Sometimes I use the cordeo when riding my Asia into our beautiful Karst. Usually - I admit - I use it coupled with Bitless Bridle; my reins are simply left flooding and linked to the saddle. Asia responds well to the cordeo, but I'll use cordeo alone when I'll feel myself absolutely confident.
Yesterday I connected a small ring of rope to the cordeo, perhaps 15 cm in lenght, so that I could keep the cordeo with the second finger of my left hand ("the "man della briglia", "the hand of bridle", as ancient Italian XVI Century Masters call it, where the right hand was called "man della bachetta", "the hand of drumstick"), with a very comfortable and natural posture of my left shoulder, arm and hand: exactly, i "discovered"
the shoulder, arm and hand posture of the engravings below.
So, I "lightened" a lot cordeo aids and Asia seemed to appreciate it.
Did you ever try this?
And - for Miriam - did you see that in many ancient drawings the "man della briglia" and the "man della bacchetta" are reversed (I guess, from the fact that engravings are often "mirroring" the real world)?
Wrong image: reins are kept with right hand (the "man della bachetta")
Right image,
mirroring the original print of the old engraving: reind are kept into the left hand, the "man della briglia". Right hand had to be absolutely free for fighting.