I am a huge fan of Pessoa bridles for the hunter ring and my jumper bridles have always been edgewood. Unfortunately, as a broke college student I cannot buy super high end tack anymore! Are there any brands you would recommend with quality tack that are comparable to these brands for cheaper?
I just bought a new Camelot Wide Noseband Bridle for my step mom’s new horse and end up riding my horse in it a lot. While the leather isn’t as soft as the Pessoa bridles, it’s still got the comfort monocrown and padded noseband/browband and looks really nice.
Ovation also has some really nice bridlework, as well!
To be honest, my favorite bridle is from the local Agway. I want to say it’s “Gatsby” leather - which I’m totally okay with since my horse’s sire is Gatsby. I’ve had multiple and they’re SO soft and maybe $50. I also have a few of their leather halters, as well. But supple, dark leather bridles that are reasonable.
Bobby’s - this particular bridle is absolutely lovely.
I don’t like the camelot leather I think its just too cheap but Ovation has great bridles for about half the price of pessoa and still look nice with decent leather. Tons of bridle styles to choose from and lots with padded crown
@Man in Black I’ve become a huge fan of the Gatsby brand bridles as well and have them in multiple sizes now (pony, cob, horse). I have a couple that will be 5 years old and are used and abused in the hunt field regularly as well as used for schooling or trail riding nearly every day. They are super soft and mine always oil up quite nicely. I have the flat field hunter style bridles, but their more show ring style tack looks nice too. I order mine from horseloverz.com when they are having sales when they can be bought for $25-40 each.
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Have y’all ever used the ovation friesian bridles and is there a big difference between that and a normal bridle? There was a friesian ovation bridle for $50 on tack of the day and it seems like a really good deal!
I second Bobby’s.
Also, I’ve had a Smartpak Harwich bridle for about a year and it’s quite nice. I only use it for showing so it’s held up beautifully.
Just a friendly reminder to try to keep duplicate posts in the same forum down. I tend to ignore when I see duplicates.
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I’m a big fan of SmartPak tack myself - I get a ton of compliments on my three year year old Wellfleet bridle! It’s beautiful and the leather feels wonderful.
That said, I’ve gotten some amazing deals on high end used tack - I’ve been able to find Antares and Dyon bridles/births/martigales online and on consignment for fractions of what they would cost brand new.
Yes to Bobby’s for sure. Good stuff.
I have a Smartpak Harwich bridle that I’ve had for 7 years, and it’s still in great condition. I had an Ovation, but there was nothing I could do to get that thing soft, although thinking back I think it wasn’t from a good batch because it bled everywhere.
The Bobbys are nice too after oiling, just takes them a while to break in.
Ditto the Smartpak bridles! I have a Wellfleet hunter bridle that I’ve used pretty heavily for a year and it still looks great. I got it on sale for about $100. I’ve had a few Gatsby halters and while the leather was great, the hardware did not hold up. Maybe their bridles are better.
