>>Would someone please give me a quick lesson in the difference between a sidepull, a hackamore, a bosal and a bitless bridle (like a Dr Cook) and where they put pressure. I was riding Mura in a sidepull this weekend and some people we ran into on the trail were amazed that she behaves so well - this was a group that had never seen a horse ridden without a bit so that tells you where we're starting from.
Laree<< I'm so glad Mura did us proud! The sidepull-I have seen them made from soft woven rope, biothane or leather, some have flat nosebands (gentle), others have rolled leather nosebands (maybe a bit more control) and some have stiff rope nosebands (more severe)-these work by direct pull on the rings on each side of the noseband. Very easy for the horse to understand. I think the best ones have jowl straps that go in front of the big lower jaw (mandible) bone instead of a throatlatch. These keep the side pieces out of a horse's eye. Kaarenjordan.com (leather) and Moss Rock Endurance(beta) have nice ones. The bitless bridle has a strap with rings on each end that comes from the poll, crosses under the jaw and goes through other rings on the side of the noseband, the reins are attached to the rings on each end. If you pull both reins, you'll get poll pressure, some pressure under the jaw and nose pressure. Some people complain that the reins don't provide a quick enough release. Some gaited horses with head nods are bothered by the rings that the reins attach to. (Moss Rock has a similar bridle with less poll pressure and the poll strap becomes the reins, so no flapping rings). Hackamores can be different things to different people: Parelli-type rope hackamore (a rope halter with a rein and lead attached just above the knot under the chin and fashioned from a single, long piece of rope). Western hackamore from the Spanish jaquima-this consists of a headstall, the bosal (a braided rawhide noseband shaped like a teardrop with a weighty rawhide knot at the bottom), and the mecate (reins & lead attached with a special way of wrapping just above the rawhide knot. This is most often used in the beginning of a several step process to train the "bridle horse". Don't have any experience with these but they seem to ask the horse to move away from pressure (the rawhide noseband can be rough and when the reins are pulled back the narrower underside of the bosal contacts areas under the chin, the knot at the bottom provides a quick release when the reins are released) The Paso Fino folks have a type of hackamore too, but I'm not familiar with that one. Mechanical hackamores have assorted nosebands from leather to bicycle chain! and long shanks that act with a curb chain or strap at the chin and provide chin and poll pressure (even though these are bitless, they are pretty severe). Cherie
