The official organisation representing Spanish horses in the UK is running bitless dressage and showing classes at its national championships this year.
GB PRE, which promotes pure and part-bred Andalusian horses in this country and is affiliated with the breed’s Spanish governing body, said it is “extremely proud” to run the classes.
The GB PRE show, which runs at Hartpury from 28-30 July, hosts showing qualifiers for the world championship show SICAB in Spain, dressage, British Breeding Futurity evaluations, working equitation and a range of showing classes.
“We are extremely proud to announce that we will be hosting bitless classes this year, in a breed show first,” a GB PRE spokesman said.
“We have been moving towards diversity, inclusion and embracing new ideas in our show, our breed society, and, we are hopeful, beyond our own society. The decision to host a dedicated bitless dressage and showing class at our event was born from listening to horse owners both in our society and outside, and realising just how many horse and rider combinations were excluded from competition due to their choice of connection.”
The spokesman added that it has top judges for the classes “both of whom are enthusiastic about moving times forward with us in this pioneering new class”.
“We recognise that many horses go very well in a bitted bridle, but we now recognise that many go very well in a bitless bridle, and this should, too, be celebrated,” the spokesman said.
Entries for the show close on 30 June and spectators are welcome.
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