Welcome
The International College for Professional Bitfit Consultants focuses on educating horse professionals about the influence of the bit on the horses body and the other way around. Bits are fitted in the horse mouth with the aim of obtaining as much comfort for the horse as possible. The profession of Bitfit Consultants: is a fairly new profession for countries outside of the Netherlands.
What happens during a bit fitting session? In the same way as we are used to mobile saddle fitting services, where a saddle is customized to your horse an ICPBC Bitfit Consultant / Bitfitter is customizes your bridle and bit by looking at the whole picture: so the individual horse's mouth, the biomechanics of the horse, the rider etc with the aim to make the horse more comfortable. Severe contact problems mostly have multiple causes and an ICPBC bitfit consultant knows how to direct you to a veterinarian, dentist, physiotherapist etc, when needed, so the right people can work together to improve the connection to the bit.
The head of the horse and especially the structures attached to the horses tongue are much overlooked when it comes to the influence of the horse's posture and biomechanics. A well fitted bit can improve your horse's movement.
Bitfitting is just a small part of this course. We train you to become a professional in contact problems.
The founder of this program: Natascha van Eijk has been at the forefront of bitfit consulting in the Netherlands. Top class riders, who use a bitfit consultant, (see also Bitsymmetrie on Facebook) notice enormous differences in the performance of their horses. Hind legs that moved more freely under the body, better use of the body, more relaxation in the mouth. Hundreds of horses have been bitfitted by the founder and with more experience more puzzles were solved. Unique in her approach is the combination between bit fitting a horse and using her unique symmetry method (osteopathic manipulations, Jack Meagher massage, dry needling and cranio sacral therapy). The knowledge found in combining all these techniques and her experience is shared at the ICPBC.
The ICPBC is the only College where years of bitfitting knowledge is combined with the physical treatments of horses
The ICPBC teaches you about bitfitting from a whole body approach. A professional ICPBC bitfit consultant knows more than only the basics of the anatomy of the horse's mouth: the consultant also knows about the biomechanics of the horse, has relevant osteopathic and muscle therapy insights and knows the pro and cons of all sort of bits used in various disciplines. The entire course takes a year, but you can speed up your learning journey quite easy.
Part one is online and gives you the opportunity to speed up or slow down: learning everything you need to know about this new profession. You can either discuss every module with fellow students worldwide and you can send in video's, questions, examples all year long.
Part two contains out of 3 modules put together in 5 very intense practical days. During these days, we make sure you will feel fully confident in handling bitfitting and assessing horses on contact problems. Download our course catalog
or contact us!
The ICPBC is independent of any bit brand. We work with all kind of brands, because we don't believe one brand fits all horses. This makes the ICPBC unique because most courses are given by distributors of bits and will only talk about the positive aspects of their models. We at the ICPBC just want best for the horse. So if the bit fits the horse, we don't care what kind of brand.
If you are looking for a course that is independent of all the bit brands this is the course you are looking for!
The ICPBC is not training just everyone. This full education is only for horse professionals with a very broad knowledge of horses. The program is really intens with casestudies of various contact problems that need a broad approach, which can't be learned in this amount of time when you are not a professional.
The bit fit consulting course for horse professionals!
We do however like to educate people, so at our courses and events you will find a lot of events for our students but also some for horse owners or anyone interested.
In a lot of countries bitfit consulting like the ICPBC is not known yet. Since Natascha has been at the forefront of bitfit consulting in the Netherlands, she is really keen on promoting her international students as well, so the ICPBC will be a strong brand in future, distinguishing ICPBC students from bit salesmen. We strongly believe that horse owners are looking for honest people that have welfare of horses as their main goal and not sales. If the bit or bridle is not causing the contact issue, we try to help the owner with all the other skills we have and the professionals we work with. In our register of qualified you can find our registered graduates and soon we will update that page with all the backgrounds of the ICPBC bitfit consultants so horse owners can find the professional for their best ICPBC bitfit consult.
If you would already like to read what some students and graduates have to say about the full education, check our news page with our monthly student update or use the link below.