Bitless bridles

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Our small and old (19) pony has a missing tooth and a wave jaw. His mouth is small anyway, and now that DC2 is riding him he DC2 is a much more gung-ho rider than DC1 was on him and I worry that he is being socked in the mouth a little. I saw an advert for bitless bridles and it got me thinking that one might be quite good for our pony. The crossover style seem to operate with steering by exerting pressure on the sides of the face via the noseband, and much of his steering atm is carried out as a function of him wearing a large full cheeked snaffle. Brakes are never a problem with this pony (his best pace is standing still!) but he currently wears grass reins as he is capable of catapulting even a skilful small rider over his ears from as fast as canter if he spots a tasty bit of grass.

Has anyone used a bitless bridle with a small and set in its ways pony before? How would I attach grass reins? Am I resigning my child to a future of no control over the pony at all?

I've tried most bitless bridles on one of mine. I've found the crossover and sidepull types are too harsh for me. I don't use a noseband on my bitted bridles so it has been a step backwards for my horse comfortwise. I've reverted to riding in a leather headcollar with leather reins when I want to go bitless now. It's trial and error I think.

A sidepull is basically a headcollar with the reins attached to the side rings (not underneath) and is about as simple as they come in terms of action. They're a good place to start for converting to bitless - the steering is direct and clear, and the braking is purely simple pressure exerted by the reins and transferred through the noseband. There's no reason (that I can think of) you can't use grass or daisy reins on a side pull.

A headcollar with both the reins attached to the bottom ring (i.e. not either side of the cheeks) would be a bosal, but your pony would need to understand neck reining to use that set up well. Crossovers tighten around the jaw on pressure, so aren't as simple and horses tend to react more to them (or like them, they're more hit or miss, I'd say). Obviously, if the pony needs more brakes, as the rider develops more tact, there are loads of other options.