Nurtural Bitless News

Visit us at the Toronto Royal Winter Fair Nov 7th to Nov 16th.

Enjoy hourly video and photo presentations each Nurtural Horse is part of the Northern Ontarion Pavillion in Hall A at the Royal day noon to
7 PM by Zoe Brooks, Designer of the Nurtural Bitless Bridle - sponsored by Horses All Magazine.

Pick up a free copy of Horses All Magazine - read more about the Extreme Mustang Makeover.
Come see what people are doing in all disciplines - bitless and happy!! .

The Nurtural Horse Booth is located in the Northern Ontario Pavilion in Hall A, the Direct Energy Centre.

Look for our banner and all the horse-heads with great new styles and colours of Nurtural Bitless Bridles.

To contact us at the Royal, call Gerry's cell phone 705-665-2178.

We look Map to Hall A Direct Energy Centre at Royal forward to meeting you there!

Zoe brooks & Gerry Guy, inventors of the Nurtural Bitless Bridle

Zoe & Gerry

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How to ride a wild mustang ... blindfolded and bitless!

Do you ever dream of training a wild mustang? College students and co-founders of HorseTenders LLC, Nik and Kris Kokal from Greenfield, New Hampshire recently saw that dream come true. Just 100 days after picking up their completely wild and untamed American Mustangs they were doing handstands on the horses’ backs and riding bareback with the horse blindfolded. They trained their mustangs completely naturally - no bits, shoes or spurs.

In a highly competitive selection process, 200 Trainers in the US were chosen to compete in the Extreme Mustang Makeover and showcase their trained Mustangs at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center in Fort Worth, Texas in Nik Kokal does a handstand on a mustang in Nurtural Bitless Bridle September 2008. Nik and Kris competed against the best professional trainers in the nation. At 18 years old, Nik was the youngest competitor in the highest ‘Legends’ level (Ultimate Pro Level), competing with his horse AppleJack. He finished in the top 50%.

Kris is 21 and participated in the second highest ‘Idols’ level. Kris' horse Diamond Rio presented with an abscess so Kris had less than half of the 100 days all trainers had to tame and train their Mustangs. Nonetheless, he still just missed the finals by a very slim margin.

They were the only trainers with NO METAL......No bits, no spurs, & no shoes. The judges did not even notice the riders did not use spurs or that the horses were barefoot and bitless! Once this was pointed out after the competition, they were truly amazed and highly complementary of both Kris' & Nik's ability to compete at this level without the use of any metal throughout the entire taming and training process. The HorseTenders LLC training techniques achieved national recognition, acceptance and respect lending credibility to their unique approaches and techniques.

Nik and Kris acknowledge the Canadian Nurtural Bitless Bridle as a key piece of equipment that allows HorseTenders LLC to achieve these results.

The highlight for Nik & Kris? John Lyons specifically sought out the boys while they were practicing late one night during the competition week to complement them on their training approaches and accomplishments!

Kris Kokal riding his mustang through the gate in a Nurtural Bitless Bridle Nik Kokal with his mustang in a Nurtural Bitless Bridle Kris Kokal - bareback mount on his mustang in a Nurtural Bitless Bridle

Read more below ...

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Canadian Horse Bitless at Spruce Meadows
Meadow on the Green, September 7, 2008: The Canadian Horse Association of Alberta presented a demonstration of the Canadian Horse, the national horse of Canada, often called the 'little iron horse'. We were very pleased to see that one of the riders chose to do all her demonstrations, and to entertain the crowds at Spruce Meadows in a Nurtural bitless bridle. Susan and Katrina were introduced to the Nurtural Bitless in one of the Bitless Challenges at the Calgary Stampede in July. Enjoy the remarkable story of this once-endangered breed and demonstrations of English, Western and Driving.
Please enjoy the YouTube video of Spruce Meadows & Canadians for sale at Guys' Acres below ...
We have a great selection of yearlings and adult Canadian horses at Guys' Acres. Please E-mail Zoe for details.

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Bitless Dressage with Country Flair ... a 'Wonder-ful' tale of nurturing - with video! Aug 2008
     At the peak of his career in 2003, Wonder was an international eventing horse, ridden by Olympian, Bruce Mandeville, preparing for the Pan-Am Games. Until he tore a tendon. Despite expert care, his professional career was over, and his path finally led him to be declared 'impossible to control' & given to Second Chance Farm Horse Rescue. He is now being retrained to his former glory under the loving care of Elsa Harper and expert training of German rider Peter Hick. He is controllable and happy in a Nurtural Bitless Bridle - as seen in the August 16th video.

     In 2005, Elsa received a typical phone call for her rescue farm "I have thoroughbred that we simply cannot control to ride. Will you take him in and find him a good home?" Of course Elsa agreed; that's what she does - takes unwanted horses, cares for them, retrains them, and adopts them out into loving homes. Elsa was away when Wonder arrived in the stall she had prepared. When she walked into the barn, she took one look and said "Oh, you so don't belong here!" That's when her investigation began, and she spoke with the previous owner and then Bruce Mandeville to learn the history of this amazing Australian-Bred thoroughbred.

Two other fortunate circumstances added to Wonder's good fortune to arrive at Second Chance Farm Horse Rescue. Elsa Harper had discovered the magic of Nurtural Bitless Bridles and soon found that this big strong horse, who fought the bit so intensely, could be ridden and controlled in this bitless bridle. Then in the spring of 2008, Peter Hick, high level German rider and coach arrived in Canada to join his family, and is now offering riding lessons and training horses at Second Chance Horse Rescue. With Peter's strength and skills, Wonder is now retraining and reconditioning to be restored to his former glory.

Wonder and Peter demonstrated their progress as a highlight at Second Chance Farm 'Healthy Horse = Happy Horse Clinic', August 16th, 2008. They completed their 15 minute planned presentation to great appreciation of the crowd. But Wonder was obviously having enjoying hiomself and did not want to leave. So Elsa cranked up the volume to his favourite song and Peter let him open up and have some fun. Enjoy the video below and with a selection of others on the NurturalHorse YouTube Channel.

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Nurtural Bitless Bridles in US National Wild Mustang Training Competition July 2008

Nurtural Horse is proud to sponsor Kris and Nik Kokal of HorseTenders in the national 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover competition. In a highly competitive selection process, 200 Trainers in the US were selected to fully train a completely wild and untamed American Mustang in 100 days. The trainers must then showcase their trained Mustangs at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center in Fort Worth, Texas on September 18-21 at the nationally televised 2008 Extreme Mustang Makeover competition, where competitors will be competing for a $70,000 purse.   http://www.extrememustangmakeover.com/

The purpose of the competition is to showcase the beauty, versatility, and trainability of these rugged horses that roam freely on public lands throughout the West, where they are protected by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under Federal law. The Extreme Mustang Makeover event highlights the recognized value of Mustangs through a nationally televised training competition. HorseTenders LLC is pleased to have their unique and proven training techniques being recognized on a national level and honored to have been selected to train not only one, but two wild Mustangs. HorseTenders LLC are the only trainers selected by the MHF Committee and BLM in our NH, MA and VT region. Kris and Nik both attend Keene State College and are the founders and owners of HorseTenders LLC, a family run and operated business. Extreme Mustang Makeover will be aired on RFD TV, for more details http://www.rfdtv.com/default.asp

Meet the mustangs! http://www.horsetenders.com/index_files/Mustangs.htm

Horse Tenders LLC has trained in bitless bridles for over seven years. Nurtural Horse is very pleased to be selected as their chosen brand for this national televised competition! Watch for more news and video.

Recent quotes from Horse Tenders:

Sat. Aug 9th: (In response to an enquiry from another mustang trainer) Our website has been corrected.....the Dr. Cook sponsorship was placed on our site in error......that has been rectified. We have used and fully evaluated both sets of bitless. We do prefer the Nurtural for the Mustangs because they are so sensitive. Using the Nurtural lets the rider use really light hands. With the Dr. Cook we have found that the bitless needs a little more pressure. We really like they way the straps do not twist or pinch when the reins are pulled with the Nurtural. The whole "Nurtural" bitless is more stable.

The whole bitless revolution is wonderful and has been a long time coming ...    Kris & Nik Kokal
Read more in customer comments.

Monday Aug 11th: Feel free to publish and circulate as you desire! We are in the process of developing and placing our testimonial and bitless bridle eval results on our HT products section featuring the Nurtural Products replete with photos of the products in use. However, our Webmaster is currently preoccupied and out busy working with his Mustang.

I personally put the Nurtrual bitless through its paces this past week trail riding my horse, along with our two Mustangs in their Nurtural bitless bridles, through very rugged and unforgiving terrain in the Vermont mountains. Although previously bitless while riding, I can now also personally attest to the Nurtural bitless performance with favorable results in comparison to previously used bitless products. I was the last hold out to ensure that we can fully endorse & recommend without reservation (as opposed to simply represent due to sponsorship) any product we choose to promote and am happy to report that we are all in agreement.

New Hampshire greetings,
Andrej

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Yes, you can compete in Dressage bitless - for Rosettes and Cash Prizes! July 2008

Zoe was delighted in late July to connect with Karina of INTERDRESSAGE in the UK. We had a great telephone conversation and are looking forward to doing wonderful things together to open more doors for bitless riders around the world. What a great idea!! Enter a class. Send your video. Be judged by recognized dressage judges. Win rosettes and cash prizes. And show the world that horses perform beautifully in bitless bridles! (Please send Zoe a message if you are entering! I'd love to watch your video and link from our site!)

INTERDRESSAGE The World’s Premier Online Dressage competition.   www.interdressage.com
COMPETE MONTHLY VIA VIDEO
COMPETE AGAINST RIDERS WORLDWIDE WITHOUT LEAVING THE YARD
SUPERB ROSETTES AND GENEROUS PRIZE MONEY EVERY MONTH

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Calgary Stampede! New videos of bitless transformations! July 2008
We recently presented extremely popular and entertaining ‘Nurtural Bitless Clinics’ at the Calgary Stampede.
These 30 minute presentations show people something they have never seen before – that any horse will perform better in our Nurtural Bitless Bridle than they do in their bit. This Bitless Revolution is changing the face of the horse world!

“Bring us a horse – any horse! Whatever it does in its current bit, it will do better in our Nurtural Bitless Bridle^TM!!” That was the challenge for each of the daily 30 minute clinics at the Calgary Stampede! They brought us well trained working ranch horses, green broke horses, big Shire horses, tiny miniature horses, English, Western and Driving horses… and they ALL did better bitless! It was the most dramatic demonstration I have every seen! We spent the first ten minutes showing what the horse could do in its bit, then put the bitless bridle on for the first time. The riders took about 2-3 minutes to practice in the Nurtural bridle and then repeated the same exercises. The audience was invited to score before and after. I haven’t done the math yet, but a quick glance of the scorecards again shows a dramatic improvement in the Nurtural bitless!

See a few videos of these and other clinics at http://www.youtube.com/user/nurturalclinics.

The first one posted from Calgary shows a speedy well-trained Morgan cantering a cloverleaf pattern, stopping on a dime and pivoting back and forth.

The next one features an Appaloosa with a head bobbing issue in the bit. This 15 year old gelding relaxed into the Nurtural Bridle and did everything so much better. She rode bitless the rest of the day in other demos and in the big top.

(More videos to follow; Check back soon!.)

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Product Update July 2008

New Leather Bridles!
After years of searching and field testing to offer you a high quality, more economical, choice of leather bridles, we are delighted to introduce our 'Impressive' and 'Elegant' Styles!

How did we name them? As always, we listened to our customers. When folks first saw these new bridles with and contrasting stitching at the Calgary Stampede, they said "Wow! That's impressive!" And when we showed them the ones with a raised browband and noseband, the response was "That is elegant!"

Optional Western Browbands for all!

Impressive $129.99; Elegant $159.99 Matching English and Western Reins $49.99.

More News!

Beta Bridles Now Only $99!

Nylon Bridles now available in Brown!

"We keep growing to meet your needs!"

More info and photos

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The Horse Lovers' You-niversity June 2008

Sorry folks, we hit a technical snag!! We hope to launch Nurtural-You in 2009.   Please e-mail Zoe for more info or to get involved. We are looking for online coaches and teachers.

Nurtural-You is a user-friendly affordable collection of nurturing information and activities for horse lovers of all ages and aspirations.   It runs on same powerful online software/environment used by many universities.
PLanned functions in 2008 are to host:
-    the Nurtural Bitless Clinic Program,

-     Discussion groups for bitless videos, & DVDs

-     a User-Group for Nurtural Bitless Bridles, and

-     an online summer camp for kids

-     online coaching with exchange of videos to bring interactive quality training and support to every back yard.

Great opportunity to be part of the Bitless Revolution!

A message from Sydney Kotow, Nurtural-You Dean

"I value science over tradition when it comes to horses. I love watching different riders train and compete but there was always something missing. Sure the things they learned were valuable but there was nothing to back them up but “my grandfathers, great grandfathers coach did it this way and that’s how I was taught.” I want to see a horse world where owners, riders, competitors and especially coaches know the value of backing up every fact they dish out scientifically rather than what tradition has taught.

We are constantly looking for an upgrade in technology, it’s time us horsemen/women upgraded ours. I joined the bitless revolution after taking online equine courses. They taught me how a horses anatomy was affected by our bodies and tools we use. I couldn’t get enough of learning and teaching that is why I continue here, to educate myself and others with a newfound knowledge".

(We are working to simplify the navigation at this site. Your patience and suggestions are appreciated!)

Please contact Sydney or Zoe if you are interested in becoming an online coach, or to request a specific class.

Class members communicate with each other and have regular interaction with the coach.

So much better than just a magazine article!!    http://www.nurtural-you.org

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Nurtural Horse - Nurturing Horses and Horse Lovers since 2005

Your input and feedback are appreciated!