Hi Pink,
This how we see it,
Bitless is state of mind, not a tack choice.
if we get a horse moving in all 4 directions softly on the ground, up and down in gaits, and stopping on a command. That horse is ready to be ridden in a rope halter.
We work on balance in gaits up to a canter in the round yard, then introduce a snaffle bit. Go thru it all again in the snaffle. sort out any shys or little hard twists, then the horse is ready for anything. One day we might throw on a braided bosal hackamore, the next a rope halter then bit. It makes no difference, the horse has learned to give to pressure and follow a feel. But we have 2 big differences, they have a calm down /halt cue in built and a lot of backup cue training. We cannot overstate the value of these cues. The calm down cue is in built from foaling, if we rest our hand on the neck, it is a cue for the horse to relax, everything is OK.
We have one poor pinto mare that is the test horse for anything we find or make that is interesting. She follows a feel no matter how that feel is delivered. Training controls a horse, not tack. We make rope horse tack, and absolutely refuse to sell a solution to problem... there is no such thing.
There is always a complicated mix of horse, rider, tack in every problem, Tack is the minor player in this menage a trois......is that correct???, je ne parle francois, je suis un Austalian, (remember the rainbow warrior)
back in '89 as i crossed the channel to france, a grubby little man handed me a form to fill out. So i did, Occupation: Under water demolition expert,
employer: Greenpeace
I like to think that some time later, a junior class 1 clerk processed the form, slapped his head and shouted "sacre blu, sabatour!!!!".......