I've been riding Kiska on a nylon halter with rains attached, for the past month. and she is listening a lot better, with less head tossing. But I was thinking of wandering into the world of bitless bridles, hackamores, etc. Advice? Experience?
When my very sensitive ex-racer Arab was still ridden, he went in a Dr Cook's beta thane bridle, a side pull. He liked it very much and went sweetly with no head tossing or bobbing. He was in an English hackamore when I got him, but as he was so sensitive to your seat that he never had braking issues I didn't think he needed the leverage of the hackamore.
My boy definitely goes better bitless - but not all bitless bridles are made equal & like bits, different styles will have different pressure.
Mine hated the Dr Cook, loved his sidepull but found I struggled with faster work or hacking it, but loves his orbitless & I have enough control to keep us both safe - you can alter the ring it's on so I can school in the minimal setting akin to a sidepull but can drop it down a ring to hack . He's not good with poll pressure (he'll rear) so not tried any of the traditional hackamore's which can be very harsh.
Somewhere on here there's a thread which tells you how to adapt a halter to try the different kinds of pressure the different bitless bridles use. Let me have a look and see if I can find it on this new site!
Another 'orbitless' fan here, have to say though that while Belle schooled beautifully in it, hacking was an entirely different story in anything other than walk!
I have a Kieffer bridle model Madonna. Bought about 6 years ago. Soft, no cracks, like new. Two years ago, the beast stepped on the cord and also pulled. Two of the cheeks went into the firebox, although I assumed that they would come off on the back of the head. I bought a replacement Kieffer's Chest in Divose and I don’t know any troubles.
Also, about 4 years ago I bought a bridle of Stüben at a sale in a German store. Oooh, this bridle, apparently, from the series "everyone will die, but I will stay." Now, of course, prices are scary. I also want to see something here.https://leather-toolkits.com/reviews/best-bitless-bridle/
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