I think mostly the crown piece is what is fancy. It’s curved in at the ear areas giving the ears and muscles there freedom to move. The crown piece is often nicely padded to be more comfy at their poll and all those nerve endings up in there.
So fancy means novel.
To me fancy is bling, for example, but not necessarily with a purpose, like pressure relief.
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I think in this post the OP meant “fancy” as in “expensive” as a tongue-in-cheek way to categorize the kinds of expensive anatomical bridles they were asking about.
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Gotcha!
Has anyone tried the Waldhausen S-line? This looks like it could be a good option but I can’t really find any pics of it ON a horse or what the crown piece looks like.
https://www.waldhausen.com/en/waldhausen-s-line-bridle-sensation.html#more
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Huh, it’s interesting, beyond that weird crown buckle the bridle looks like an exact dupe of the shockemohle.
Yeh, looks just like the shockemohle…I was looking at reviews for the shockemohle and saw where someone wrote: “safety design flaw with the way the bit anchors to the bridle. Instead of a normal hook-stud attachment, it is a little knob - and the knob is extremely fragile.” The knob piece did break off. The waldhausen bridle has the same design of how the bit anchors to the bridle.
Ooooh!! A new challenger! That is exactly what I was thinking of - it looks almost identical to the Beta/Delta.
I wonder why it is that the knob/hook-stud pin is the prevailing design for that type of set-up… I don’t like it either, and I agree with that review because that is exactly what broke on me when I bought the bridle! It makes me wary of trying another one with that design.
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Super annoying about that pin design because the design overall is what I’m looking for.
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Right!!
I wonder if it’s a necessity. How else would you fasten the cheek pieces that hold the bit, to the noseband? Bonus if it’s in a way that is adjustable?
I’m a hook/stud person. I’ve never liked buckle ends. Even then I can’t see of a way we could have our cake and eat it too, but I have never been super imaginative/innovative.
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The holes/slots for the pin look upside-down. Shouldn’t the round end of the slot be at the bottom? So that you put the pin through, then natural gravity/the actual pull on the bit slides it to the slit end where it is held. I would be afraid that having the peg sit at the hole end of the slot would allow it to pop out from the leather and then the whole thing would come apart.
Schockemohle has a new design with buckles instead of hooks:
I’m not a fan of their leather, either, so I’m holding out for when Fairfax has room in their schedule to make bridles again.
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Total sidebar – what about THESE bridles?
https://shophalterego.com/collections/pre-order-bridles
This one – OMG:
They’re not in my preferred imaginary design, but they look nice… Anyone ever have Halter Ego bridles??
@Mersidoats Awesome! I wonder if they listened to customer feedback on that one. I even sent Schockemohle an email when mine broke letting them know how it broke and that I thought it could be a potential danger to some riders. I was lucky I was on a really good dude who just stopped when the bit flew off – I ride a lot of green fresh off the track TBs and that could have ended really badly if it was another horse. I never heard back from Schockemohle though.
When I was looking for a new bridle a couple of months ago, I looked at Halter Ego and by “looked,” I mean just reading the website and drooling over a few of the bridles, although the Safari print is probably a little more bling than I wanted! I didn’t actually handle a bridle. They have some good reviews online, though. For me, I wanted a different noseband as well as a comfortable crown-piece.
I ended up buying from EvoEquine in Britain:
EvoEquine bridles
I posted about them in a different thread (I think it was a different thread anyway). I’ve been very happy with the leather and construction. I got the Freedom bridle but I was also considering a couple of other models. If you’re mostly concerned about the crown, it’s an excellent shape and well-padded.
A couple of other things: they mixed and matched different sizes to suit my horse, and the shipping was quick.
I also got reins from them and love them too.
Coincidentally, I just ordered one on Monday after returning the ill-fitting Kavalkade. Kinda pricey for me but at least it was on a slight sale. Plus somehow I have lucked out by already having blankets, halters, saddles (hallelujah!), etc that all fit my new horse so I feel like I can splurge on a bridle. I will update when it arrives! I’m boring so I bought the Olympia, which is brown with “espresso” padding.
Please take pictures when it arrives! All of their bridles look gorgeous. I really liked the Olympia and the Umbria, both classic with a twist.
I bought the Sahara. Yup… I did that. I had about $200 credit on Paypal that’d been sitting for a few months so it was only $63! Right?!
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I have a HalterEgo that I got for christmas, and am VERY happy with it.
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I really liked the EvoEquine, but it didn’t fit my horse this time around! He usually wears a Cob, which is what I ordered, but it was just too small - I couldn’t make the noseband work.
I ended up with the Collegiate Comfitech - same design, but I like the leather of the EvoEquine better.
