>riding with no nosebands< I've been busy, so haven't kept up with this entire thread...but I'll share my experience with nosebands & bits.
When I was an assitant to a european sport horse trainer over 30 years ago, she explained to me the origins of use of various types of nosebands. She primarily used an english style cavesson fit just enough so that if the rider happened to come off & the horse stepped onto the reins, it would support the jaw opening to the point that the force could break the animals jaw. She rode primarily eggbutt/D/or full cheek bits with the english cavesson to prevent the bit from being pulled through the horse's mouth in an emergency preventing serious injury because with thosse types of bits, the lateral stability is good prventing an entire pull through if the animal steps into the reins. She also used a loosely fitted flash noseband to stabilize the bit for those horse's that preferred a loose ring bit, to both support the jaw opening too wide in emergencies AND to stabilize the bit laterally. What I have observed over the years, is that a well fitted noseband with an appropriately selected bit can prevent a whole host of issues esp. if the rider happens to come off/horse steps onto reins or gets reins caught on something & more so on the trail. When I did ride with a bit 14 years ago on my first then green Icey, we were riding through a narrow gate that had a top latch. Lalli happened to turn his head just as the latch was closing & caught the loose ring in the latch. Thankfully he pulled back instead of running through the narrow gate & in his brief thrashing broke the headstall. If I had not used a leather headstall & english style cavesson, he would have seriously injured his jaw. Our equine chiro who came later that day found only a few things in his neck & attributed it to the cavesson stabilizing the jaw. Shortly after that I heard of several trail ridding accidents where the horse stepped into the reins after a rider fall & horse had injuries from either being caught up in the reins or jaw injuries from the bit. Since my horses both do just fine being ridden in a halter, I switched to the TTEAM sidepull I still use & never looked back. BTW, I only use all leather reins & headstalls , so that if I do come off & they get caught up, we have a better chance of something breaking before serious injury is incurred. What I have observed is that not all bits, bridles, nosebands, saddles treed are bad, it depends on how & why you use them. Kaaren
