I live in a small rural town in the North East of England, with a large horse owning/riding populace. I have returned from a fitness walk around my local town and have just witnessed someone hacking out (I think the american term is Pleasure riding) in draw reins and a bubble gag. Firstly the point of hacking out a horse in training is so that it gets a day off so it does not become sour to its training, secondly these sort of external aids should only be used for short periods of during an actual training session to help build the correct muscle structure. I personnally do not approve of these external aids as there is no real replacement for strong groundwork.
The reason rollkur should be banned is that the fashion for a large forestep created by Rollkur that has given amateur riders the green light to think that hacking out with these external aids attached is fine with no thought of consquence to the animal. We need a lead from the Industry leaders.