🥕 Bridles and Backlash: Is Dressage Finally Taking the Bit Between Its Teeth?
- Tilly Stirrup - TCP
- Aug 7
- 3 min read
By Tilly Stirrup, Carrot Post Correspondent for Bridled Outrage
France has done the unthinkable—again. No, not another pension protest, but something far more controversial in certain circles: the French Equestrian Federation (FFE) has officially allowed bitless bridles up to Grand Prix at national level.
Meanwhile, in a move that had at least three Danish dressage traditionalists drop their espresso in shock, the Danish Equestrian Federation (DRF) announced that from 1 September 2025, double bridles will be banned below Level 4 (roughly Advanced Medium for my fellow Brits). Cue the stampede of saddlers scrambling to diversify into carrot sticks and comfort nosebands.
“The change is part of a professionally based development of the sport, where the rider’s preparation and the horse’s welfare go hand in hand,” said a DRF Dressage Committee spokesperson, with the soothing authority of someone who’s never had to explain to a sweaty amateur why they can’t 'just go sideways more'.
While welfare advocates and equine dentists across Europe rejoice, others are less than impressed.
“What’s next? Feather boas instead of top hats? Letting children braid manes unsupervised?!”exclaimed Helga Müller, our very own Carrot Post Dressage Diva, while polishing her spurs and angrily reheating her black coffee. “Dressage is built on centuries of tradition, refinement, and the occasional psychological warfare. Pony huggers need to stop rewriting the rulebook just because they read a blog post about 'energy flow' and think it applies to shoulder-in.”
But not everyone in the stable is biting back.
“Frankly, I'm relieved,” said Helga’s 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding, Der Doppelkeks, via a whispered post-test interview through his new ergonomic noseband. “For the last decade I’ve had two bits in my mouth, an overly tight noseband, and an identity crisis. Now I'll be able to swallow and move my tongue like a child liking an ice-cream cone.”
Meanwhile, one retired international rider, speaking anonymously from a sun lounger near Valencia (rumoured to have once ridden at the 1972 Olympics), offered a nostalgic but pointed perspective:
“Back in our day, horses weren’t expected to piaffe by the age of five. We brought them up slowly, carefully. Riders knew how to train—how to feel. There was no fiddling with the reins like they were playing Chopsticks. Now it’s all pressure from sponsors, owners, and people who think froth means the horse is ‘accepting the bit’—when in reality riders are giving their horses the equine version of chewing gum to hide a blue tongue and a headache.”
The big question now? Will the Global Equestrian Federation (GEF) take the hint—or will they wait until every National Federation rebels one by one like a slow-motion bitless revolution on horseback?
At the last GEF Rule Committee meeting, insiders reported a motion was tabled to "revisit bridle policy", which allegedly devolved into a heated debate over whether letting riders use bitless bridles would “open the floodgates to barefoot dressage, vegan saddle pads, and horses choosing their own music for freestyle.”
GEF officials were unavailable for comment, though one insider suggested that before any change is made, the rulebook would first need to be "ritually burned and rewritten in moonblood."
Until then, national federations like Denmark and France are doing what national federations do best: making their own rules, ignoring the GEF, and hoping no one from Switzerland notices until it’s too late....
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