What did Bill Dorrance teach about the snaffle bit?

Bill Dorrance's teaching about the snaffle bit centered on the concept that the snaffle was not simply a starting bit to be used until the horse was old enough for something more sophisticated, but rather the instrument through which the foundation of feel, responsiveness, and genuine softness was developed — and that the quality of the work done in the snaffle determined everything that followed in the horse's development. In the vaquero tradition that Bill represented, the snaffle was used throughout the early years of the horse's development to build lateral suppleness, vertical softness through the poll and jaw, and the horse's ability to follow a feel through the reins rather than brace against them. Bill taught that the snaffle communicated most directly because of its direct rein action — pressure applied to the left rein went directly to the left side of the horse's mouth without the leverage modification of a shank bit — and that this directness made it the ideal instrument for developing the horse's understanding of following a feel before the subtlety of indirect rein and leverage bit communication was introduced. He emphasized that the quality of the horse's response in the snaffle — genuine softness, a willingness to give to the lightest contact, the horse seeking the release rather than bracing against the pressure — was the standard that should be achieved before any progression to the hackamore or more complex equipment. A horse that was not genuinely soft and responsive in the snaffle was not ready for equipment that communicated less directly, because the training gaps would simply be obscured rather than addressed by the change in equipment.