Bitless question

[C Eyler <eyler@mindspring.com>]

My gelding is nine years old.  I got him at age 6 1/2, when I was a
green-as-grass rider.  I'm told that in his prior life he did second level
dressage and a fair amount of jumping in the ring.  The trail was pretty
much foreign to him (thankfully his spooks now consist mostly of
split-second tensing instead of 180's).

I've learned that I must ride him on contact (gently, with soft hands)
virtually all the time.  If I give him a loose rein, he seems to interpret
that as getting no instruction from me at all, which means that he thinks
he's in charge of our speed and direction and I'm merely a passenger.  He
especially seems to need contact to keep him collected when going downhill,
though of course if he gets too much bit pressure going downhill then he
just falls right into the bit (hope this is making sense).  I don't need
the bit to turn him, and I'm definitely getting better at communicating all
sorts of things using my seat.  (He's really very well trained; I'm the one
playing catch-up.)

I'm riding him in a full-cheek snaffle or French link.  (Tried a mullen for
a while and he hated it so much that he started to resist bridling;
switched back to the snaffle and the problem went away.)  Having a bit in
his mouth has never, never slowed him down from grabbing mouthfuls of grass.

Can this horse go bitless?  Should I even bother to try to switch him to a
sidepull or other bitless bridle?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Cindy Eyler
Baltimore


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