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Post by Dawn Perkins on Apr 26, 2015 10:22:51 GMT 1
And I've just found an article which outlines why the Bitless Inc group was set up. The reasons sound as though they are based on the similar problems experienced by those who want to take their horses barefoot...
Dawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Apr 28, 2015 10:30:37 GMT 1
I have just found the photo and video results of last year's Bitless Inc on-line competition for riders and handlers with bitless horses in various disciplines. I particularly like the video of the sweet "at-home" ridden liberty display in walk, especially as the horse is bitless, unshod and is not saddled:- www.bitlessinc.org.au/OnlineShow.phpwww.youtube.com/watch?v=tu965rHzeioDawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on May 8, 2015 8:58:19 GMT 1
I found this lovely story on Cynthia Cooper's Natural Horse World Facebook page. I am not usually a fan of The Donkey Sanctuary but the work they have done in getting local people in Morocco to stop using the traditional horrible bits and to replace them with bitless bridles and headcollars is absolutely heartwarming. They have worked co-operatively with the local people and there have been no difficulties whatsoever, it seems, in getting the mules to adapt to being ridden or led bitless and their lives must have been absolutely transformed by the removal and symbolic destruction of the awful bits which were causing so much pain and injury:- www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/blog/the-medieval-traditional-bitDawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on May 12, 2015 13:21:01 GMT 1
I've just watched this Youtube video on the effects of the bit. I find it desperately upsetting to see horses with their mouths strapped shut. I can't remember it being so prevalent as it is these days and I often wonder why (as with shoes) the short-cut option is taken, at the expense of the horse's comfort, to mask the problem rather than solving it. There seem to be so few people with Avril's sensitivity and lightness of touch, not to mention patience. So many others just seem to slap on a harsher bit and strap the horse down. Even a snaffle can be a horrible bit, in the wrong hands:- www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a-aV0RsxmgAvril constantly stresses how important it is to ride a horse forward and I wonder whether it is often a rider holding the reins too tightly from the start which creates an escalating problem with the bit, as the horse fights to relieve itself of pressure and pain. Dawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jun 1, 2015 8:25:23 GMT 1
Bitless Inc in Australia are running another on-line competition this year. If anyone already rides or works their horse bitless, this would be a fun competition to enter:- bitlessinc.org.au/ShowTC2015.htmDawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jun 10, 2015 18:51:43 GMT 1
There was an item on our local news today regarding Emma Massingale. This is her "Island Project" page and her Facebook page for anyone who is interested:- theislandproject2015.wordpress.com/www.facebook.com/emmamassingale?hc_location=ufiEmma works her four Connemara ponies without any tack at all and has recently acquired two unbroken Connemaras to join them. She has now rented a 70-acre island off the Irish coast, where the ponies will roam free and where she will start to train the two newbies! Dawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jun 17, 2015 12:47:30 GMT 1
I don't know whether anyone else has already seen it but I have just found a link to a most amazing riding school in Canterbury, where all the horses and ponies were recently switched to bitless bridles - with very positive results! These are the links - one to an article in "A Bit More Choice", linked from the Bitless Inc website, and one to the riding school website itself:- www.abitmorechoice.org/#!Riding-School-goes-100-bitless/cjds/557364cc0cf2df2eae37885f www.parkfarmridingschool.co.ukDawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jun 20, 2015 11:50:20 GMT 1
As well as successfully working all day long barefoot, these two Houston Mounted Police horses are a fantastic advertisement for bitless bridles! Dawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jun 27, 2015 10:13:43 GMT 1
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jul 2, 2015 18:12:58 GMT 1
There is a link on the LightRider Bitless Bridles Facebook page to an interesting audio interview with Allan Buck, the American developer of the Spirit cross-under bitless bridle. He is also, apparently, a sympathetic dressage rider:- blogs.abc.net.au/nt/2015/06/bitless-riding.htmlDawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jul 4, 2015 12:16:44 GMT 1
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jul 7, 2015 9:29:03 GMT 1
Cynthia Cooper has posted this request on her LightRider Facebook page:- It should help to build a useful resource for those who wish to ride/drive/compete bitless, worldwide. Dawn Perkins
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jul 9, 2015 9:05:39 GMT 1
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jul 15, 2015 8:02:42 GMT 1
For anyone who might be interested in seeing how she got on, Emma Massingale from Devon, who has spent the past month on an uninhabited Irish island with her horses, in order to train two young ones without the use of any tack, will be featured on BBC1 on "The One Show" tonight.
Dawn
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Post by Dawn Perkins on Jul 23, 2015 18:46:00 GMT 1
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