Two Fingers Are Over: The 1.7 cm Noseband Rule
Two fingers under the noseband. Always has been. That is what most of us were taught. The measurement is now a wedge, and it decides whether you start.
Since 1 May 2025 stewards at FEI events in every discipline check noseband tightness with a standard measuring device: a wedge 1.7 centimetres high, 3 centimetres wide and 11.5 centimetres long, inserted under the noseband over the nasal bone and drawn through from top to bottom. If it does not pass before the competition, the combination does not start until the noseband is loosened. If it does not pass afterwards, the result is elimination and a yellow warning card. From 2026 the device reaches national level, starting with British Dressage. Where it is measured, why the two-finger habit fails, what the rule means for a bridle on Mallorca, and how to check at home.
The measurement is 1.7 centimetres on the nasal bone. The device is sold to riders: check every noseband, on every horse, with the bridle done up as it is ridden, before the steward does.
What the rule says
The device is part of the FEI’s Equine Welfare Strategy and replaces a check that varied from steward to steward with one that does not. The general protocol, published in February 2025, sets the dimensions: 1.7 centimetres high, 3 centimetres wide, 11.5 centimetres long, a wedge with a taper so it can be introduced and drawn through. From 1 May 2025 it has been in use at FEI competitions across all disciplines, with discipline-specific protocols describing when the check happens and which straps are included.
The national tier follows. British Dressage trialled the device at its national championships, with stewards checking horses before they entered the warm-up arena, and introduces it at national level from 2026. Other federations are moving the same way; the rulebook of the federation you compete under is the place to confirm the date.
Why two fingers failed
Two fingers is a good idea that was never a measurement. Fingers differ in size; the check was done at different places on the face; and a noseband that passed two flat fingers at the side could still be tight enough over the nasal bone to restrict the horse’s mouth and press on the bone itself. Research over the past decade linked over-tightened nosebands to stress responses and to changes at the nasal bone, and the equestrian federations moved from guidance to a standard.
A wedge of fixed height applied at a fixed place is the same for every horse and every steward. That is the whole point: the rule takes the judgement out of the check and puts it into the fitting.
Two fingers was a habit. Seventeen millimetres on the nasal bone is a measurement.
Where and how it is measured
The device is inserted between the noseband and the horse’s face over the nasal bone, at the front, and drawn through from top to bottom. Not at the side of the face, where the noseband sits over soft tissue and almost any strap feels loose. The steward does not pull the noseband away from the face; the wedge has to pass under the strap as it is fastened.
The discipline protocols say which straps are checked and when, and they include the nosebands riders think of as the exceptions: the crank, the flash, the drop and the combinations. A bridle with an anatomical design is not exempt; the wedge does not care about the shape of the strap, only about the space under it.
What happens when it does not fit
Before the competition: the combination is not allowed to start until the noseband has been re-adjusted so the device passes. In practice that is a steward, a bridle and thirty seconds at the warm-up gate, but it is also a horse that has been ridden in a noseband that was too tight. After the competition: if the noseband is found too tight, the combination is eliminated and the athlete receives a yellow warning card, which is recorded and, with a second one within a year, leads to a suspension.
The check is objective, so there is no argument to be had at the gate. The argument is settled in the tack room before the show.
Checking at home
The measuring device is sold to riders and trainers, and a yard that competes should own one. Fit the bridle as it is ridden, bit in, throatlash done up, and pass the wedge under the noseband on the nasal bone, top to bottom. Do it for every noseband strap on every bridle, on every horse that wears it, because the same bridle on a horse with a broader nose sits differently. Do it again when the horse changes shape through the season, and after any change of bit or noseband.
On Mallorca that check belongs in the routine before the autumn shows, when horses come back into work after the summer and bridles have been on the hook for weeks. The bridles and bits guide below explains what each part of the bridle does and how the noseband should sit; the measurement is what tells you whether it does.
A noseband that has to be tight to keep the mouth closed is answering a question about the bit, the hands or the teeth. The wedge does not solve that; it makes it visible.
The rule takes the judgement out of the check and puts it into the fitting. That is where it belongs.
- Since 1 May 2025 FEI stewards in all disciplines check noseband tightness with a 1.7 cm high, 3 cm wide, 11.5 cm long measuring device.
- It is inserted under the noseband over the nasal bone and drawn through top to bottom, not at the side of the face.
- Too tight before the class: no start until loosened. Too tight afterwards: elimination and a yellow warning card.
- British Dressage brings the device to national level from 2026; check your own federation’s rulebook.
- The device is sold to riders: check every noseband on every horse with the bridle done up as it is ridden.
General editorial guidance. Competition rules are set by the FEI and the national federations; confirm the protocol and dates in the rulebook of the federation you compete under.
Bridles and Bits
Six Signs on the Face
