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Piaffe in the Pillars. Painting by Ludwig Koch. |
Tapestry depicts horse and rider in the Capriole. |
Pirouette by George Hamilton c. 1700. |
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Mary Stuart in the Piaffe, Sidesaddle. |
Capriole in the Pillars, 1890. |
William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle |
Equestrian Portrait of Henry IV (1555-1610). King of France before the Walls of Paris, 1594. |
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Queen Isabel of France by Velasquez |
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The Dressage Blog
August 11, 2009
Bitless Bridles
©Thomas Ritter 2009
In recent years, bitless bridles have become popular in some circles. What the people who use them don’t realize is that traditional, classical dressage has used a bitless bridle for over 400 years. It’s called a cavesson. It began as a type of rope halter that can be seen in publications such as Georg Engelhard von Löhneysen (1609) and Antoine de Pluvinel (1624). The Duke of Newcastle (1648) is the first author I know of, who replaced the rope halter with a cavesson that was made of leather and metal. After Newcastle the rope halters seem to disappear altogether. All the publications from then on depict the cavesson, instead. The great advantage of the cavesson over halters and modern bitless bridles is that it fits more precisely and transmits the aids more directly. In other words, it is more effective.
The real advantage of a bitless bridle like the cavesson over a bit is that it addresses the skull, the nose of the horse, instead of the lower jaw, which means that it eliminates one joint that the horse could otherwise use to escape the rider’s aids. The cavesson works on the horse’s skeleton, since it acts directly on the nose, whereas the snaffle works on the musculature, since it sits on the tongue and exerts pressure on the tongue first.
Horses will always try to yield to any pressure first with the joint that is most mobile, i.e. easiest to flex. If the poll and/or the hips are stiff, it will be much easier to yield with the jaw, so the horse will open his mouth, and the rein aid will not reach the hind leg any more, i.e. the half halts won’t go through. If you can eliminate or bypass the jaw by addressing the skull itself, then the first joint that the rein aid reaches is the poll, and the horse has a lot less “wiggle room”. It is then much more difficult for the horse to evade by flexing the wrong joint. But in many ways, the most effective bridle consists of a combination of cavesson and a bit, since both of them work in different ways.
Feel free to e-mail me with questions and comments. Read some of the feedback we've received on our Letters and Testimonials page.
Thomas Ritter
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