Nurtural Bitless Bridle

Last Friday a customer asked me "Why does Dr. Cook say that your bridle hurts horses, and that it is illegal for you to ship your bridles to the USA?"

The Nurtural Bitless Bridle does NOT hurt horses and Dr. Cook has been aware since 2005 that we legally ship our bridles to the USA.

    I have been polite (I am Canadian, eh!) I told him that I sympathize that other people have copied his design. I did not copy his design: the Nurtural Bitless is a new patented design with different features and functions that the Dr. Cook Bitless.
     I have done my duty. (My British mother raised me well.) I have written and spoken to Dr. Cook several times since I designed and patented my bitless bridle, and invited him to work together for the betterment of bitless horses everywhere.   He has neither acknowledged or accepted my repeated invitations.
     I just read the collection of derogatory, contradictory and just plain false statements at the Dr. Cook site; (My daddy was a backwoods Canadian) .... and it's time that the 'good doctor' got his come-upins!"

Facts: This drawing shows the many differences in the two patented bridle designs:
Nurtural Bitless Bridle compared to Dr. Cook Bitless

He Says (Dr. Cook)	She Says (Zoe Brooks)
On his main page, Dr. Cook prominently states "BEWARE OF IMITATIONS".	Although there are many direct copies of the Dr. Cook Bitless Bridle on the market, he seems most concerned with the Nurtural Bitless. I guess we have made quite an impact in our short history!
Confronting Misinformation [2007] http://www.bitlessbridle.com/dbID/317.html
He said: We have found some statements concerning The Bitless Bridle on other websites that we feel are inaccurate and potentially misleading. In an effort to clear up any confusion that may exist due to these statements, we offer the following responses:	*(Doesn't that sound a lot like what I just said? )* The Nurtural Bitless Bridle does NOT hurt horses and we legally ship our bridles to the USA. Any statements saying otherwise are inaccurate and potentially misleading. So here is my response ...
A widget of some kind connecting the crossunder straps under the horse's chin is somehow "better." The two cross-under straps of The Bitless Bridle are intentionally designed to move freely and independently of each other. Whatever the particular conformation of a horse's jaw, each strap falls naturally where it should and without the built in tension that results if they are locked together. Being themselves relaxed, they exert minimal stress to the skin they lie on and mold themselves comfortably to the contours of the jaw. As they are free to move, they can automatically adjust to any movements of the jaw and to the constant flux of rein pressure. For these reasons, it is a principle of the design that the cross-under straps should not be united and 'stabilized.'	*I assume that he is referring to our Circle-X, or as it is called in our patent, a 'crossover reinstrap stabilizer'.* In fact the Nurtural Circle-X prevents the straps from becoming tight at the back, and requires zero tension on the reins to keep your reinstraps in exactly the correct position for your horse. This prevents the straps from tightening at the back or from falling from their ideal position. In my experience, the free-to-move reinstraps were free to slip right off the horse's face entirely, or to twist and tangle under the horse's chin. This twisting leads to dangerous situations like these: This experience is echoed in an e-mail arrived on Sunday from Nurtural Coach Sydney Kotow: ....I talked to a girl on the weekend that rode in a Dr. Cook and bought a Nurtural bridle because the Dr. Cook kept twisting with the rein straps and she would end up with a 1500 pound runaway draft cross that thought he was a thoroughbred racehorse (been there, done that myself, not fun. Why I didn't use the Dr. Cook's of my friends a third time) She bought your bridle from a tack shop. She said she recognized me from the site and liked how there were a lot of people like her who bought the Dr. Cook and found no control and switched to a Nurtural. Good job Zoe!
Rubber gripping on the noseband provides more "contact." He said: More "contact" is not necessarily a good thing - one could gain even more "contact" by resorting to increasingly draconian measures. A mechanical hackamore provides so much "contact" that it is capable of breaking a horse's nose! Our noseband is designed to provide excellent control while avoiding pain and discomfort, thus our nosebands are smooth on the inside. We don't want the noseband to pull the hair and grip the skin at the bridge of the nose. The noseband should be able to move slightly to adjust to varying rein tension without causing discomfort to the horse.	Good grief! How is a rubberized noseband that receives nothing but praise from its users lumped in with 'draconian measures or a mechanical hackamore that it is capable of breaking a horse's nose????' Here is what Nurtural Bitless users say: The third ride was the real test - 3 other horses, one of which is quite hot and known to get the others excited. The jokes when we left the barn all questioned my sanity having no "brakes". I did have to take hold a few times and tell my mare "steady" once - again, no more than with her usual snaffle. I was curious to see her head though - had I been forced to take a consistent hold with a bosal, she would have had rubs. Other than a bit of sweat under the noseband and crown-piece, there wasn't a hair rubbed. That was the ultimate proof. We had done two hours of fairly strong-paced riding in a group and my mare was balanced and relaxed up and down hills, happy, and easy to control. Congratulations on designing and manufacturing a great product! Nurtural Coach Sydney Kotow: The horse is less likely to lean against the noseband when it has a texture. The pressure you place on the reins indeed gets spread out over many smaller surface areas. It amplifies the signal but not as much as he claims. The only way you could be placing constant pressure on the horses nose is to A) have the noseband cranked so tight that it becomes restricting if the horse were to open it's mouth (meaning no fingers could be fit between it) or B) you had to constantly white knuckle on the reins for minutes at a time. I think we all have to agree this is a training problem if you have to ride like this and NOT the bridles design. The knobby rubber is flexible and will not stab or rip out hairs as Dr. Cook claims. Dr. Cooks bridle does not have the texture and it makes it a lot easier to lean on the smooth, padded nosebands. I wonder if he has even seen one of your bridles in person to make all these false claims.
Other bitless bridles use an undivided crownpiece. He said: This statement refers to an older design of our synthetic bridles. On our leather bridles, the crown piece has always been undivided and it was only on the synthetic bridles that the crown piece was divided. We changed this a while ago on our synthetic bridles as well and all our bridles now have undivided crown pieces.	Gee, what a coincidence! This happened just after we released the Nurtural Bitless where our patented design specifies always a solid crownpiece. The Dr. Cook patent shows and describes a split crownpiece ... with holes to add studs to increase pressure on the sensitive poll.
Connecting the reins closer to the horse's mouth makes the bridle action feel more like a bit to the horse and rider. He said: Regardless of whether the reins are attached two inches away or five inches away from the noseband, the "feel " of the bridle remains the same - any tension on the reins would originate first at the rings on the noseband, not at the point of connection between the reins and the cross-under strap. Our cross-under straps are fully adjustable, so you can attach the reins as close or far from the mouth as you wish, although we recommend adjusting them to allow a minimum of three inches between the connection point of the reins and the ring on the noseband (to avoid entanglement). But even so, we think making a bitless bridle feel more like a bit defeats the purpose of going bitless in the first place.	Notice that he says the feel would (in theory) be the same with longer or shorter reinstraps. It doesn't sound as if he has actually tested this. I did! I hopped on my Appaloosa mare with Dr. Cook-style bridle adjusted for my big Canadian mare. With longer reinstraps, I had no control. I shortened them as much as I could and saw immediate improvement. Then designed our bridle with MUCH shorter reinstraps. I could certainly not adjust the Dr. Cook bridle I first tried to shorten the straps to 3 inches from the noseband - the straps were simply much too long. Unless he has copied more of my design and shortened his reinstraps, they still are too long. Try it! Ummmm .... so if it doesn't feel like using a bit, does that mean his bridle requires that a horse or rider who is trained bitless must completely change how they behave? Horses and riders/drivers with years of experience in a bit convert in seconds to the Nurtural Bitless. Newly trained horses and new riders/drivers learn quickly and compete with bitted horses without people even noticing they are bitless.

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On this page, Dr. Cook says the bridles are the same:

And then I found this at http://www.bitlessbridle.com/dbID/255.html What is the difference between The Bitless Bridle and the Nurtural Bridle, are they different in design?
He Says (Dr. Cook)	She Says (Zoe Brooks)
He said: A: No, not really.	What?? I'm confused! Did he not just tell us about all the differences between the two on the last page???
The Bitless Bridle has been on the market since 1999. We were granted a US patent on the crossunder principle in 2002. The Nurtural Bridle is a copy of our bridle and was first marketed in Canada in 2006. If the Nurtural company export to the USA they infringe our patent.	Really? I have told Dr. Cook repeatedly since 2005 that the Nurtural bridle is NOT a copy of his and that we export every day to the USA. He has obviously been to our site and seen the many US tack stores that carry our bridle. In late 2007, I challenged his claim to VERO rights on EBay - he claimed he owned the right to the words Bitless Bridle for any crossunder bitless bridle design. See transcripts of that conversation below, and notice that we now advertise Nurtural Bitless Bridles every day on EBay.com.
The fundamental principle of both bridles is the same. But whereas our bridle is painless, the Nurtural bridle is not.	What???? That's just plain untrue (as in, "I think the man lied to you.") What single speck of evidence does he have to support such claims? The bridles are NOT the same. See the report from the expert examiners in the Worldwide Intellectual Property Office. Our bridle IS painless.
The Nurtural company has made a few changes in an attempt to differentiate their bridle from ours but this is simply a marketing ploy. None of the changes can be recommended as none improve the function of the bridle and all are impediments.	People who use the Nurtural Bitless Bridle say: Your bridle seems to have fixed the things I didn't like about the Cook bridle. I believe my horse and I will both love it. We've been bitless for years ... I wanted to let you know that I have one of your bridles and prior to that used Robert Cook Bitless bridles and yours is certainly an improvement.
The crossunder straps of the Nurtural bridle are tied together with a widget. This prevents their independent movement and they can no longer fall in the natural alignment most comfortable for the horse. The widget does not prevent the reins from twisting; this is the responsibility of the rider.	I guess that's why I found so many complaints at chat groups that people had to constantly worry about untangling their reinstraps. I certainly did! And if you don't keep them untangled, they can tighten up and hurt your horse, stop the bridle releasing and create a runaway situation as described above.
We deplore the stiffened noseband of the Nurtural bridle and the addition of rubber studding. The noseband does not need to be any stiffer. Rubber grips the skin, causes pain and pulls out hair. Some movement of the noseband is to be preferred.	Our customers love the rubber gripping. Horses do not lean into it, and they cannot flip their noses up to evade the contact (as our horses did in the Dr. Cook.) Customers tell us of horses leaning so hard into the smooth Dr Cook noseband that they create a dent in their nose. Funny, we never hear of that from thousands of happy customers. What? Horses respond to consistent signals. Not nosebands that slide up and down and reinstraps that flap in the wind.
The crown piece of our leather bridles has been undivided since they were first marketed in 1999. The synthetic bridles had a split crownpiece for a while but, as the benefits of this were marginal, these too have an undivided crownpiece.	Too bad that's not what he patented! Our patented design is very different from the Dr. Cook Bridle. The bridle he sells and the bridle he patented are not the same.
The keepers on the Nurtural bridle are plastic and have sharp edges. We prefer the softer material of our keepers.	Wow! That's picky! Actually they are smooth rubber or leather, and NO ONE has ever mentioned them.
The Nurtural company claims that their bridle offers more adjustment than ours. Our adjustment has been field tested for seven years and needs no change.	The Nurtural Bridle does offer more adjustment. The Circle-X let's you position the reinstraps in the best position for your horse and KEEPS them there - in a loose cradle that applies pressure only when you want to signal your horse. (If you could buy a car or a phone or a TV designed in 1999 or one designed in 2005, which would you choose?)
The Nurtural company claim that their bridle works better than ours. Such a comparison lacks any foundation and is simply another instance of negative advertising. If you want to read a thousand or more testimonials from users of The BitlessBridle, click here	We have lots of foundation for our claim that the Nurtural Bridle works better! MANY of our customers are previous users of the Dr. Cook bridle and turn to us to get better control. See our customer comments.
More information about The BitlessBridle is available in our Frequently Asked Questions, while the scientific validation of our bridle is explained at length in our large collection of Articles. Our warranty means that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, go ahead, go bitless, go painless and, as the old jingle used to advise, "beware of imitations."	I designed the Nurtural Bitless Bridle with my husband, our son and about a dozen horses on our farm. The bridle was designed from love, not science. We worked with the horses to create a bridle that they intuitively understand and respect. Our Nurtural bridle has been tested and praised by coaches, riders, competitors and horse lovers around the world. We offer a 30 day satisfaction guarantee and promise to help if you have any problems. Wasn't there an old commercial that said "They made it first; we made it better!" Things evolve. You don't drive a Model T Ford or use a rotary phone, why use an old-design bitless bridle?

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Independent study shows the bridles are different - and Nurtural works better

Horse Canada Articles

This series of articles was published in Horse Canada magazine in summer/fall 2005.

1. Bitless Bridle Update (The Bitless leading the witless)
... Review of a Dr.Cook style of Bitless Bridle

Conclusion:

The bitless bridle is a wonderful tool for training and for limited hunter-type arena jumping, particularly for learning riders and those rusty from a winter hiatus. Horses appreciate a break from the bit; riders can use the time to brush up on leg, seat and hand coordination. Low key hacking at walk or trot over familiar territory (with a buddy and wearing a helmet) on a usually calm horse may be a reasonable place to use the bitless bridle; use your own good judgment.

I won't try the bitless bridle for cross country, or galloping or cantering on a hack again. But I will continue to use it regularly as part of my training regimen.

3. FURTHER BITLESS Adventures (Leslie Smith Dow in a Nurtural BRIDLE)

The end result (for the Nurtural Bridle)?
All positive. When riding, I forgot I was using the Nurtural Bridle, since it feels so similar to a regular bit and bridle (though more leg and less hand are required, as with any bitless bridle). I finally feel my riding is progressing (also thanks to my super coach, Liz MacGregor) and intend to keep on using the Nurtural bitless bridle. I’m even thinking of taking it on an upcoming Hunter Pace.

Here's an update from Leslie, November 2006

I am still enjoying the Nurtural bridle and hack for hours in it, including long, crazy gallops in fields. I can actually stop my horse faster with a Nurtural bridle than I can with a bit, since he tends to fight the bit.

Leslie Smith-Dow, Horse Canada Magazine

Other patented bitless bridles

Our “Bitless Bridle with crossover reinstrap stabilizer” is a unique design different from any other bitless bridle, and is protected by 3 patents: Canadian Patent CA2522524; Worldwide Patent Pending PCT/CA2006/001597; US Patent Pending 12/066,167

To me, it seems that Dr Cook refers to 'The Bitless Bridle' as if his bitless bridle is the only crossunder bitless bridle ever designed or patented.

Yet the photo to the left is from a 1913 patent titled "an improvement in bitless bridles" that sure looks like it has crossunder straps.

The 1988 Bitless Bridle on the right, patented in the USA by Erwin Meroth has reinstraps that cross under the horse's chin and pass through rings that are connected to the noseband by a short strap . I am surprised that Dr. Cook was granted a patent when his bridle is so similar to this one!

Here is what the international patent examiner concluded about my "Bitless Bridle with Crossover Reinstrap Stabilizer"

Want to know more about all the bitless bridles patented in the world?
Go to http://ep.espacenet.com/
I just did a quick search for 'bitless and bridle'. Here's the first 10 of 17 patents filed:

RESULT LIST
17 results found in the Worldwide database for:
bitless and bridle in the title or abstract

BITLESS BRIDLE WITH CROSSOVER REINSTRAP STABILIZER
Inventor: BROOKS ZOE C (CA)
Applicant: BROOKS ZOE C (CA)
EC: B68B1/04

Publication info: GB268824 - 1927-09-08

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Closing Remarks:

Bitless bridles are wonderful! They are all better for horses than using a bit.

I am an active participant at http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/bitlesshorse/ where bitless users of all types share information and promote bitless. I have not seen Dr. Cook there ... or even seen a photo of the man on a horse for that matter.

So... Dr. Cook, if you want to see why our Nurtural Bridle is better, why don't you and I meet in a public arena and convert a couple horses from bit to bitless?
Stay tuned for more details of this challenge! Here's the rough plan:
The challenge will be hosted by an organization that will publicize it and donate proceeds to therapeutic riding or rescue facilities, for the purchase of their chosen bitless bridle. If you are interested, Email Zoe for detailed plans.

(I am 56 years old with a fused ankle, fat ass and no formal training - but I have enough faith in my bridle to know that any horse behaves better in a Nurtural Bitless Bridle. So, come on Doc, let's have some fun and promote bitless!) Zoe Brooks

That's awesome Zoe. I would like to add this:

The last 4H meeting we had I showed all the kids the Nurtural bridle. One of the parents there spoke up and said "how much pressure does it place on the poll. My horse is extremely sensitive to poll pressure and rears easily".
I had the kids be the judge. I already had the bridle on Indigo so I had some of the braver kids step up and place their fingers under the poll strap and pulled back on the reins making Indigo back up in the isle. I then asked them how much pressure they felt on their fingers and all of them said either no pressure or very very very little.

I never knew Dr. Cooks bridle had holes for studs in them or I never would have thought of this! That is cruel! It would be like someone stabbing you in the soft skin behind your ears, ouch. I know Indigo wouldn't tolerate that because she is possessive of her ears and the area around it (though cooperative to what I do to her)

Also about your keepers they are durable! From years of having my own bridles no amount of care or leather conditioner can keep, keepers from breaking! It's merely an unsightly problem and not a safety one but I don't see mine breaking in the near future so long as I take care of them. Plus the keepers on my first Nurtural bridle, which is nylon has soft rubber ones on anyplace that touches the horse.

Want to really nail him to the wall. Point out that HE did not invent the bitless cross under bridle and that the original was the SPIRIT BRIDLE which he endorsed and then proceeded to claim as his own. Wouldn't you feel cheated, even if you gave someone permission to use your design if they made no reference to your name after all? At least Nurtural thanks everybody for their help and shared experiences.

Note from Zoe: Here is a portion of how Dr. Cook describes his bridle in his patent:

"The centerpiece may include a plurality of holes for receiving studs for applying painless pressure on regions of special acuity at the poll and behind each ear of the animal, or may receive a separate sleeve which includes the studs in order to apply pressure over areas of special acuity. Studs of different sizes can be fitted in a range of locations, depending upon the amount of pressure required and the conformation of any particular horse or other animal." See more at http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US2002148207&F=0