like cones or trees in the woods. I only pick up the reins when I have to. We are getting better at it each time. I forget which trainer said it, but it may have been Parelli. "Do you know what get when you drop your reins?, The truth."

[mayoguinness]

while . "Do you know what get when you drop your reins?, The truth."

Very true:)

[Montana]

Up until I rode without the bridle I did not realize how much I relied on a set of reins, even if it was just the rope tied around the halter. I don't need to use as many aids, and I can feel the responses much easier. If you've got any suggestions or tips you'd like to share with me that would be awesome! I can also post share of what my RI told me.

I love the fact that I can feel the response coming through almost before it happens with this method. I've ridden a lot in a halter too, and this has a different feel to it again. I haven't really done enough of this to be able to give any good tips - I suppose one thing I found useful was that if my horse got a little sticky with his turns, all I needed to do was to raise the ring up his neck a little, then I could use an even lighter cue again. I found that without the reins, I also lightened up on other cues - the cues for transitions became much smaller, almost just 'lifting' my energy to lift his to move up a gear...

With a well trained horse, who is firmly grounded in the basics and can let go of a thought (ex. a horse see's something outside of the arena but when you ask for his attention he focuses back on you). The knots are similar to the bit, except the pressure is at the base of the neck.

With this I can also halt, back up, do turn on the forehand and haunches, and ride in circles. I guess riding like this helped me to become more aware of myself and where all my body parts are.

Now, I hadn't realised there was any real significance to where the knots are positioned. With mine, the knots sit quite high up the sides of the neck - (we're about to back up if you're wondering what weird position I'm in:p )
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/Caththayer/100_1435a.jpg
Should I try to adjust them so that they're lower? If so, won't that make the neck ring too small?

I also find it makes me much more aware of what I'm doing - I have to be more accurate in how I position myself in order to clear things up for him:)

It's just so amazing. I know I keep babbling like a fool, but it honestly amazes me how I was actually able to ride like that. :)

I know - it blew my mind too - and I babbled to anyone that would listen! Have you got any photos to share - would love to see Ebony:)
Will bore you with a couple more of mine from a few weeks back:D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/Caththayer/100_1442b.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/Caththayer/100_1439a.jpg
:D

[Whatanejit]

Wow ! This is really interesting - great pics montana - I always love pics of your horse.

[Crystal Fire]

I love your photos Montana!
Just a thought - have you tried using a looped rope without knots and making sure you alter nothing about the way you ride? I have a feeling you could do without the knots... :)

[FreedomStar]

Montana- LOVE the pictures!!! What a gorgeous boy you've got. It's ok about the position, I do it took for backing up, lol. Just a little bit of extra help. As for the knots on the loop, it really depends on preference. This was just how I was taught to ride bridleless, but I've taken the picture you've supplied and marked with a red dot where I rode with the knots.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/BarnAngel56/whee.jpg?t=1178674219

So as you can see the knots on my rope were spaced MUCH closer together. They sat close to the point of the shoulder. The loop I used was REALLY stiff; I was supposed to bend the loop so that it was more of an oval shape from around her neck to my hands. More of a direct line. Definitely stiffer than yours; my arms were a teeny bit sore after the lesson. But if you adjust yours so that the knots are a bit lower, I'd think that the loo would get bigger. :confused:

I have roped a friend of mine into coming to the barn with me with her camera to take pictures of me riding bridleless. So hopefully I will have pictures sometime soon...hopefully. I love my friend dearly but she's not the best at hopping to the job, lol.

[Montana]

Thanks guys:D I love my horse:p

Crystal Fire - I suppose I'm almost riding without the knots now, because they're high enough up so as not to really touch him. I like this rope because it's lariat rope, so stiffer than a normal one, and when things are working well, I can hold it completely off him, but still guide him to stay within the 'halo'...Sorry, I;m not explaining this too well am I:p If the rope wasn't as stiff, I'd always have part of it touching him, and I don't really want that.

I hadn't actually realised there was supposed to be any significance to where the knots were until I read this thread:o But it does work without using them anyway;)

Freedom Star - Yes, you're right:p It would get bigger not smaller! And I think with this rope, it would be too big if I positioned it where you've shown me. It is really stiff though, and I think your suggestion of bending it to an oval shape might help me to be quicker at getting it to the right place at the right time. Watching my sister ride him in it she was effortless, me - well I kept dropping the thing, missing him offering to turn back to the gate...:rolleyes: Took a while to get my timing back!

Look forward to the photos - get your friend organised:D

[FreedomStar]

I shall def. get my friend organized, a.s.a.p. Only thing is this sunday is mother's day and I don't think I can ask her to come out that day. I myself am only going down to the barn for a quick ride. Went riding today, changed my mind three times over whether to use a bridle or not. Guess what I went with. :rolleyes: Ebony wasn't feeling too good today because she's in heat, got ridden yesterday in the 90 degree heat, and she had a little gas so she was kinda bloated. so her owner (my RI) gave me some electrolytes to give her and some probiotics to help with the bloating, and said to ride her to help it all pass through her system. Rode her, and she felt much better after she pooped, lol. And then the rest of the ride was pretty good. She skipped out on me once on the jump and ordinarily I'd have quicker reflexes and be able to stop her right next to the jump and turn her back, but because I was riding without a bridle my reflexes weren't as quick, but overall she did much better.

Now..a question for y'all...

For those of you who jump, we can all identify with a horse being plain lazy and landing on the wrong lead. Ebony used to always land on the left lead when I was jumping her to the right, and it was either because I was doing something wrong (i.e. not cueing her strong enough) or because she was just really really lazy and switched to her left lead over the jump. Without a bridle and just the stiff loop she goes in on the right lead, jumps, and lands on the right lead. I'm' wondering how I can have this transfer over to jumping with a bridle.

[Crystal Fire]

Montana, I still bet you don't need the rope at all. :) Do you have something like a 6ft string you could just knot around his neck for security but leave alone? Then try to pretend you have your lariat loop around his neck and see what happens?

Freedomstar, would have to see with and without bridle before trying to guess the answer. But speaking for myself it's normally something I'm doing rather than the tack. I normally think I'm not moving a muscle different, but if I get video'd I find that I am.

p.s. I sort of doubt that the knots are that significant to the horse, but they might mentally be significant to the rider. If your horse can feel a fly land on it's neck then it can feel the tiniest movement of any rope, hard or soft. And also really feel the shifts that your body makes even when you don't notice. My friend was having trouble making the transfer from with to without bridle for her PNH level 2 task. When I watched she was slightly changing her position and her hands when she dropped the reins. With me giving a bit of prompting, and her furiously imagining that she still had reins, she was cantering figure of 8's within half an hour with no rein. It is something that always stays with me because it reminded me that our minds are so powerful, and we are normally blissfully unaware.