Yes, The Bitless Bridle™ will provide all the poll flexion you require. But perhaps this should be phrase differently. The point is that if you wish to achieve true collection, which includes but is not limited to poll flexion, you should strive to do this through seat and legs, rather than by means of your hands. By degrees, with the emphasis on seat and legs, your horse will develop the necessary strengthening of its back and abdominal muscles so that it will gradually become fit enough to carry the weight of the rider and adjust its own balance. This is what is defined as 'self-carriage,' which can only come from athletic fitness, hind-end impulsion and a roundness of the spine. Appropriate poll flexion is part of this roundness but not its cause. False collection, limited to poll flexion only and achieved simply by rein pressure alone, is not true collection. Sadly, because the bit is painful, it is rather easy to achieve false collection by hand aids.

All this is well explained by Dr. Jessica Jahiel. We strongly recommend that you visit her website at http://www.horse-sense.org and carry out a search on the word 'collection.' Archive # 3872 for example, provides a good answer to the question "Can an endurance horse go 'round'?" If you search her archives you will find a wealth of good advice on collection and many other matters.

To summarize, forget about the phrase "on the bit." With The Bitless Bridle™, your horse can be "on the bridle" or, more correctly, "on the aids." Good dressage performances can be achieved with The Bitless Bridle™, in fact better than those achieved with a bit in your horse's mouth. Before too long, we hope that the USEF/FEI rules will be updated to embrace the advance in equine welfare that The Bitless Bridle™ provides.