From: Kathy
Hi,
First I want to say how wonderful your archives are. I've just finished subscribing to your newsletter.
I have been using Dr. Cook's bitless bridle on a number of horses for over two years now. I have been happy with the results and feel that the horses are happy with the bridle.
However, on a ride last week with a trainer, she told the instructor that works with me that the bitless bridle is very severe and operates like a war bridle. She said that my friend's horse would never totally relax its neck and would not be able to learn to pick up a soft feel.
Do you feel Dr. Cook's bridle is another version of a war bridle?
Kathy
The quick answer to your question is NO, the Bitless Bridle is certainly not another version of a war bridle - unless there is a new and very different model that Bob hasn't shown me yet. ;-)
The Bitless Bridle is a bridle without a bit. It's a horse-friendly steering device, and the first word that should come to mind when you think of the Bitless Bridle is "gentle". Like any bridle, the Bitless Bridle is meant to facilitate rider control and horse-rider communication during riding and driving. UNLIKE any other bridle without a bit - sidepull, mechanical hackamore, bosal, etc - the Bitless Bridle offers lateral control - something that normally requires a bit.
A war bridle, on the other hand, has nothing to do with riding or two-way communication between horse and rider. The term "bridle" is misleading; a war bridle (AKA "gum line") is a fairly brutal restraining device. The purpose of a war bridle is to immobilize a horse that is considered to be dangerous; say a horse that MUST be given treatment by a vet or farrier, and that has already demonstrated its propensity to buck, rear, kick, and bite when being handled. I've seen a war bridle used by a farrier and a vet whose only other choice would have been to leave the property without giving the horse a badly-needed trimming and treatment. It's not a device that educates the horse or trains the horse or helps a rider or trainer to communicate with the horse; it's simply a way to make the horse stand still. If we were talking about communicating with vs restraining HUMANS, you could probably compare the Bitless Bridle to a telephone - something that doesn't cause pain, but enables communication. The war bridle, on the other hand, would be roughly similar to grabbing and twisting someone's ear to make them stand in one place and not attempt to move. If another person did this to you, that person could quickly teach you to stand like a statue AS LONG AS HE HAD YOUR EAR BETWEEN HIS FINGERS. You would NOT learn to stand still at other times, and you would probably be unwilling to let that person get anywhere near you, ever again, but... for as long as your ear was being held, you would stand quietly.
The only similarity I can see between the two items is that both are used on horses' heads. I think that the trainer who spoke to your instructor was either confused, ignorant, or both. You can certainly assume that she was not familiar with either item. People sometimes jump to amazing conclusions about equipment they don't understand - think of all the people who see a horse in a fly mask and ask the owner why the horse has been blindfolded! ;-)
If you'd like to see how a war bridle works, the Stableizer (a one-person twitch) is a restraint device that's basically a fancied-up war bridle. There are various ways to adjust a war bridle, but the basic elements are a thin cord and a small pulley, and the purpose is the same: to enable the handler to effectively immobilize a horse by putting pressure on a cord that runs under the horse' upper lip and lies against its gums. Pressure causes the cord to bite into the horse's gums.
I suppose it might be possible to put too much pressure on a Bitless Bridle, but only if the rider has extremely harsh, heavy hands, and is effectively water-skiing on the reins. This is something I've seen bad riders do - and I'm sure you've seen it as well - in any number of different types of bridles. It's regrettable, and in a perfect world, riders would not even be permitted to handle reins until they had already achieved good balance and an independent seat on horseback. But the reality is that the world is full of unbalanced, novice riders who hang on the reins, and under those conditions, the horse would still be better off in the Bitless Bridle than it would be in a conventional bridle, because pressure caused by leather straps acting on its poll and cheeks will be less painful than pressure from metal acting on its tongue, bars, and lips.
If a horse doesn't relax in a properly-adjusted Bitless Bridle, and continues to be tense, it's likely that one of two things is going on. One possibility: the horse does not trust the rider AT ALL and can never truly relax, regardless of the type of tack. Another possibility: the horse has sharp edges on its molars and is experiencing pain when the straps put pressure on the side of its cheeks. I have several friends who are good equine vets and dentists, and I have referred a good many horses to them for one reason or another. Quite often, a horse that gets "regular floating" from a not-very-expert veterinarian (or, heaven forbid, from an over-ambitious and over-enthusiastic barn owner) will have its lower teeth seen to every few months, and never have its upper teeth seen to AT ALL. Some people appear to have no idea just how high up the teeth GO in a horse's mouth - they imagine that the teeth stop just after the lips, and that there are no teeth in the area above the cavesson... so of course their horses can develop horrible, flesh-lacerating sharp edges that will cut the insides of their cheeks when any pressure is applied.
As for the question of whether your friend's horse would ever be able to relax its neck and learn to pick up a soft feel, it's my experience that horses do these things very easily - it's the humans on their backs who cause them to become tense, because the HUMANS have no idea of what a "soft feel" involves. Ask yourself whether your friend's horse relaxes his neck and takes a soft feel of his bit NOW. If he doesn't, the problem may lie with his bit, or it may lie elsewhere, and whether your friend's goal is to ride the horse with a bit or without one, using the Bitless Bridle as a diagnostic tool can be the first step towards figuring out the real problem.
I expect that your friend's horse will probably react like all of the other horses I've watched when they are first put into the Bitless Bridle: there's a moment of anxiety ("This is something new!" followed by a moment of curiosity as the rider uses the reins to ask the horse to bend its neck to the left and to the right, followed immediately by a moment of visible relaxation as the horse seems to say "Oh, yes, of course! I understand this!" I've only seen one horse that didn't relax visibly and remain much more relaxed, and that one was being ridden by an extremely nervous person who was terrified that without a bit, she would "lose control" of the horse. After two steps of walk, she was so afraid that she wrapped the reins around her fists and pulled both of them as hard as she could. Her horse was NOT relaxed - having its head pulled to its chest by a tense rider couldn't possibly be comfortable, even without a bit - but at least it DID just stand there looking worried instead of rearing or falling over... both of which are reactions I've seen when a rider pulls that hard WITH a bit.
Instead of believing the trainer who criticized you and your instructor, believe what you know to be true. You have two years of experience using this bridle on a number of horses. How did you know that they liked it? You watched them, rode them, noted their reactions and believed them. In this case, once again, I suggest that you believe the HORSE.
Try one of your Bitless Bridles on your friend's horse and see what happens. Horses are truthful animals. If your friend's horse makes it clear that he is relaxed and happy, believe him. If he makes it clear that he is tense and worried, believe him. If he is tense and worried all the time - if "tense and worried" describes his typical state of mind - and he doesn't relax in the Bitless Bridle, use that information as a diagnostic tool. Check his teeth (ALL the way up, please) to find out whether he could be experiencing pain. If you find sharp edges, have something done about them as soon as possible. If you find no problems in the horse's mouth, start investigating other likely causes of pain, such as the fit and position of his saddle, and the condition of his back. At the very worst, you'll be able to eliminate mouth pain as a cause of his concern, and that will allow you to focus your attention elsewhere.
Good luck, and please let me know the results. I'll be interested.
Jessica
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