(upbeat music)
- Gidday, I'm Warwick Schiller
and I have been posting some.
This is a five-year old Andalusian mare
that I'm just starting under saddle.
I think I had my seventh ride today.
And I've had a number of people saying,
"Well, what's that thing on her head?
"What have you got on her head?
"What sort of a thing have you got on there?"
And this is just a soft cotton rope hackamore.
The main body of it is one-inch soft cotton rope,
it's as soft as can be,
and then it's got a braided kangaroo noseband on it,
that's all it is, and then this is something separate.
This is what they call the a mecate.
This is actually angora.
If you look under her chin,
you'll see there's a fuzzy thing down there.
That's part of this.
This ropes made of angora.
I've had people comment and say,
"I'm glad to see you're starting her bitless,"
and I just want to chat a bit about bitless.
I don't actually even like the term bitless bridle,
because a bitless bridle is a bridle
that doesn't have a bit on it, okay?
It has nothing on it.
This is not a bitless bridle.
This is a bridle that has a rope bosal
or hackamore hanging on it, okay?
If that wasn't on there and nothing was on there,
this bridle would be bitless,
but I think I see a lot of people
that think that bitless is better,
and it's not necessarily better.
It doesn't matter if you use something bitless
or you use a bit, you are operating off of pressure
on your horse, and probably the biggest bit you need to have
is a bit of knowledge.
So this mare's...
She's quite sensitive, can be anxious at times,
Andalusian mare, but if you think about,
when I want to do anything with her head with these rains,
I can just pick up really softly like that
and get that sort of response.
Well, I would be having the same sort of response
if I had a bit on her, okay,
so there shouldn't be a lot of crazy pulling going on,
whether you're using something like this
or you're using a bit,
so I really think that sometimes people think bits are bad,
but if your bit is causing your horse discomfort,
it's your hand that's causing it.
The bit doesn't really do anything on its own.
And on the other hand of that too,
if you're pulling hard enough on the bit
to cause a problem with your horse,
you're gonna be pulling hard enough on something like this
to cause a problem with your horse anyway.
Come on, sweetness.
I've just been working on teaching her how to steer,
and when I steer her, and it'd be the same
if I had a bit on her, I pick up on this rein like this,
and when she turns her head and follows it, I release,
but there is no pull.
I'm offering this feel here,
and she finds that feel like that, and it would be the same
if I had a bit on or not,
so it's not like that bits are a big deal.
There is a type of...
Let's go with the term bitless bridle,
even though I hate the term bitless bridle.
There's a type of one I've seen that a cross under thing,
and what it does is when you pick up on it,
it pulls up under their chin, and the thing with those
is when you release the rein,
it stays at that pressure under the chin,
and someone who rides in one of those might say,
"Oh, that person's got a shank bit on and that's terrible."
But if you think about a shank bit,
it will also apply a slight bit of pressure under the chin
when you pick up on the rein,
but if you pick up on the rein slowly,
like you're supposed to do with any bit,
it takes quite a while for that pressure
to come under the jaw, like it's, "Hey, I'm warning you.
"We're about to get pressure under the jaw.
"If you don't respond,
"there'll be some little bit of pressure under the jaw."
And then when they respond to what you're asking,
you release, that pressure drops away under the jaw.
That's in a shank bit, which in some people's mind
is barbaric, but those same people might ride
in one of these cross under things, and those things,
that pressure doesn't release when they release the reins,
okay?
And so if you have one of those things
and if you've been using one of those thinking it's better
and now you realize you've got one
and it's not actually better, what you can do,
it's quite simple, is there's a ring on the end of that bit
the crosses under their jaw, and there's a ring on the side
of that bridle, if you just undo the reins off the ring
on the end of it, and then put it through both rings,
now you'll have it to where it's loose underneath,
and it won't have that pressure
that won't go away under there, but if you think about it,
it doesn't matter if you're using a bit or bitless,
like I said, I hate the term bitless,
it doesn't matter which one you're using,
you are still working with pressure,
and any properly used piece of equipment on their head,
you are trying to teach them to respond like that
to the softest bit of pressure you can respond to.
If you're having to pull hard on any of 'em,
you've probably missed a few steps along the way.
So anyway, those are just some thoughts of mine
on riding bitless, even though I hate that term again,
and how there's a possibility
that some types of bitless bridle actually might be worse
for your horse than a shank bit.
(upbeat music)