Every serious attempt to reform competitive dressage over the past twenty years has failed. Not for lack of evidence. Not for lack of effort. Not for lack of good people making careful arguments. They have failed because they have all tried to reform a system around an instrument that is central to how the system operates.
What the Bit Does That Money Buys Access To
The bit is not incidental to the problem. It is the mechanism through which the problem functions. The bit allows frame to be imposed rather than developed. It allows silence to be enforced rather than earned. It allows the appearance of collection to be manufactured rather than produced. It allows wealth to substitute for horsemanship, because a rider with sufficient money can buy a horse whose extravagant natural movement can be managed by rein tension into something that scores well under current judging criteria.
Remove the bit and none of these substitutions are available. You cannot impose a head position in a halter the way you can in a double bridle. You cannot silence a horse's jaw communication with a neck rope. You cannot manufacture engagement through leg-to-hand pressure when there is no bit to complete the circuit.
The Classical Proof
The classical tradition's highest proof was always the bridle-free horse. De la Guérinière's horses were ridden without bits as demonstration of completion. Nuno Oliveira rode his horses bridlefree because bridlefree is what finished looks like. The Spanish Riding School's horses perform the airs above the ground in full collection in a confined space, which they could at any moment simply walk away from.
This is not nostalgia. It is the original proof of horsemanship, which has always been the same: the horse that stays is the horse that was asked, not commanded.
Why Previous Reforms Failed
The FEI banned rollkur in 2010 and approved LDR in the same session. The FEI requires two-finger noseband clearance and does not enforce it. The FEI rules state the nose must be in front of the vertical and give scores for head positions that violate this requirement. Each reform leaves the bit in place and asks the bit to self-regulate.
The bit cannot self-regulate. It is an instrument. It does what the hand that holds it directs it to do. The hand that holds it is directed by what the scoring system rewards. The scoring system rewards what the bit enables. The circle closes. The reform fails.
Remove the instrument and the circle breaks. There is no other way.