Is Riding Without a Bit Dangerous?
by Fred Rai

In the course of his many years of research, Professor Cook concerned himself primarily with the medical aspect of riding with a bit.  Therefore, I would like to concentrate on the psychological advantage of using the bitless bridle.

"Isn't it dangerous to ride without a bit?" or "How can I bring a bolting horse back under control without a bit?"  We are constantly confronted, even by experienced riders, with these and similar questions whenever we are observed riding our horses with the light string headstall - which we have named 'Bandele.'

These questions serve to underline the lack of insight of these riders, who have obviously never considered the fact that a bolting horse is merely reacting to an inborn impulse to run in panic when confronted with a perceived enemy.  Panic lames the brain.  A bolting horse runs blindly into streets and highways and collides with things it would normally fear and avoid, like cars, trucks and trains.

The brain of a panicked horse running out of control can never be brought back to normal behaviour by applying force or inflicting pain on the horse's mouth.  The panic would merely be intensified.  In fact, practically every horse that bolts is being ridden with a bit, which just proves that bolting cannot be controlled with a bit.

Animals are never deceitful.  They are only able to react according to their inborn impulses - instinct.  Only by acquainting oneself with the psyche and instinctive behaviour of the horse can its reactions to given stimuli become predictable.  There is no such thing as a ruined horse.   All problematic horses - so-called 'outlaws,' which rear, bolt, bite or kick - are merely showing their natural instinctive reactions to perceived enemies or horses of lower ranking.

In the process of their 70 million year evolution, from a multi-toed, fox-sized animal to today's ungulate horse, these animals have learned only two behavioral patterns, which are anchored in their instincts.

1. Enemy imprint - reaction to a perceived enemy, a predator, and
2. Friend imprint - conduct among themselves within the herd.

Seven thousand years ago man entered into the life of the horse and began domesticating it.  Of course a horse recognizes our different appearance - upright posture, lack of mobile ears, etc. but its instincts allows only two choices into which it may categorize the human animal.  We are either horse or predator.

It is important to realize that any behaviour corresponding to a horse's enemy imprint will cause it to panic.  The feeling of panic causes the body's own drug, adrenaline, to flood through the system, speeding up the heart and mobilizing all the reserves necessary to overcome the perceived enemy.  Even the best swimmer is doomed to drown if he gives in to panic.  Just so, a horse will destroy itself when in the throes of panic. 

Conclusion:  Man must take care never to appear to the horse in the imprint of an enemy, for the horse will become in all respects out of control.

Unfortunately, about 70% of all horses are held within the bounds of fear with the use of force and the resulting pain.  Fear causes subordination.  But if the boundary from fear to panic is crossed, the horse will act like the 'outlaw' it really is not.

However, if the human is perceived to be within the friend imprint, he is accepted into the herd by the horse and categorized according to the herd animal's instinctive compulsion to establish a pecking order as

1. a lower-ranking animal or
2. a higher-ranking animal.

A horse either reigns over its underlings or obeys the leader.  There is no in-between.  The horse is willing to obey the leader and feels secure under its protection, since the leader is naturally responsible for the safety of the herd.  A horse seeks security in the strength of the higher-ranking animal.  If the leader stands, the herd stands.  If the leader flees, all follow without hesitation, even over the cliff to death.

This process takes place in the psyche, that is, in the brain of the horse.  In its brain, it feels higher or lower ranking, dominant or subordinate.

In my book, "We Too Have Feelings" I have endeavoured to prove that, whereas humans have been provided with the ability to think logically, every reaction of the horse is caused by emotions.  Two emotions are essential to the dominance of the leading animal:
1. Security as a positive feeling and
2. Fear (only in the case of a threatening gesture by a higher-ranking horse) as a negative feeling.

This is why dominance over a horse can never be achieved with beatings or other applications of pain.  The result would be the feeling of fear, but never the more positive feeling of security.

I have developed exercises to be performed while in the saddle or from the ground, which can produce these two essential feelings in the horse.

Thus you see, RAI-Riding is riding with the horse from a position of knowledge of its psyche and behavioural patterns.  With RAI-Riding the rider is the leading animal for the horse and thus responsible for its feelings of security - essential when riding across country with a bitless bridle, as well as when confronted with the dangers of highway traffic or the cacophony of a city.

RAI-Riding is riding without bit, crop, or spurs.  The rider sits in balance with the horse, so that the natural weight distribution of 55% on the forequarters and 45% on the hindquarters is maintained.  The horse is not steered by pulling its head to the right or left, but rather the horse becomes the rider's legs, like the Centaur in Greek mythology.  With RAI-Riding the horse is guided by body language alone.  The horse takes its cues from the rider, who turns his body in the desired direction while in balance on the horse's back.  The reins remain loose, and serve only as a correction if the horse is slow to react.

Nor are the reins tightened to bring the horse to a halt.  It is enough that the rider removes weight from the stirrups, which are attached to the front part of the saddle.  The weight is thus displaced to the seat, activating the hindquarters of the horse to a standstill.  This displacement of weight is enough to cause the horse to reduce its pace, finally to bring it to a standstill.

Thus I am able to ride my horse in all its paces without using the reins at all, whether across country, in a city like Augsburg or Munich or on the trail at my ranch in Arizona.  I have even herded cattle without using reins.

The secret of the 'Bandele,' the bitless string headstall, is that while it enables me to assert my authority over the horse during training and as a connection, it prevents inducing pain and the resulting uncontrolled panic.

Those who speak of carelessness or irresponsibility don't understand that riding a horse in any style whatever requires acceptance of the knowledge that a horse is a herd animal and needs clear, consequent and yet painless and fair guidance.  It needs to feel secure under the dominance of the leader - the rider - so that it can obey willingly.

One of our training centers in Hamburg has had good results using the 'Bandele' to drive carriages.  It was found necessary to change it slightly, but it remains a headstall without a bit.

The correction of horses that cause their rider's problems is one program at my State's Training Center in Dasing.  There we demonstrate daily that all so-called unrideable horses, assuming they are not ill, can be trained with the bitless bridle to be dependable riding horses again.  In less than one hour and without using painful methods, we show the horse that the rider is its leader, it can feel secure under his dominance and thus it is willing to obey him voluntarily.

There is no one-and-only style of riding.  Each style grew out of the demands put on the horse and the rider in different situations.  About 2500 years ago the classic style of riding developed from the cavalry in Greece, and is carried on in various sports disciplines in the form of English riding.  Western riding and its harnessing developed from working with herds of cattle and riding in the wilderness. 

Bitless RAI-Riding is intended to provide a home for those who want to share roaming riding with their horses - there where the horses come from, in the freedom of Nature.  The horse with its domestication provided man with the means to move from his primitive life 7000 years ago into today's modern, technical world.  In order to complete this cycle in harmony, it is the duty of the horse to guide man back to an essential relaxation in Nature.

In conclusion, I wish to repeat as I maintained in my book, "No Whip - No Spurs" that the horse is one of the few animals that has no cry of pain.  That which in nature may be a boon, enabling an injured animal to survive which otherwise might attract predators with its screams of pain, can be detrimental to the horse in sports riding, as the boundary between insistence on performance (which I applaud) and torture cannot be clearly defined.  It is a very great responsibility for a rider who engages in a sport, especially a high-performance sport, with an animal that cannot cry out in pain like a dog, cat, pig etc.  The horse, nevertheless, feels pain just like we do, as can be seen by their reaction after a mosquito bite.  Riding is the only type of sport that unites all parts of Creation - Nature, Animal and Man.  And to this I believe only one word can apply - Harmony.