Hi COTHers – anyone got opinions on the CWD hunter bridles? What about compared to Beval or Edgewood? Other favorites? My boy is mostly a jumper who moonlights in the eq ring, but mercifully goes (at the moment) in the same soft rubber snaffle in both places.
Oh, and, to the extent its a useful data point, he has a freaking gigantic head. Gigantic.
I had one quite a few years ago and it was beautiful, it was padded with fancy stitching. Mine was not that orange color that I see now, it was a dark mahogany color with slightly lighter colored padding. This was before the wide noseband came into fashion. I also owned Edgewood, Antares, Hadfields, and Beval Heritage all at the same time, and thought the CWD was just as nice as any of those although I think my favorites are still Edgewood and Hadfields.
I’m not a big fan of their “hunter” bridle, but the regular snaffle bridles are nice. For some reason the noseband isn’t padded on the hunter one and it’s kind of stiff. I use the ergonomic crown ones which my horse seems to prefer. I also just ordered him an oversize (size 4) for his gigantic head that has now grown out of the standard size one (3). Not sure why his head grew at 7-8 years old, but if your horse can’t fit into the size 4, then I’m not sure what brand I’d recommend you try. I took it out of the box and thought OMG my horse’s head can’t be this big! But it fits, so… 
I think the newer Edgewoods aren’t quite as good as they used to be, and that said I think they’re comparable to current quality CWD. My older (2015) CWD seemed to soften up better than I’m experiencing with the new bridle. Because CWD doesn’t make extra long reins without a special order, I’d probably order Edgewood reins to go with the bridle for “show” quality reins. Cheaper reins he can chew on without me getting too upset get used at home.
I just received one and I absolutely love it - it does come a little lighter but will certainly take oil to darken it. I have greased mine about 2x and it is significantly darker. It came the same color as my new stirrup leathers and both has darken significantly with 2 greasings
I got the wide noseband hunter bridle. The noseband isn’t significantly huge - 1" - and so while it still looks wide, it isn’t extremely wide. I believe this will look great on a majority of horses
The padded crown piece is absolutely lovely. The leather is beautiful and will definitely soften up after a few rides.
Personally, I owned an Edgewood and I sold it because I was afraid it wasn’t going to last. While it was stunning, I didn’t need it at the time.
I fall in the middle of the “leather” quality - sometimes I feel like the less-nice leather will last longer. This leather is extremely nice but you can tell it will certainly hold up. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy.
I used to ride two horses who each had an Edgewood as their everyday bridles, neither received especially good care and both were still in show ring condition, my experience with Edgewood is that it holds up remarkably well. And both of those bridles were at least 10 years old!
The only brand bigger than the CWDs is the Bobby’s. Their O/S is HUGE.
I like the CWDs ok. I have an older one. The quality is nice. I don’t think it has the nicest details as compared to others in its price point, but the leather quality is nice.
I have an older (8 year old) CWD padded crown and nose band and I really like it. It’s held up well. It is a larger/thicker/heavier bridle that looks good on a larger horse. One thing I think is a bit distracting is the CWD labels behind the ears on the crown piece.
I have a newer Edgewood and it is more refined and leather is okay. But nice looking bridle. I use their standing martingales.
I haven’t really found a bridle I can say I absolutely love yet and I have been buying bridles for many years…
Mine was even older than yours but the CWD was stamped into the leather on the crown piece, you really had to look for it and it certainly wasn’t visible like the label they sometimes use now.
I won one as the prize for being circuit high point horse at a winter show series last year and I get lots of compliments on it. I got the Hunter bridle and absolutely love it. It darkened up nicely and the leather is soft without being flimsy. The 1" noseband looks great on my horse. The padded crownpiece is nice without being too thick. The CWD is just stamped into the leather there by where the browband joins to it. I don’t notice it at all - I actually had to go look for it after people mentioned it on this thread.
The newer CWD bridles (some of them anyway) have the logo in white lettering so it’s very visible. I don’t personally care for that look.
I have seen that large white logo on some of their stuff, I think it is unattractive and wouldn’t buy a bridle that has it when there are so many other great bridle options to choose from.
I got the CWD bridle with my saddle when I bought it in 2010. Here is a picture of the bridle with the red and white tag. Not too horrible but for free I’ll take it! I still think it’s a pretty nice bridle.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2239088976136173&set=a.414322151946207&type=3&theater
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