Click here to read all the latest bitless news. 

Topics include: 
Equitana Sydney Report. 
Product News - New Western leather bridle, Special Offer on Bitless Riding Basics DVD, Supplier now in New Zealand. 
Training Tips - How do you use the reins?
The Straw Experiment. 
Fantastic feedback from LightRider bridle owners. 
Bitless, bareback high level dressage. 

I am very pleased to announce that after almost a year of trialling the LightRider Bitless Bridle and Bitless Noseband, the executive of Horse Safety Australia have given their endorsement. 

"it is something the executive were happy to endorse, especially considering the quality of the materials in your products." 

Horse Safety Instructor, Nina Arnott, writes "My horseriding organisation, 'Wirraway', is using both the full bridle and the noseband that you sent us  and  we are really happy with them. I see a real advantage to them in our sort of work, with mostly beginner riders, and horses which could be a bit sensitive in the mouth. Quiet horses, which react to pressure on the reins, especially  (inadvertently rough) activity of the hands of beginners, are so happy with a bitless bridle! It has also virtually cured a head shy horse, which hated having the bit in its mouth with these riders."

This endorsement adds more credibility to bitless bridles in general as Horse Safety Australia are a responsible, recognised organisation with Instructor and Trail Guide certifications.

Perhaps this will encourage other clubs and competitions to allow bitless bridles.

In the near future the Horse Safety Australia website will be updated with information and links on the LightRider Bitless Bridles, but in the meantime, see what they have to offer. 

On the Photo/Video page I have included some new videos showing how soft vertical flexion and a responsive relaxed horse can lead to true collection via self carriage. 
The first one features Instructor Suzanne Bellette with her colourful Paint gelding, Tombay who developed some unusual front end soreness that seemed to involve the bit.
Suzanne added the LightRider Bitless Noseband to her bridle and found it worked brilliantly with no more recurring front end soreness and a happier bitless horse.
In the second video, another NSW Instructor,  Shelly Broomham shows the start of training her horse to high level dressage bitless, treeless and barefoot.  Although she is riding bitless she still applies Classical principals to his training.

The Transition to Bitless Riding presentations I did at Equitana in Melbourne recently were a huge success and attended by lots of people looking at riding bitless. With the help of Nelly Jaehne and her young nieces, Nadia and Annie, we showed all the steps to train or transition to a bitless bridle. These are especially important for green horses and riders as many educated horses have no problems with changing over to a bitless bridle. 


The two horses who helped demonstrate the groundwork tasks then how it translated to riding, were a 3yo Clydy x Friesian gelding and a 2yo Gypsy Cob colt so their educaiton was just beginning. 
The work we had done with them and the girls paid off when the PA system unexpectedly went crazy with lots of loud noise that scared the horses, but the girls kept perfect control with the use of the hindquarter yield they had been practising - until it became an automatic response which is what keeps a bitless rider (or any rider for that matter) safe and in control. 


Interest from the two 45 minute presentations translated into lots of LightRider Bitless Bridle sales so I'm sure there will be many more happier horses out there enjoying the comfort of bitless and giving their riders a much nicer riding experience as a result. 

Finally.... I've had the help to film the first lot of videos for fitting the LightRider bitless bridles. I'm sure they will help those who understand things better by seeing them in action.
You can see these on the Fitting Instructions page. 

• Fitting the Bitless Noseband on your own bridle
  
• Fitting the LightRider Bridle on your horse
  
• Adjusting the chinstrap
  
• Fitting the Rope LightRider Bridles
  
  When you purchase a bridle at Equitana you will receive a Fitting Manual DVD  as a bonus. DVD's are also available by request for those that don't have good internet speeds for viewing videos.