No Bridle, No Saddle, No Problem!

Ever watch someone riding with no bridle or saddle and wish you could do that with your own horse? The sheer magic of the horse-human relationship is never more clear than when both parties are in complete harmony doing whatever maneuvers they are performing.


​​This joining of minds is reminiscent of the movie “Avatar,” where the hair of rider
and the dragon-beast are braided together so that their minds meld and yet,
it is the rider who dictates where they go. Since we can’t braid our hair into the
manes of our horses and end up with this fabulous and magical connection, how
do we learn to ride our horses with no/little tack? Or even with no bit? Can you
accomplish this with your own horse? Of course you can! It’s not impossible, and
it’s not complicated. Bonus: You become a better rider, trainer and horse person
by doing so!

I find it easiest to teach people to ride with no tack by beginning with them
becoming completely at ease and comfortable riding bareback. Even if their goal
is to simply ride bit-less, learning to ride using body and mind as their primary aid
increases the communication level between horse and rider. By the time we
remove the bit, or even the bridle, the transition is smooth and easy for both
horse and rider.

Because training your horse always begins with training yourself, here’s how
to begin riding with no saddle if you are not competent as a bareback rider. It is
good to remember that all interaction with our horses begins with our intent to do
the best we are able and to help foster a willing attitude from our horse. Ride and
handle your horse from your mind first, then your body. This means connecting
to him on his level, not yours. Listen with your eyes by watching his reactions
before riding; is he tense or relaxed, paying attention or distracted? Get his
attention focused on the fun you are having and remember to take the time you
need to reach each goal you set for the both of you.

The best tip I can offer is for you to learn to ride well, is to teach yourself to
lower your center of gravity. You need to drop it from your shoulders—where our
innate center of balance is—down and into your hips and lower back. You can
practice this by doing a little game I call “Shake Your Booty.” It is one of the most
fun lessons we do in training the new rider to grasp the meaning of independent
seat and hands. If you can, get a friend to join you and you’ll laugh more than
you expect!

To play, start by watching yourself in a mirror while listening to some music
you enjoy. You’ll be standing straight, feet hip-width apart, while maintaining
square and still shoulders. As in belly dancing, you will move your hips while
keeping your upper body straight. Once you have that down, walk, dance, jump
and practice moving your lower body only, until you feel comfortable doing so.
Stairs or bleachers are good to practice on as are boards set on the ground that
you can learn to lower your center of balance on without using your arms.
Remember that holding imaginary reins helps you to learn muscle memory for
when you are on your horse.

When you are ready, get your horse and saddle him if you are not able to
comfortably ride bareback while sitting the trot.
• Begin in the round pen or a smaller corral.
• If you are unable to sit a trot without holding onto the horn, the pommel,
the mane or by bracing against the reins, begin with your saddle on your
horse.
• While learning to sit the trot, take your feet out of the stirrups and either
have a friend or trainer help control the speed of your horse by holding a
lunge line.
• You can also simply trot five steps with no stirrups.
• Be mindful of your feet and ankles. Do not grip with them! If your horse is
going too fast, it’s a good indication that your are inadvertently telling him
to do so.
• Hang on to the cantle if needed, not the horn—and use your outside hand
to do so as this keeps your hips in alignment for the circle.
• Repeat small incremental trot-walk-trot transitions with no stirrups until you
feel confident in your balance.
• Remove the saddle. (Yikes! But not really, you got this!)
• Use a quality bareback pad and you’ll save your horse’s back as well as
your behind.
• Repeat the walk-trot-walk transitions.
• Add in some figure-8’s and serpentines. Do not pull on the reins for
balance!
• Add stop and back up to your walk-trot work. Do not use your hands to
hang on unless you truly feel you are going to fall off.
• If you feel you are losing your balance, grab his mane, then try again. If
you still feel shaky, just keep trying until it’s more fun than scary!

Once you can easily sit the trot bareback, add a neck rope that ties around
the base of his neck with 4-6 inches slack when you pick it up from his withers.
Be sure that there is no metal snap gouging either of you. A plain one-inch cotton
rope is best since nylon ropes can burn both of you due to friction. Go back into
the arena, and practice riding with no reins. You’ll have them, of course, they’ll be
laying across his withers. If this is too much to tackle, keep your horse saddled
and bridled as usual, but add the neck rope.

Riding with no reins means that all your bareback work is now paying off! You
have learned to feel each other and each of you is able to anticipate what is
coming. For your horse, he now knows the subtle shift of your body before you
ask for either an upward or downward transition. What this breaks down to is
knowing that each cue and command is preceded by micro-cues that you may
not be aware of, but that your horse knows after only a few rides. A better
breakdown is included in another blog post here:
https://www.horseclicks.com/community/advice/equestrian/stop-n-go-101
Okay, back to the steps needed to get to bit-less and bridle-less riding. Your
goal is to communicate with your horse through your body language, not your
voice and with your legs, not your tack.

◆ Back in the round pen or small corral, with or without a saddle, bridle on,
and your neck rope loose enough that when holding it, there is slack and
no pressure on the horse’s chest.
◆ Begin by keeping to the rail and practicing some transitions such as walk-
trot-walk-stop-back-trot.
◆ No loping or cantering yet.
◆ Once the transitions are clean—meaning they are performed 99% of them
within a count of two—begin asking for them by using no reins, and while
holding the neck rope simultaneously.
◆ There will be a lot of float or slack in your reins and you’ll only feel contact
with the neck rope when you ask for any change of gait or direction, but
only if you must.
◆ Add in some figure 8’s and serpentines, change of direction and smaller
circles.
◆ The session up until this point is anywhere from 10-30 minutes, so quit and
go on a trail ride or do some obstacles. Something different is good for
both of you.
◆ While doing the different thing such as a trail ride, practice using no reins.
Does your horse respond or ignore you?
◆ If his response time is short, you are ready to go back into the round pen
the next day, beginning with a bridle on him.
◆ Rehearse what you both already know, then either tie the reins up and out
of the way, I like twisting them and threading the throat latch through one
to hold up and near the throat.
◆ Use your neck rope only and ask for walk-halt transitions, then add in
backing before walking on.
◆ The halt is most important and you should not depend too much on your
neck rope. If he is not responding, untie the reins and use them along with
the neck rope again.
◆ To halt, simply stop moving your hips. To stop moving your hips, simply
stop following with your lower back. Sometimes clenching your stomach or
raising your rib cage is cue enough.
◆ Practice daily for a week or two and if possible have someone film you so
you can see how to correct any issues.

Once you are comfortable riding with no reins, it’s time to go bit-less. You’ll
need to research what method of no-bit you will like best, so ask around, check
reviews, dig up all pros and cons of the bridle you’d like to move onto. A few
popular options are to use a rope halter and add reins. These are inexpensive
and easy to try, but long term, you may not want something this harsh. The knots
are strategically located to correspond to facial nerves on a horse’s head, and for
this reason, they are not my favorite. I don’t tie or haul a horse in this kind of
halter, but rather use them as correction aids and then, only temporarily.

Side pulls are a glorified halter in reality. Not much to them, but they usually
have a leather or rawhide nose band that has metal rings on either side to hook
reins too. They can be used with either a leather chin strap or a curb chain if a
little more “bite” helps your horse respond easier. Sometimes a curb chain is
preferred by riders on trail horses to prohibit unwanted snatching of grasses.

Dr Cook’s bridles are popular as well. These work by criss-crossing under the
bars of the jaw and kind of squishing the horse’s face. I have found that most
horses, not all, but most, become defensive in this bridle and begin to hollow out
their backs and raise their heads to avoid the discomfort. I’d recommend these
for horses who also go bridle-less easily and whose riders seldom use the reins.

Mechanical hackamores come in many forms, but basically, they have a
leather nose band and metal shanks of various lengths. The shorter the shank,
the less leverage and therefore, the more mild. These bits have no mouthpiece,
but do have either leather chin straps or curb chains. Some horses prefer this
bridle over a side pull and may have a little more responsiveness to it.

Bosals are teardrop shaped braided rawhide nose bands that are generally
used when starting a horse in the vaquero tradition. These bridles are not for
riders whose hands are not quiet and steady as they can cause raw and open
sores when used incorrectly. For this discussion, this is the bridle I’d not suggest
unless you are a trainer or a vaquero who knows how to properly implement
usage.

There are so many brands, types and opinions that I feel the best thing you
can do when deciding on one is to borrow, try and ask your horse what his
preference might be; and trust me, you’ll know! My own horses prefer a side pull
with a leather chin strap that is set high enough on their faces so as to avoid the
soft cartilage near their nostrils. I like the chin strap loose enough that I can fit
two fingers in between it and the bars of the jaw. My Arab mare that I recently
lost went fine in a side pull, but she much preferred a short-shank mechanical
hackamore. Why? I have no clue, maybe she wanted more bling? She’d go in
anything, as will my geldings, but they do show a preference to one over another,
so I go with that.

When working with client’s horses, I usually begin with a side pull and may
even use in combination with a snaffle to help youngsters make the transition
from halter to bit. On my own, I sometimes never take them out of the side pull
since I no longer show. I have found that training, even up to mid-level dressage
is doable in a bridle that has no bit. It comes down to personal preference, riding
ability and desire for each equestrian to decide what bridle is best for their horse
and themselves.

As always, if you have any questions or comment, feel free to contact me
directly at [email protected] and may your love of the horse live on Happily
Ever After!
​
~Tanya Buck

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