Hi:  Thanks for the welcome.  No I didn't do any pre training.  My seasoned mare who is 8 was the first one I tried the bitless on and she reacted very well, she is not doing the dropping of the head to the ground as much, I think she has been trying to evade the bit, I don't have the best hands in the world (working on it) and I do not use checks of any kind, she is an easy going sort but can have her moments.  The coming up 3 in July filly has just come back from training (harness) and was trained with a bit by a very gentle trainer thank goodness and I put her into the bitless as soon as she was back, no problems so far, even took her out and ran into hordes of horse flies and deer flies that can be a problem in N.W. Ontario she was very agitated of course, I kept the session short and was not in danger of losing control, she even shook violently to get rid of them during the drive.  But she did not panic and more importantly neither did I and I had a person with me just in case there was a problem.  I am not a trainer, though I guess we are all trainers as soon as we get up on the box for better or for worse?

Margaret F