Don’t laugh but I have had a Kincade bridle since 2010 and it still looks good and works well but is still stiff as all get out. They are nicer than their saddles that’s for sure but for a $50-$60 bridle they hold up well and look nice.
I loved a NunnFiner bridle that I borrowed for a while, not sure which one it was but it was soft and had really nice leather. I may end up getting one eventually and burn the Kincade bridle 
I love Edgewood! That is my show bridle and I won’t have anything else, I just love the butter soft leather whether it stretches or not.
I school at home in a beautiful Harmon Kroft bridle that has held up for years!
Burn: Vespucci… shrinking keepers, stretching nose bands and throat latches.
Love: D’yon and Antares, although the hunter reins for the Antares bridles seem slim, at least on the one I have. I have a couple of each of these brands and love them!
I have a 2000 Beval New Canaan that I will never, ever, ever give up. Can’t speak to the quality of the newer bridles, but this thing has worn like iron…
I recently acquired an Ovation wide noseband bridle to show in, and I am super impressed with it. Very expensive looking and the leather is so soft!
Hate Pessoa and hate Red Barn. Also hate Edgewood rubber reins (weird, I know) - the rubber bumps are almost sharp when they’re new. Ick
Set on fire: Gatsby, Kincade, and my custom from Royal Sports (even with “premium” leather it’s awful). I also won a Courbette that I thought was pretty gross, but not as awful as those three.
Like: Ovation, although I will say that I much preferred my older one to my newer one, the leather is way better. I like my Bobby’s dressage bridle but not very enthusiastically.
Love: I’m completely obsessed with both of my PS of Sweden bridles, and my Mark Todd anatomic.
I have, probably, 30 hunter bridles. The vast majority are Edgewood, which I love, and pretty much the only thing I’ll buy at this point. I also like New Cavalry (similar to Edgewood). I have an old Beval bridle that is still in good shape and has held up well. Up until recently, I had a 20yo Crosby bridle that was great to use. I have a few misc martingales and reins from Jimmy’s which are very nice and match the Edgewood stuff perfectly. However, the only high-end tack I recommend now is Edgewood.
For other stuff I’ve owned or used… Crosby is okay, though the older stuff is better than what they’re producing these days. ADT is also decent. I hate HDR with a fiery passion, and the newer Pessoa stuff looks nice but doesn’t last at all and never seems to get soft. I have some dressage bridles from Redbarn/KL select, and I like, but don’t love them. They look nice, but just never got soft like my nice butter-bridle Edgewoods.
Another shout out to Five Star. Love love LOVE my Piccadilly bridle. Softest, nicest leather I have ever had. I will probably asked to be buried with it 
Not impressed with my Vespucci. Hated the noseband. So did the Big Horse. So I sold it.
I love my Dy’on figure 8. It’s beautiful and my horse is happy and comfortable in it (he is so sensitive).
If I happen to find $400 on the ground I would really like the PS jump off revolution bridle. http://www.psofsweden.com/en/offers/jump-off-revolution.html
And lastly I would set my Dr. Cook’s bitless bridle on fire. Nothing particularly wrong with it, but with the crisscross pull its WAY too much for my guy and made him so anxious. I tried just attaching the reins to the noseband and it still didn’t work for us. Instead of setting it on fire I’ll probably just put it on eBay
[QUOTE=IvyHall;7924129]
If I happen to find $400 on the ground I would really like the PS jump off revolution bridle. http://www.psofsweden.com/en/offers/jump-off-revolution.html[/QUOTE]
If it makes you feel any better, their prices include VAT. So when you take that off it’s $309, or $333 with shipping.
[QUOTE=MsRidiculous;7924144]
If it makes you feel any better, their prices include VAT. So when you take that off it’s $309, or $333 with shipping. ;)[/QUOTE]
After I posted I went to the website and discovered this and it had been ordered. He is a TB so it will be his bday in a few days. Happy Birthday Calvin!!!
[QUOTE=jhg140;7924062]
I have a 2000 Beval New Canaan that I will never, ever, ever give up. Can’t speak to the quality of the newer bridles, but this thing has worn like iron…
I recently acquired an Ovation wide noseband bridle to show in, and I am super impressed with it. Very expensive looking and the leather is so soft!
Hate Pessoa and hate Red Barn. Also hate Edgewood rubber reins (weird, I know) - the rubber bumps are almost sharp when they’re new. Ick[/QUOTE]
The Beval newer bridles are NOT like the old ones, don’t even smell like “real” leather and are now $600 bucks. Treasure you old tack and soap it regularly, because what you see out there nowadays is what you GET. All you can get, actually, because the cattle hides, the tanning process, and the manufacturing processes are not the same, and we’ll probably never have that kind of quality again. For saddles that are truly 30-year assets, E-bay is your friend. Bridles too.
I have an ADT figure 8 that I really like. Looks nice, lovely soft leather.
I sold off most of my hunter bridles a few years ago when I switched over to dressage. I liked (but didn’t LOVE) my Edgewood; nothing particularly wrong with it except I had to replace the keepers several times because they stretched out, which was annoying. But I just didn’t love it.
Ones I really did love: my Hermes, plain square raised. Amazing leather, totally supple without being too squishy in the reins. Also really loved my AdT, which was honestly probably the least expensive bridle I’ve ever had, but the leather was really nice, and the style - an unpadded, fancy stitched wide noseband hunter model - was just beautiful. Got lots of compliments on that one. My all time favorite, though, was my Antares. I bought one of the very first hunter bridles they ever made, and it was stunning. I kept that one, actually, because it is traditionally styled and you can’t get them anymore; I’m not a fan of the newer monocrown.
My favorite jumper bridle is a lesser known one called T de T. I bought it in Europe when I needed to replace a figure 8, and I kept that one as well. The leather is just as nice as the Hermes, and it’s beautifully made, with brass clinchers on the browband. Yummy.
I’ve mostly been unimpressed with the dressage bridles I’ve seen so far. I have a couple of Vespuccis and they are nice but not spectacular. The Dover Schockemohle snaffle I bought as a schooling bridle was complete crap and I gave it away. I have a couple of FSS bridles which are also pretty nice in terms of design, though I would say the quality is about the same as the Vespuccis. In other words, nice enough and quite amazing for the (cheap) price, but the leather is just nice, not on par with the top hunter tack I’ve had.
I finally did splurge on an Antares dressage bridle - it was my Christmas present to myself this year - and am thrilled with it. It is the first piece of black tack that I’ve seen that I can really say is spectacular in feel and quality. The leather is lovely and supple while still having some structure to it, and the fit and finish are amazing. Of course, it was also expensive, but I take very good care of my tack and know it will last me for many years, so worth every penny.
I know the “OP” said not the house brands, but I would like to know if anyone has any opinion on Dover’s Showmark hunter bridles. I have two and am considering getting a third. I like them… but maybe I just don’t know what I am missing with other brands!
Also, when we talk low-range, mid-range, and high-end, what price ranges are we talking about? Related question: what is the minimum you would expect to spend to get a decent bridle?
Same here. I purchased a really nice Vespucci hunter bridle on a sale from their outlet and the throatlatch keeper tore clean off during the FIRST use. The 37 noseband keepers (seriously, there were a ton of nonessential keepers?) all shrunk while everything else stretched. It was an outlet sale with no refunds/returns, so I had to unload the basically new bridle on ebay for half of what I purchased it for. I would never again buy another Vespucci.
LOVE Bobby’s, but their stuff is TOUGH to find around here and when I have tried ordering online from various sites the shipping has been awful.
I got a screaming deal on a Frank Baines bridle and it is gorgeous! The leather is breaking in beautifully, the edges are finished much nicer than anything I’ve owned, and the detailing looks stunning on my cob’s blocky face.
I am also pleasantly surprised my my Premiere by BR bridle. I have always liked BR bridles, and when I had the chance to snatch up a brand new Premiere line bridle for half off (gotta love having a good relationship with the boutique tack shop owner. She has pony’s measurements because he is so awkward to fit, and when she finds something that fits his measurements she gives me first dibs, and often a better price. She loves my little guy and has been nothing short of amazing to us!) I jumped on the chance! Despite being the more economical line made by BR, it has the same workmanship and the leather isn’t much lower quality than the main line. The sizing is a bit odd, and might not work for average horses, but the Cob size is perfect for my guy whose original bridle was a Skyline that was made with pony cheeks, horse brow, cob nose, and warmblood crown…
I am not a fan of Val Du Bois and Mondega (lines made for/sold by Greenhawk) and find the leather to be crappier than the price suggests. For the pricepoint, HDR is a LOT better!
I agree with Pattnic, down to the “meh-to-hatred” of Bobby’s. Or, rather, as an educated bridle snob, I feel the need to let the “Bobby’s bridles are acceptable” people let them know that they aren’t. Just adding some balance to the Bobby’s hype.
Jeffries still makes bridles and they are of the old, English leather quality and workmanship that Beval’s bridles had.
Not sure what bridle I’d buy today. All of mine are from yestercentury, some cryogenically preserved, to be thawed out when needed. I recently thawed out a very old, just about virgin Moritz and it is lovely.
When back in hunter land…
Faves: old Beval, even older Jimmy’s, and a couple of bridles I got from a saddler in England (think tiny village saddle shop where someone was basically custom making everything b/c the assembly line was 2 people). I have an old flat bridle that I’m not sure of the maker but it’s Made in England and is at least 30 years old and still in phenom shape.
I have never owned a Stubben I liked very well and not to sound dreadfully leather snob, but once you have good strap goods, anything that’s not done well just sucks…I’m thinking of any of those stinky, cheap “leather” (and I use that term very loosely) bridles that looks like the color is painted on…ew, they just smell so bad.
Like lucassb, now that I’ve embraced my inner DQ, I have trouble finding exactly what I want. I’ve got an older Passier snaffle that I really like - great leather and has held up well. My double bridle is a house brand with a giant caveson and a tiny browband (I took it off and have zip ties holding everything “together.”…and I’m blaming all crappy lateral work on Big Moo’s brain being squeezed by this piece of crap browband). Ew. It wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination and I might actually burn it when I find $800 on the ground and can replace it.
Jeffries still makes bridles and they are of the old, English leather quality and workmanship that Beval’s bridles had.
Not sure what bridle I’d buy today. All of mine are from yestercentury, some cryogenically preserved, to be thawed out when needed. I recently thawed out a very old, just about virgin Moritz and it is lovely.[/QUOTE]
Not sure what brand I would buy either. The Jeffries brand you mentioned do they come from Jeffers Equine? Wouldn’t mind looking into that brand if they are made well.
[QUOTE=PonyRider;7924938]
The Jeffries brand you mentioned do they come from Jeffers Equine? Wouldn’t mind looking into that brand if they are made well.[/QUOTE]
Jeffries and Jeffers Equine are two different/unrelated companies. You cannot get Jeffries bridles from Jeffers Equine.
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