When we at BuckYou use bitless bridles, the purpose is to ensure we are road legal, and for emergencies. They aren’t there to pull, yank, agitate, apply pressure with.
The BuckYou horses are all taught turning cues on the ground using targets. the same applies for walking on and halting and backing up. We can add vocal cues as well, and then transfer those cues to the horses back. You can see in this little video, Cato responds to my hand signals. If l’m holding (loose) reins, it looks like he’s responding to the reins, but the reality…
This is awesome as it is not possible to escalate a visual cue! And we know how prone us humans are to escalating pressure when we don’t get an instant response. You can even see at one point where I give Cato a pressure-free cue and he spots something that worries him for a moment and he doesn’t respond. By not using pressure and INSISTING with kicks or whips that he move, he is able to reassure himself it IS safe and carry on confidently.
And in this video, Cato and I are using a Baroque bitless bridle, a camo western BuckYou HY.PE pad and of course, the Click’n’ride treat pouch! All linked here 😉
