I ride most of the time with a Cook bridle. This is for us a fine bridle i ride and drive with this bridle.
That is maybe also why i use this one the most. And easy to pick up each day because it is the first bridle
But i have ridden with almost every bitless bridle which you can buy in the Netherlands. i have notist a lot of slighty different signals between the bridles. Although the system is the same.
For example we have i think more then 10 different bridles which are cheek crossing such as the Cook bridle does.
Each bridle give a other signal to the horse, some they like and some not. Because of the release? Or the material? The stifness of the material? The form of the opencheeks? i dont know, some of the bridles i could not even ride with it, because he did not wanted to have it on his head, (headshaking and dont wanna go forwards)
It is quite hard to say why the first bridle is o.k and the second not, the horse may speak
i have also used several sidepulls, every sidepull was o.k none give any problem. But i have got some feelings with the hard nose sidepulls. I dont think it is neccessery for my horse. And some i did not like exterior i am not fond of bling bling
But those are personal thoughts and not functional for the horse or his behavior.
The LG zaum i did not tryed it because the wheels are a bit to big for my pony's, but i have tryed it on bigger horses and it was o.k for them. The rider and horse were fine, even after more days riding with it.
The chin cross under are fine too, My ponys did not give any resistence or what ever. There are also several versions of this kind of bridles available over here. Each have his own specialtys such as the merothische bridle.
The light rider was the last one i tryed, this is not a cross under but a plain under. I dont know how to write it in english.
It is not a crossing peach but one strap goes under the chin. This one works fine too.
It squeeze different then the others when you pull the reins.
Then you have a mix between all this the Nurtural Bridle a mix between the cross under and a sidepull. Because of the circle X it give a other signal then the Cook bridle. It could be handy for horses with long beards in the wintertime.
Some people say the the beard stuck between the opencheeks of the Cook bridle and when they ride with the Nurtural then they done have this problem anymore. The reaction of the horses are the same. So the riders were happy.
I think also that there is a slightly less pressure on the poll with the Nurtural due to the Circle X. So for those horses it could be also a good option.
In our country there is a possiblity to try several bitless bridles without buying it. You get a member of the club and then you can try each bridle you wanted. So you can find out which one is the best for the horse and you.
When you have find a good one you can buy one in a store or internet, they dont sell any so they can stay independent and neutral. And many people like that.
Each time there come a new bridle, they try to get them in there selection, it is still groing. Each year there come new ones.
So it become more and more difficult for the rider to choose.
My advise is find out what your horse prefer, he must give the final answer. He must understand your signals and it must fit well.
Give not any irritation or what ever. That will take some time to work it out. But then you have a good relation during the rides and none frustrations.