why use a sidepull on a horse instead of a bridle with a bit?
There are a few good reasons for why we use a bitless bridle such as a sidepull or lunging cavesson or web halter. Firstly, we mouth all our horses using a sidepull because we can teach the horse the meaning of the reins without ever risking causing him pain. So he never learns to be afraid of the bit during the breaking in. Each horse gets his first few rides in a sidepull before graduating to a snaffle. We also use the sidepull on “hard mouthed” horses during their re-mouthing so again we don’t cause them pain – this includes horses that come to us for a bolting problem. Often you find a “hard mouthed” horse goes instantly better with a sidepull because they have had so much hardware put in their mouth in an attempt to control them that a sidepull offers them such a different feel that they don’t know how to respond against it. We will use a sidepull on horses that have anxiety issues about a bridle. They may be hard to bridle or they put their tongue over the bit or they roll their
