Bitless noseband with cord

How a bridle with this noseband feels:

To the horse, a bridle with this noseband and the crossed cords feels like a halter, but the driver or rider experiences it as a regular bridle. With the noseband attached to the cheeks where a bit is normally attached, the crossed jaw cords allow the horse to be steered via a friendly push against the other side of the horse's head. The training noseband with the crossed cords steers by pushing rather than pulling and does so with minimum pressure.

The effect is such that any rein pressure transferred to the bridle actually becomes less rather than more. This happens in two ways. First, the lead pressure is reduced by the change in direction of the jawcross cord where it passes the D-ring in the noseband. Second, the lead pressure is spread over a larger area and therefore exerts less weight per square centimetre than the lead pressure exerted by the bit on the layers and/or on the tongue. Because the larger area of crossed jaw cords presses on the relatively less sensitive tissues of the skin, nose bone and muscles than in the highly sensitive mouth, this method is literally incapable of hurting the horse.

The actual pressure transferred to the various parts of the head have never been measured so far. A subjective measure can be obtained by, standing next to the horse's head, placing a finger at any spot under one of the crossed jaw cords while one or both reins are tightened. The heaviest pressure is actually exerted on the nose, but because the noseband is not reinforced with metal, but rather wide and padded, the pressure is not painful. The pressure elsewhere is slight to barely noticeable. This makes one wonder why a horse would notice this pressure anyway. Remember that the skin is so sensitive that the horse registers the bite, even the mere landing, of a fly, so slight pressure is more than enough. Depending on the pulling on ?one or both reins, pressure can occur on the neck, along ?one or both sides of the cheeks, over the nose and under the jaw.