How to Fit the Very Popular Sidepull Bitless Headstall

Ultimate Padded Sidepull Headstall w/exotic hair on overlay

How to Fit the Very Popular Sidepull Bitless Headstall

To begin, we want to have a willing horse. By walking up and offering the Sidepull and allowing your horse to willingly put their head into the bridle should help get the process started. It also creates an understanding and ease between horse and rider. Wait for the queues from the horse to let you know they are ready to begin. What you want to do once the horse is ready is to adjust the side pull out very wide to get the Sidepull on. That way we can easily adjust it on the horse. You will want to ensure the wide nose band is not adjusted too low. This will cause irritation to your horses breathing and nasal passages. Once on and properly adjusted you want to understand the horses facial configuration. Some horses can be very narrow, other may have more prominent cheek bones, and that will affect how we want to adjust the jowel strap. Make sure you set the horse to their individual configuration. The jowl strap prevents the Sidepull from moving side to side when pulling on the reins, which can cause irritation as well.

Adjustment will really depend on the individual horse, and using your best judgement. You want to make sure of a few things: Ensure the nose band is not putting pressure on the nasal passages, and ensure you can get 2 fingers under the jowel strap, which is probably the most important piece for stability. You want the jowl strap to fall just below or at the horses cheek. The chin strap is not vital to stability, and really lends more to preference. The looser the chin strap the more freely the horse will be able to open and move their mouths.

The main concerns when adjusting your Sidepull are to ensure the noseband is not laying too low and properly adjusted above the nasal passages, that the jowel strap lands at or below the cheek bone and you can get two fingers underneath, and that you pay attention to the signs from your horse. They will tell you what needs to be adjusted and what may be irritating them. Once you have these steps down you are ready to ride!

(the above information is from an article on the Infohorse.com)

 Buckaroo Pro SidePull-Stainless

 Hermann Oak quality 5/8" Harness leather or Black latigo, flat leather nose, double stitched with soft chap lining; hand edged, rubbed and oiled for a soft supple feel. It features an adjustable throat latch, chin strap and additional jowel strap for more stability.

There are different noseband options for the sidepull available from Buckaroo Leather Products. The type you use depends on how much pressure you want to excerpt on your horses nose. The single lariat rope nose gives the most in a narrow area across the nose. The double rope spreads the pressure out. The flat leather nose gives the least amount of pressure for the more trained and experienced horse.

Buckaroo Leather Products has a great selection of these very popular headstalls. Bitless Sidepulls with rawhide noses, the Justin Dunn Bitless Sidepull, a rolled nose sidepull plus many more. We also offer the bitless sidepull headstalls in large and draft horse sizes, small horse, cob, pony, regular horse and mule sizes.  

 Buckaroo Ultimate Sidepull with Rawhide Nose

 This is a Side Pull style with a width of 5/8". This Ultimate Headstall has a soft chap lining and is oiled for that soft supple feel. It has a flat leather nose with Braided Rawhide around the nose and is finished with Nickel or stainless hardware

 Justin Dunn Bitless Sidepull

 We are proud to work with Justin Dunn of Justin Dunn Mustang Horsemanship to bring you his proven designed signature Sidepull Headstall. Made from the finest quality heavy weight Hermann Oak Harness leather or Black Latigo for a smooth, rich, "broke in" feel. Oiled for that soft supple feel.

 Justin Dunn Sidepull - Draft horse size

Rolled Nose Sidepull Bitless Bridle

The Buckaroo Ultimate sidepull Headstall is just that- THE BEST. Made from the finest heavy weight Latigo for a smooth, rich, "broke in" feel. This  Buckaroo Headstall is double and sewn with a soft chap lining, and oiled for that soft supple feel.

 

 Ultimate Sidepull Oklahoma Conchas

This Buckaroo Headstall is double and sewn with a soft chap lining, and oiled for that soft supple feel. Now with silver OKLAHOMA HAND ENGRAVED CONCHAS...  This Headstall is a bitless Side Pull style with a width of 5/8"

Buckaroo John, in the video below will demonstrate the SIDEPULL, aka "Bitless Bridle", its variations and the reasons to incorporate this useful piece of horse equipment.

 Play this How to Video on the Bitless Sidepull Headstall

Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving the 
Western Horseman the safest most durable 
Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand 
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Horse Training by the Californio Vaquero's

The Californio Vaquero's prided themselves on their horsemanship and horse tack. They took great care too hand braid their horse hair mecates and romel reins. The Vaquero’s hand braiding techniques are still used today. 

The rawhide bosals, riatas and quirts, headstalls, and hackamores are all part of the Vaquero "tool box" to train their horses.

The Vaqueros trained their horses for 7-10 years, starting at 4 years old, to react with very little pressure from the rider. At the end of training, the horse and rider would be one. 

 
The 3 stages of the Vaquero horse training were….


The 1st stage - starts with a hackamore bitless braided rawhide headstall to teach the horse to yield to pressure. The reins were long hand braided horse hair mecates.

The 2nd stage - or "Two Rein" is where the Vaquero would use a thinner simpler version of the hackamore nose piece, the bosal. This bosal was lighter for this part of the stage. The mecate bridle had a spade bit and a braided rawhide romel rein. During this stage of the training the Vaquero would hold both sets of reins and the horse would be controlled with mostly the bosal and light on the bit. Then the Vaquero would transition to only using the bit and would then get rid of the bosal all together.

The 3rd stage- is called the "Straight upon the Bridle". The Vaquero handles the horse with just the spade bit. The Bit is connected with romel reins. The bosal and mecate are used under the bridle to lead the horse. 

 
This extensive training enabled the Vaquero to control the horse with little pressure. The Vaquero's horse was a skilled cattle horse and would be tested....

The Vaquero use to test their horses skills by tying a thread to the links section of the chain part of the romel reins. The Vaquero would then bring the horse to a stop with a "light" pull of the reins. If the thread broke- the Vaquero needed to pull to hard.

Another way to show off their skills.....trying to rope Grizzlies!!!

Can you imagine the horsemanship skills and the communication of the horse and rider to stop and move in an instant to rope a Grizzly!!!!!

Buckaroo Leather Uses the Influence of the Vaquero when handcrafting our Hackamores

A Rawhide Accented Hackamore

A Cadillac Hackamore Set with Fiador & Mecate

Our family has been dedicated for 30 years in serving the Western Horseman the safest most durable Quality American made leather horse tack....... Buckaroo John Brand Buckaroo Leather, The Brand to Demand Visit Our Unique Store Today Buckaroo Leather Shopping Site