Bitless side pull

[JDFred]

My mother-in-law wants a bitless side pull for Christmas, so I’m looking for some construction and material pointers.  I have a side pull in the barn that has a snaffle bit in it so I should be able to copy most of it from that, however I don’t know how to tie the knots for the rope nose band.  She found one from Weaver that has a double rope nose band that she likes.  I don’t know if you make that from a single rope or two pieces?  My current plan is to build it out of heavy harness leather in 5/8” straps with a 1/2” throat latch and use 2” o-rings for hardware.  If any one has some advice or tips I would appreciate the help.

[Tove09Tilda]

15 hours ago, JDFred said:

My mother-in-law wants a bitless side pull for Christmas, so I’m looking for some construction and material pointers.  I have a side pull in the barn that has a snaffle bit in it so I should be able to copy most of it from that, however I don’t know how to tie the knots for the rope nose band.  She found one from Weaver that has a double rope nose band that she likes.  I don’t know if you make that from a single rope or two pieces?  My current plan is to build it out of heavy harness leather in 5/8” straps with a 1/2” throat latch and use 2” o-rings for hardware.  If any one has some advice or tips I would appreciate the help.

Hey JDFred,
Coming from English saddlery but having ridden plenty of sporthorses in side pulls, I’ll just flag one thing first: true bitless side pulls never include a bit, so double-check whether the bridle you’re copying is actually a side pull in the traditional sense.

About the rope noseband: rope can be quite severe depending on thickness and how the bridle is fitted. Thinner = harsher. A double-rope noseband looks nice, but for a genuinely bitless setup I’d think carefully about comfort, pressure points, and avoiding nerves, vessels, and airflow areas. Bitless absolutely needs good fit and thoughtful construction.

I looked at the Weaver version — the construction is simple and easy to adapt for a made-to-measure fit.

The two-piece crown connected by loops wouldn’t be my first choice for bitless. I’d switch to an anatomical crown with proper tongues for the cheekpieces and a clean buckle setup for the throatlatch. It distributes pressure better, has a more stable fit, avoids hot-spots, and lets you disassemble the whole bridle easily for cleaning or repairs. Plus you can tool it and make it look extra special and pretty for your mother-in-law.

The browband seems optional in their design, but adding a V-shape, U or straight keeps things stable and makes the bridle look intentionally built, not improvised. I personally would, lookwise go with a V-shape as it is something slightly different and kind of special.

Noseband:
For each side: cut one wider strap (matching the crown attachment width) and two shorter, narrower straps to attach the noseband.
Instead of tying rope directly to O-rings, I prefer attaching rope to leather: thin both ends of a small strap (half thickness, about 1/2 to 1 (British)inch), sandwich the rope, stitch through the center, then attach that piece to the cheek section. Add the O-rings at the midpoint for the side-pull action, and a small buckle strap underneath to fine-tune the noseband fit. Yada yada … you know the deed. 

This gives you a cleaner look, better stability, and avoids bulky knots.

About your leather choice: 
Harness leather is great for headstalls and heavy-duty tack because it’s strong, dense, and heavily stuffed with oils and waxes. But for a full bridle — especially something bitless where pressure distribution matters — bridle leather or dorsal generally performs better. I heard it's hard to come by in america, due to more and more tanneries closing down (?) but I would at least give it a try, 

• Bridle leather is smoother, more flexible, takes edging beautifully, and breaks in comfortably on a horse’s face.
• Dorsal leather is even firmer and extremely stable, ideal for pieces that shouldn’t stretch.
• Harness leather, while durable, can be a bit stiff across sensitive areas and doesn’t contour as nicely around the nose and jaw.

So: harness works, bridle leather works better, dorsal is excellent if you need maximum stability.

Measure the horse, mark the key anatomical areas to avoid, and from there the whole bridle comes down to thoughtful strapwork.

I hope I was able to help and give some ideas, 
Best Tove 

[TomE]

The knot on the Weaver bitless bridle looks like a double overhand knot.  This video shows how it is tied.  I learned to tie rope halters from this author's 3 part Youtube video. She also has useful videos on eye splices and butt splices for lead ropes.

I don't have much experience with bitless bridles but I made one for a client, patterned after the Monty Roberts "Dually" training bridle.  She wanted a leather version of his nylon halter for every day use with her older dressage horse.  I'll look for pictures of it after chores today.

 

[TomE]

Here's the bitless bridle/halter that I mentioned.  As noted in the thread below the rolled leather noseband was swapped out for a soft polyester rope noseband, matching the original.  The client's trainer felt that the leather noseband didn't release properly.
 

wa

 

[JDFred]

On 11/27/2025 at 12:21 PM, Tove09Tilda said:

Hey JDFred,
Coming from English saddlery but having ridden plenty of sporthorses in side pulls, I’ll just flag one thing first: true bitless side pulls never include a bit, so double-check whether the bridle you’re copying is actually a side pull in the traditional sense.

About the rope noseband: rope can be quite severe depending on thickness and how the bridle is fitted. Thinner = harsher. A double-rope noseband looks nice, but for a genuinely bitless setup I’d think carefully about comfort, pressure points, and avoiding nerves, vessels, and airflow areas. Bitless absolutely needs good fit and thoughtful construction.

I looked at the Weaver version — the construction is simple and easy to adapt for a made-to-measure fit.

The two-piece crown connected by loops wouldn’t be my first choice for bitless. I’d switch to an anatomical crown with proper tongues for the cheekpieces and a clean buckle setup for the throatlatch. It distributes pressure better, has a more stable fit, avoids hot-spots, and lets you disassemble the whole bridle easily for cleaning or repairs. Plus you can tool it and make it look extra special and pretty for your mother-in-law.

The browband seems optional in their design, but adding a V-shape, U or straight keeps things stable and makes the bridle look intentionally built, not improvised. I personally would, lookwise go with a V-shape as it is something slightly different and kind of special.

Noseband:
For each side: cut one wider strap (matching the crown attachment width) and two shorter, narrower straps to attach the noseband.
Instead of tying rope directly to O-rings, I prefer attaching rope to leather: thin both ends of a small strap (half thickness, about 1/2 to 1 (British)inch), sandwich the rope, stitch through the center, then attach that piece to the cheek section. Add the O-rings at the midpoint for the side-pull action, and a small buckle strap underneath to fine-tune the noseband fit. Yada yada … you know the deed. 

This gives you a cleaner look, better stability, and avoids bulky knots.

About your leather choice: 
Harness leather is great for headstalls and heavy-duty tack because it’s strong, dense, and heavily stuffed with oils and waxes. But for a full bridle — especially something bitless where pressure distribution matters — bridle leather or dorsal generally performs better. I heard it's hard to come by in america, due to more and more tanneries closing down (?) but I would at least give it a try, 

• Bridle leather is smoother, more flexible, takes edging beautifully, and breaks in comfortably on a horse’s face.
• Dorsal leather is even firmer and extremely stable, ideal for pieces that shouldn’t stretch.
• Harness leather, while durable, can be a bit stiff across sensitive areas and doesn’t contour as nicely around the nose and jaw.

So: harness works, bridle leather works better, dorsal is excellent if you need maximum stability.

Measure the horse, mark the key anatomical areas to avoid, and from there the whole bridle comes down to thoughtful strapwork.

I hope I was able to help and give some ideas, 
Best Tove 

Thank you for the detailed response.  I’m not really familiar with English tack so what I’m copying may not be traditional, but I’ve always been told it is a side pull.  I’ll include a picture so you can see what I’m looking at.  She was wanting the rope because the horse she has got hurt pretty badly about 4-5 months ago and has some nerve damage in her nose so she may require something a little more.  But she wanted the double rope so it would spread the pressure on the horse’s out more, she also wants me to make a removable leather cover for the nose band to soften it some more if needed.

The brow band is a good idea I always forget about them since most of the headstalls I use don’t have them. I also like your idea of the crown and the throat latch being one piece it would look a lot cleaner if built that way.

I may have to look into getting some bridle leather it’s much nicer looking than harness, however I have harness leather and not bridle that was really what was driving my decision there.

Thank you again for the help.

 

[JDFred]

21 hours ago, TomE said:

Here's the bitless bridle/halter that I mentioned.  As noted in the thread below the rolled leather noseband was swapped out for a soft polyester rope noseband, matching the original.  The client's trainer felt that the leather noseband didn't release properly.
 

wa

 

Thank you for the help.  I like the way you have the nose band come through the hardware on your bridle, but I could see where the leather might bite into the hardware and hang up and a rope wouldn’t especially if one was to pull back pretty hard.  

I’ll have to watch some more of those knot videos I didn’t know Knotty Girlz had a YouTube channel.  My wife found their halters and got one it’s really a well built halter.

I found a thread on this forum about someone wanting to change the nose band on one of these types of bridles and Bruce Johnson explained the knot pretty well.  I’m not sure how to link things but the title of the thread is “Nose Band On Schultz Bros. Hackamore”.

Thank you again for the help.