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By Ishbak Shehadeh

General System 2016 This system is for any equestrian sport or activity, except for racehorses. It was designed to make the transition from bit to bitless, and not to start horses from zero. I developed a variation of this system for first starting horses that I explain separately, not in this publication. Illustrations by Pabla Ortuzar.

Step 1 “Horse check” The horse to be trained bitless need to be healthy, without physiological pathologies, and without behavior problems. If the horse has mental or physical problems, you need to fix them first, and then apply the system. Except for the problems that are caused intrinsically by the bit, in which case the system is a treatment by itself.

Step 2 “Longing the horse” The horse that is going to be trained is longed in a round pen. Just a halter and a rope, in both directions. This should to be done without pressure, the intention is to make the horse release energy and get in a calm and relaxed mood. To teach the horse to stop correctly is very important from the beginning.

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Step 3 “Longing with bridle (bit)

The horse is longed with the bridle (bit) and over it the halter. Don’t put the rope tied to the bridle, put it tied to the halter to avoid damage to his mouth when we pull the rope. This needs to be done until the horse becomes relaxed again. Now what we are doing is to fix the materials (bridle and halter) that we are using to train him, in the horse’s mind. The horse will get used to this equipment/tack as he relaxes, because the brain goes into an Alfa state, and the unconscious can work properly, and be open to receive the information. The bit and halter will be recorded in his unconscious, as well as the colors and textures of the materials. The brain is also recording the person who is doing the longing in the center of the round pen. This is very important. It is important always to act calmly, to not change the mood, so the horse’s mind will record you as part of its environment. Don’t even change your clothes, use the same during all the process.

Remember that we are making a picture in the horse brain that will allow us to teach it faster (to understand that concept, read the article “The deep reins to the unconsciousness”, Equipment, Horse Conscious). Horses learn faster in the unconscious mind. In nature they don’t know they are learning, they are not aware of it, they just learn, and that is what we are doing here: helping them to learn in their natural way. “We cannot tell the horse how to learn, but we can help it to do it naturally”.

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Step 4 “Saddle on” We now repeat all the process explained in “Step 3”, but now with the saddle on, until the horse becomes calm and relaxed again. Now all the elements that we will use to start the training are recorded in its brain. We use always the same elements, and a similar mood and movements. Remember we are not training the horse, we are training his mind. The stop needs to be practiced in every gait: that is a critical factor in the training. People are very scared about whether the horse will stop or not if bitless, and the way to insure it is practicing it from the very beginning of the process.

Step 5 “On his back” In this stage the rider gets on the horse’s back, and we continue longing from the ground in both directions. The rider gets the control step by step; from the reins that come from the bridle (bit), but the person in the center with the rope have to keep the control, while the rider is riding the horse. Then the rider rides from the bit reins, and the rope is not touched but is still on. Then when the horse is relaxed, the rider changes slowly to the reins that comes from the halter to get the control. When the horse becomes relaxed, take the rope, but the other person needs to stay in the center of the round pen, so the horse’s mind does not need to react to any change in its surroundings and still has many elements that it can recognize. When the horse becomes relaxed again, the person that is in the center of the arena may leave the round pen and let the horse and the rider ride alone inside. We take away and add elements in such a way that the horse is not shocked or scared or distracted so that learning can simply flow.

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Let’s review: The horse has six elements recorded in his unconscious. The rope, the person in the center of the arena, the bridle (bit), the halter, the saddle and the rider. Let me explain why we do it in this way. If we take the rope, the person in the center, and the bridle at the same time, the brain is going to be overloaded, because it will perceive too many changes in his environment at once. Then the horse will react in a negative way, and will not allow the changes, the teaching. Also the horse will disconnect to the unconscious because he needs to be aware of what is happening, so learning is interrupted. But if we change just one-by-one the elements --- we replace one or we take one --- but keeping the rest on, the brain has many elements to recognize the situation as known and safe, so the horse does not react, and the changes are made little by little. In this way we influence his unconscious without awaking his conscious, and all the information goes deep to its mind very fast.

Step 6 “Bitless in the round pen” We ride the horse from the bridle’s reins now, and we start to change to the halter’s reins slowly. When we realize the horse is riding just from the halter reins, is relaxed and comfortable, we can take the bridle (bit), and tie the rope again to the halter and lunge the horse until the horse again becomes comfortable. Then we take the rope, but still staying in the middle of the arena, until the horse relaxes. Then when we see the rider is confident, the person who is lunging can come out of the round pen. The fact to put the rope again is for security and to make the rider feel confident at the beginning of the first bitless riding. And to make the horse’s mind feel safe because he has that image in his mind as natural with all those elements. So there is just one element less -- the bit -- so the brain does not react, and acts as if everything is the same. Then as soon as the horse becomes comfortable riding bitless inside the round pen, we leave the rope and let them ride alone.

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Summary round pen scheme Rope Rope-Bridle-Halter Rope-Bridle-Halter-Saddle Rope-Bridle-Halter-Saddle-Rider (ridden from bridle and then change to halter) X -Bridle-Halter-Saddle-Rider (ridden from bridle and then change to halter) Rope- X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless assisted) X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless) On this scheme you can understand how the brain is re-programming the unconsciousness. Every movement and everything we take away is done in a way so that the mind of the horse does not feel jolted, so it internalizes it very naturally. If the horse has six elements recorded in his brain as natural of the environment, and if we take away one by one, the horse’s mind with four and five elements still recognizes it as familiar, so the horse will not react negatively, and will stay in calm.

Stage 7 “Square arena” At this stage we repeat all the steps made exactly as before without exception. To change the environment (arena) to a bigger one is a big change in itself for the horse, so we need to keep all the stages and elements the horse knows so it can internalize it again, without trauma and shock, and it can learn again fast. Remember that the horse learns without knowing that it’s learning.

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Summary Scheme Stage 7 Rope Rope-Bridle-Halter Rope-Bridle-Halter-Saddle Rope-Bridle-Halter-Saddle-Rider (ridden from bridle and then change to halter) X -Bridle-Halter-Saddle-Rider (ridden from bridle and then change to halter) Rope- X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless assisted) X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless) The difference is that in this stage instead of riding in a circle as in the round pen, we make different movements and shapes, but never under pressure, only if the horse is relaxed. We make eights, zig-zag, but we keep all the elements as in the order on the scheme. We pass to the next stage only if the rider and horse is comfortable and relaxed. We practice the stop in every step and stage.

Step 8 “Open field” We repeat the step 7 but now in an open field. We now make the movements more open. Every time we repeat the process exactly in the same way, the horse fixes the pictures and elements we use in its mind more and more and so its mind is more open to receive the new information. There is nothing really dangerous for the horse in the environment because we only added one new element (the open field), so the brain recognizes the situation as known and does not react with a danger alarm. In that way the horse takes in the information directly to the unconscious and learns faster than doing it with the conscious mind.

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Scheme Stage 8

Rope Rope-Bridle-Halter Rope-Bridle-Halter-Saddle Rope-Bridle-Halter-Saddle-Rider (ridden from bridle and then change to halter) X -Bridle-Halter-Saddle-Rider (ridden from bridle and then change to halter) Rope- X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless assisted) X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless)

Step 9 “Just a rope in the neck” (We are at this point riding just with the halter in an open field). ( X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless) ) Now we add a rope in the neck (neck) over the halter, and the horse is ridden by the halter and slowly is ridden by the rope in the neck. It’s important to understand that the transition always from bridle to halter, and from halter to rope in the neck is slow, which means you first ride from the bridle, then from the bridle and halter at the same time, and then from the halter alone. If we jump from the bridle to the halter without transition, the mind gets shocked, and the horse becomes scared or conscious of what we are doing, and the process will become slow and erratic. Same concept for the halter and rope in the neck. X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider (bitless) X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider -Neck (bitless) X - X -Halter-Saddle-Rider -Neck (bitless) We never ever treat the horse with food. If a treat is given the horse is in the conscious mode of what it’s doing, and the brain, via the unconscious mind, does not fix the new information properly and the horse will forget the teachings, becoming confused, scared or shocked. The speed progression is walking-soft trot-fast trot-soft gallop-fast gallop, always practicing to stop in every speed. This explanation only shows a synthetic system, and I did not include the individual aspects of training horses. Every horse requires a different approach and that needs to be taken into consideration. As well the rider’s and trainer’s personality and experience, and the combination of both, horse and rider dynamic, is different in every case.

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That’s why this is not a tutorial. If you want to learn this system, get in contact with us, don’t do it alone by yourself with this summarized information. The rider and trainer need a deep and full coaching to learn how to ride and train bitless with this system. This system is based on the horse’s learning mechanism, not in a bridle or halter; those are just support to make the work easier. At the end of the process we can use the bridle and halter together (semi-bitless. Pic. 1), only the halter (Pic.2), or just a rope in the neck (Pic.3). A halter or a bridle does not do the work by itself, just as a calculator cannot do equations by itself; we need to know how to use it and we need to know about mathematics. So too with the system required to train the horse bitless.

“The stop mechanism” The stop mechanism in this bitless system works in the same way as the bitless training explained does. In the bit stop the horse’s brain recognizes many elements as normal and known to it. The bridle, reins, the sounds when we pull the reins, our arm’s movement pulling the reins, the pressure points caused by the halter and the bit pressure, etc., etc. When we train the horse bitless gradually as I have explained, all the elements are still there, except the bit. So the horse’s brain still recognizes many elements as known, and still can relates them to the "stop" command. This is why the horse can learn to stop being bitless in a very natural way. Stop with bit The horse brain recognizes: 1. The bit pressure and pain 2. The bridle pressure points in the face 3. The reins movements 4. The sounds of the metallic elements when we pull the reins 5. Our arm movements pulling the reins 6. Our sound of shhhhht, if we use it 7. Our body going back Stop bitless The horse brain recognizes: 1. XXXX 2. The bridle pressure points in the face 3. The reins movements, 4. The sounds of the metallic elements when we pull the reins 5. Our arm movements pulling the reins 6. Our sound of shhhhht, if we use it 7. Our body going back See this video illustrations summary: https://youtu.be/IsKwCMR5CcY

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By Ishbak Shehadeh

System for Racehorses 2016 This system for racehorses most be done under the supervision of an expert, due the complexity of the racehorses training and management. Please DO NOT TRY , the material exposed here is just a little summary, and does not gives the tools to train racehorses bitless, as the “General system” exposed before does. For racehorses I resume the variation as follows. When the stage in the round pen is finished, the horse is trained semi-bitless in the smaller track of the hippodrome, and with a pony and an additional rider next to the racehorse leading it with a rope. Then when the horse and the rider are relaxed and confident, the same exercise is done in the big track, semi-bitless.

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If the horse is ready, calm and confident, the horse is trained semi-bitless, but now a pony is next to the racehorse, not being led by a rope any more. When the horse is ready, the pony lets the racehorse lead in front. When this is done and the racehorse is confident, the pony stops and lets the racehorse ride semi-bitless (with bridle and halter) alone. First in the small track, then in the big track. The speed is added gradually in every step and track. Then these steps are repeated, exactly the same but bitless, with bitless bridle.

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“The stop mechanism” The stop mechanism in this bitless system works in the same way as the bitless training explained does. In the bit stop the horse’s brain recognizes many elements as normal and known for it. The bridle, reins, the sounds when we pull the reins, our arm’s movement pulling the reins, the pressure points caused by the halter and the bit pressure, etc., etc. When we train the horse bitless gradually as I explained, all the elements are still there, except the bit. So the horse’s brain still recognizes many elements as known, and still can relates them to the "stop" command. This is why the horse can learn to stop being bitless in a very natural way. Stop with bit The horse brain recognizes: 1. The bit pressure and pain 2. The bridle pressure points in the face 3. The reins movements 4. The sounds of the metallic elements when we pull the reins 5. Our arm movements pulling the reins 6. Our sound of shhhhht, if we use it 7. Our body going back Stop bitless The horse brain recognizes: 1. XXXX 2. The bridle pressure points in the face 3. The reins movements, 4. The sounds of the metallic elements when we pull the reins 5. Our arm movements pulling the reins 6. Our sound of shhhhht, if we use it 7. Our body going back See this video illustrations summary: https://youtu.be/8uMPmLWzaDM