F.R.A. Bitless bridle Ulan

F.R.A. bitless system 5: bitless harnesses are not new! For centuries bitless optoming was taken for granted, before it was ever thought of putting something in the horse's mouth man simply put something around it. A rope as a halter was sufficient in those days and thus the first bitless optoming came into being. In combination with the supporting weight, leg and feel aids, the rider's hand maintains contact via the reins, not with the mouth, but with the horse's head. Principle of operation: Pressure on nose, neck and cheeks, neck/chin crossed reins. Construction: The leather noseband of these bridles, usually known in the market as the Cook system, is provided with a ring on both sides, just behind the buckles. Through these rings a supple leather strap runs crosswise over the chin, via the jaws over the neck. On both ends of this strap, the buckles or clips of the rein ends are attached. On the left side of the bridle, you will find one buckle for the buckle adjustment and one buckle for connecting the cross-belts. To protect the neck area, both straps are padded there with soft padding. The straps should be shifted through the passages of this neck padding in such a way that they are of equal length on both sides. The buckle on the chin strap is the only buckle needed to secure the bridle to the head. Positioning: As with most bitless harnesses, the noseband should rest on the hard part of the nose, approximately where the nasal bone begins. The chin strap may feel 'too' tight, but certainly not tightened. This is to prevent twisting of the bridle. The buckles of bitless bridles with a chin-neck crossed system will always tend to bulge slightly. Incision:
With the cross rein action, asking the right rein builds pressure against the left side of the lower cheek (jaw), via asking the left rein creates pressure on the right side of the lower cheek (jaw) resulting in aids to initiate turns. Equal action on both reins gives pressure on the nose, neck and jaw over the whole horse's head, this makes it possible to make the aids to stops for tempo changes or halts. It goes without saying that dosing unequal impulses will result in correspondingly unequal pressure doses. For this system this means, that the degree of occurring discrimination depends on the dosage introduced by the rider in the rein aids, whereby noise makes the discrimination run smoothly. The crotch straps must be well maintained to ensure a good release (repositioning). It goes without saying that other supporting aids play a prominent role.