I’d love to get people’s opinions and advice about a turnout upgrade I’d like to make concerning my horse’s bridle. He is an 18 hand Shire cross with a big blaze, very big/long forelock, slightly roman nose and smallish eyes. He’s the apple of my eye.
He does light commercial carriage work and I use a breastcollar harness. The bridle which came with his harness is a draft show style bridle with chrome diamonds on the blinders, a big honkin’ chrome flash on the noseband (noseband does not encircle face- but just supports blinders from the bridge of the nose) and a big flapper of a teardrop with the obligatory draft stye horse head in a horseshoe harness brass which is sewn in to the connection of the blinder stays.
What I like about the bridle:
It fits his big old head.
The crownpiece is slightly cutaway so it makes more room for his ears.
The chain browband isn’t bad. (I’ve lately taken to braiding his forelock and tying off to the side at one rosette.)
The blinders are a good shape, slightly cupped, and a good square size (not mudflaps)
What I hate about it:
I think it makes my horse look like this or this
really…if you don’t believe me…
I don’t like the way the nose bridge band hits HIGHER than the midpoint of his face- so there is all this action (browband dangly bling forelock blinders noseband eyes) all in the top half- and then you have to drive about 1/2 mile to get to a nostril.
I also HATE the artistic fauxpas of putting a picture of a thing on a thing… like a woman wearing a t shirt with a picture of a female movie star… or painting a mural of a van on a highway- on a van… it’s the fingernails on a chalkboard of my pet peeves- I don’t need to decorate my horse with a picture of another horse. I mean- what’s that all about- was I scared you might mistake him for a moose?
My horse has a three foot long swath of natural chrome running up his face- I don’t need more…especially not perpendicular to the other chrome- and sitting right at the apex of the curve of his roman nose.
What I want is a handsome coachhorse style elegant utilitarian bridle. I am afraid I may have to have this custom made because when you click the harness shops online as soon as you get to the draft sizes- you get draft styling, tons of dots and the obligatory horsehead in a horseshoe… or the upside down Y brace. I’d like a full circle noseband in the lower 1/3 of my horse’s face, and patent leather blinders.
Does this sound like a plan? Would it be the stylistic improvement I’m hoping for? Have you seen one of these for sale anywhere- or do you maybe even have one for sale?
