Bridles, bits and nosebands: the rules and the 1.7 cm device.

The FEI's rules site refused our requests. FEI jumping and eventing rules here are read as reproduced in Equestrian Australia's 2026 rulebooks; FEI dressage rules come from a 2019 text published by Equestrian New Zealand and from press reports of the changes since; and the noseband rules come from press reports of the FEI's documents.

The FEI noseband measuring device

FEI Veterinary Regulations Art. 1044.8 requires a noseband to be loose enough as judged by an FEI-approved measuring device, and it applies to every type of noseband, upper and lower straps alike, according to Eurodressage. The Chronicle of the Horse reports that the device is 1.7 cm thick at its highest point and must pass between the nasal bone and the fastened noseband. The FEI developed it with outside experts and tested it more than 600 times at FEI events in jumping, dressage, eventing, endurance and driving in Europe and the United States.

• Before competing, a horse whose noseband fails the check may not start until it is readjusted, Eurodressage reports.
• After competing, a failure means elimination and a Yellow Warning Card under Art. 1044.8, which Eurodressage reports applies with no exceptions.
• Who is checked. The FEI protocol, "General and Discipline Specific Protocols for Assessing the Tightness of Nosebands" (February 2025), allows horses to be selected at random, targeted, or both when not every horse is checked.

The start date is reported two ways. Eurodressage (October 2024) gave Art. 1044.8 as effective on 1 January 2025. The Chronicle of the Horse (November 2024) and Eurodressage (March 2025) report that the FEI moved the start to 1 May 2025 so devices could reach stewards and stewards could be trained. The likeliest reading is that the rule text dates from 1 January 2025 and checks with the device from 1 May 2025.

Before the device, the Chronicle reports, dressage stewards checked by hand with fingers, while eventing and jumping set no tightness measurement at all. It also reports that the device is one of 37 action items in the FEI's Equine Welfare Strategy Action Plan. FEI legal director Mikael Rentsch said the aim is adjustment, not exclusion. Eurodressage notes that the International Society for Equitation Science developed its own "taper gauge" about a decade earlier.

US Equestrian does it differently. Its 2026 dressage booklet requires that two fingers fit under the noseband on the side of the face below the cheekbone, and says the FEI noseband tool is not to be used at USEF competitions. A search summary describes an Equestrian Canada proposal that used at least 1.5 cm (two horizontal fingers) or a taper gauge; we could not open it to confirm.

FEI Jumping (Annex VIII, in force during 2026)

Annex VIII 2.1(d) sets no restrictions on bits or nosebands for seniors in the competition arena, but the Ground Jury may forbid, on veterinary advice, a bit or noseband that could injure the horse, and the noseband tightness rule still applies. Annex VIII 2.1 also:

• prohibits blinkers and fly masks that cover the eyes;
• allows sheepskin on the cheek pieces up to 3 cm from the cheek;
• allows only unrestricted running martingales, and allows gags and hackamores;
• prohibits draw reins in the competition arena except at ceremonies.

Annex VIII 2.2(f), which applies anywhere on the event grounds, prohibits tongue straps; tongue guards fall under Veterinary Regulations Art. 1044.5.

For pony jumping, double bridles are not allowed, nosebands must be flat and leather (the front may be a flat leather-like material), and the permitted nosebands are dropped, cavesson, flash and crossed.

A new jumping tack document is coming, with two start dates reported. The 2026 Jumping Rules say all tack and equipment rules move to a standalone document, proposed to take effect on 1 January 2027, with Annex VIII in force meanwhile. EquNews reported on 1 September 2026 that the "FEI Tack and Equipment Requirements for Jumping 2027" had been published and comes into force in February 2027, after approval at the 2025 General Assembly following a stakeholder summit in Lausanne in October 2025. We did not read the document itself. The FEI said in June 2025 that moving tack rules into standalone documents was not meant to make them the same across disciplines.

FEI Eventing (Annex O, effective 1 January 2026)

Annex O is to be read with the FEI's separate eventing tack requirements of 1 January 2026 and the FEI Tack App, which launched in 2023.

The rules tell stewards to check the dressage-test bridle "with the greatest caution", and a bridle or bit found not permitted after the test means elimination.

FEI Dressage

In the 2019 FEI text (Art. 428), a bridle with a noseband is compulsory; headstall and noseband are leather or leather-like; a throatlatch is required except with a combined noseband or Micklem bridle; and a noseband may never be so tight that it causes harm. A snaffle bridle may be used with a cavesson, dropped, flash, crossed, combined or Micklem-type noseband, and a double bridle with a cavesson. Bits must be smooth with a solid surface, twisted and wire bits are prohibited, bits must not restrain the tongue, and martingales, breastplates, bit guards, boots, gadgets and blinkers are forbidden on pain of elimination.

Since then, the Chronicle of the Horse reports that from 1 January 2026 FEI dressage rules allow padded or covered cavesson nosebands and curb chains, provided they are never tight enough to cause harm, and allow snaffle bridles up to CDI3* and in some youth categories. Eurodressage reported the wording put to the General Assembly vote of 7 November 2025: a snaffle or double bridle is also allowed in CDI3* and CDIO3*. Two other proposals were left open: no longer permitting the double bridle in CDIJ, CDIOJ and Junior Championships, which Eurodressage said would take effect on 1 January 2027 if approved at the 2026 General Assembly (we found no decision), and proposals from 2025 to limit curb chain or shank rotation to about 45 degrees, which the FEI deferred until a repeatable way of measuring it exists.

US Equestrian dressage (2026)

Under DR121.2 (clarified 15 April 2026), only the bits shown in the rule's figures and Annex A are permitted; twisted bits, bits with bumps, uncovered wire or cable, bits that restrain the tongue and bits with slots in the rings are not. DR121.6 limits a shaped curb mouthpiece to tilting forward no more than 45 degrees. The 2026 booklet requires a plain snaffle bridle at Second Level and below and in FEI Children and Pony tests, allows a snaffle or double bridle at Third and Fourth Level, permits only a cavesson with a double bridle, and prohibits the crossed noseband in the FEI tests for 4 to 7-year-old horses at USEF competitions.

The welfare debate around nosebands is covered on the whips, blood and nosebands page. Whether a bridle or bit is permitted in a class is decided by that body's current rules and its officials.