The Art of Natural Dressage

I was reading the Equine Canada rules, and noticed that although a bit, reins and noseband is required, the rules don't seem to specify that the reins must attach to the bit....is there any reason why a person couldn't attach reins to the links on the sides of a crank noseband and just leave the bit sitting idle in the horse's mouth?

Karen

Dear Karen,

This is not a question we can answer for you.
We from AND do not take part in competation nor do we organise them.

You should best turn with your question to FEI Canada.

Warm regards,

Josepha

PS: this section is about the Tack used within AND.
Do you have a diary to which I can move this post?
If so, please paste the link to it here.
Thank you very much

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I don't think it would be allowed, but you should ask equine canada.

I think, ultimately, that what needs to happen is to petition the orgnizations that create the rules...not just the FEI.

In a magazine (Saddle Up) I found an article on a 4H club in BC called Unbridled Spirits. I hope to email them and find out if they are allowed to show in 4H without bits. If so, how did they do it? If not, would they be interested in spearheading a movement within 4H to petition for changes to those antiquated and useless rules.

Josepha, sorry no diary. But I am thinking a modified crank may make a good caveson for riding. The one I bought to try for this has too small of rings, so I will add loops to it for reins to try it out. My gelding Dexter dislikes the BB I have, so I am thinking the paddedness of the crank may be favourable to him..I am not sure how stable it will be though as I don't plan to do it up tightly.

That thought just led to the other. I do think that making bitless and more humane discisions more main stream will help horses in general, but I can see your point that this is not the forum to do it in. Sadly...there doesn't seem to be a "crossover" forum.

Karen

Karen, I think it's the particular section of the forum Josepha is telling you about.

Will we do all want very much to move away from bits, I'd have to assume that in say the training section forums, ground and riding, a discussion on how to transition away from bits wouldn't be out of line.

While I have been a long time user of the traditional California style hackamore, I do sometimes put a bit in the mouth of a horse I'm training for another.

But I wouldn't use it as the only device until the horse was naturally light in the hackamore or cordeo or nothing.

In the many years past I used to teach every horse I trained, my own and others, a kind of secret Whoa, so I'd not have to use reins in a panic situation.

It was simple. I taught them to stop on their own if I dismounted. The most natural thing in the world. So I could even quarter dismount, and they stop.

And all were trained in hackamore to turn with the lightest touch on their neck, and no pressure on the bit. I even taught, very much against tradition at the time, hunter jumper competitors to ride with loose reins. At all times. They sometimes took points down for it, but the students trusted me, not the judges on that issue.

There was enough mouth pain around them to see the extreme difference.

It's just that that "what tack" forum isn't for figuring out how to use more rigid tools, but rather less.

If you like I'll discuss the bit issue with you in another forum, or if that is not acceptable to others here, in private messages.

I have some opinions...as you might notice. I began bitless at about 10 or 11, been through the bitted part, didn't like it, and now I'll finish out bitless.

If I need a bit, the horse isn't trained.

You might enjoy seeing some of my pics and vids working bitless, and a few pics from the past when I followed custom, but sabotaged it regularly. Heck I rode my QH stallion all around the public byways with just a half hitch around his nose.

There are some vids of my riding my current training project horse, Dakota, bitless while having him touch a rotten deerhide, and also while I meander along swinging an umbrella over and around him.

He had a very bad history, and it made him a pasture ornament for a couple of years.

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff51/donald_redux/



Enjoy, Donald

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Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.

Dear Karen,


This is diary material



That depends on how you view that.

Please read our rules

And by chance this one:
related topic



And you can discuss ways and techniques of bitless riding on this forum. (Please do so!)
And you can ask info on the bitless tack we use and is explained in this section of course.

This just is not the section for it, if it is about your horse particularly, or if you want to compete bitless etc.
That is why you can start your complete own diary to keep all info clear and easy to trace.
And in your diary you can go off topic as much as you like since it is afteral your 'own' space.

For the rest I just pointed out that we can not answer questions about competation rules etc.
We are as much engaged in that here as we are in Tennis for instance. We just don't have info to tell you, that is all.

You best go to the powers that be for those answers

Questions about AND we will try to answer to the best of our ability

Enjoy your stay with AND!

Warm regards,

Josepha

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www.equusuniversalis.com