Dressage Bridles & Bits for Beginning & Intermediate Riders

A dressage horse is typically started out on a normal snaffle bridle, and a young horse should be ridden in a normal snaffle bridle from the training level to the Grand Prix. Learn about the loose ring on the side of the normal bridle bit with helpful advice in this video on horse training and dressage.

I'm going to talk a little bit about what we use for bridle wise, for dressage horses. And a normal snaffle bridle is what we normally start the horse out in, as a young horse. And should actually be ridden in a normal snaffle bridle all the way throughout the levels, from training level, all the way up to Grand Prix. And later on, of course, you definitely want the horse in a double bridle, which a double bridle has two bits, the normal snaffle bridle has one bit. So of course, the normal snaffle bridle, in this case, is just, I'll show you the bit, has a loose ring at the side that the rings are able to move, and it has a French link in the middle, which allows a horse to chew a little bit more, it's a little bit thicker of a bit. So, this is a very normal, ordinary snaffle bit that you would want to put in the horses mouth, that has a fairly normal mouth. Of course, if your horse has a little, is a little bit stronger, you probably want it to use a little bit of a thinner bit, whereas the thicker the bit, the less severe the bit. So, this is a nice, kind of a bit to get your horse started off in dressage, and it's very important to experiment with bits and see what works for each horse, as well as the saddles, and, you know, to talk to your trainer about that, and see what works best. You also want to make sure that the bits are long enough, and not too short on the side of the horses mouth, that it's not going to cut them, and that there's enough room, by measuring the horse's mouth from side to side, as well as that the bit is also not too large, because either way, it could cause some issues for your horse, cause some discomfort. So you want to make sure that the size is very important, the fitting of the bit. And we also have, thank you, this is a loose ring snaffle, which is very similar to the one I just showed you, it just does not have the link in the center here. So this is probably the most common of your snaffle bits, it's a loose ring snaffle, which means that the rings are able to move freely on either side of the bit. Some bits have, they're attached to the bit, so they are not able to move, this just allows a little bit more freedom of movement.