I’ve been using a micklem.
What I noticed about it is that it is fairly thin in width and thickness behind the ears compared to many other “ergonomic” bridles. On my Big Headed Hanoverian with the BIG ears, the thin part of the crown piece sits in the depression between the ear and the vertebrae that sticks out to the side at the top of the spine. It’s not moving anywhere. It pushes against the base of the ear, which seems like it would be uncomfortable. It’s not a too tight brow band issue, because it sits the same way even without a brow band. I have two other bridles with thin crown pieces and they fit the same way.
I’ve noticed that many dressage bridles are much wider behind the ear. Do other horses have more clearance room between ear and bone? Are the crown pieces meant to sit on the top the bone instead of in front of it? Some of the mono-crowns are really wide!!
On a related note, I find it frustrating that many bridle pictures are photo-shopped onto the horse. So hard to tell how it fits in the real world.
Now that you’ve had a chance to look at how your bri f2f ke fits… any thoughts?
I would definitely have to see how a monocrown sits before committing to one. I’ve seen a lot come through where I worked that didn’t look like they would fit anything, the spacing of the contour was so narrow or wide. I had many people return monocrown bridles because the contour ended up with the “points” of the contour sitting on the horses ears, and not giving them space.
I’m old-fashioned myself, and would consider getting a straight padded crownpiece with a channel set for the cavesson; but it seems like I’d have to do a lot of measuring to get a contoured one to fit right. And the really set-back models just look weird, like those Swedish (?) ones that sit almost behind the poll.
I have a couple of different types, and so far, the one that seems to fit best is the super-wide Hennig. Go figure. When I got it, I thought - there’s no way this is going to work. I use it on my older horse who is uber sensitive around the face and ears and it’s the best fitting bridle he’s ever had. On my younger guy, I feel like that same crown sits a little too close to his ears for comfort. He never acted like it bothered him, but it bothered me … so it went to his brother, and he got the “normal” width Döbert.
Picture with both horses (wearing different bridles than described above) for reference. Older horse is the one on the left.
Beautiful boys, Lucassb. How does the Hennig fit?
The PS of Sweden bridles look like they MIGHT solve my issue…
Is it really a BIG EAR problem?
[QUOTE=Stacie;8838714]
Beautiful boys, Lucassb. How does the Hennig fit?[/QUOTE]
Thanks!
The Hennig is realllllly big behind the ears but is stabilized by the noseband/ second strap design. It doesn’t seem to move at all. The noseband itself is pretty nicely padded but since it’s a crank, I got a chin pad to put underneath.
Both my boys went fine in it and seemed very comfortable, but I liked the way it fit the older guy better.
i trialed a lot of headpieces on my KWPN-he’s very square everywhere, wide and short, very stocky old fashioned WB.
The stubben freedom bridle fit him nicely but made zero difference to his way of going, however on my sister TB (who has a longer narrower head) it really did improve the poll clearance and sit nicely off him and he LOVES it and is much more relaxed in the mouth/poll/neck.
i also trialed the antares precision headpiece which sits completely back away from the poll and again this made zero difference to my horse and made fly veils hard to keep in place!
PS of sweden wide headpiece-was very happy in this and i would say liked it equal to the Equiture E shaped headpiece i swapped it for (as the PS leather quality was CRAP).
the one he loves the most is surprisingly the fairfax. its bulky and squashy and messy looking but he made it known it is his fave.
he is VERY good in the contact naturally, soft, straight, doesnt hang or fix but in canter can come too high and use his shoulder to launch up…in the fairfax its easier to encourage him to relax down and stay on the hind leg just that tiny bit more 
DressageChic2, thanks for reviews
I just tried a PS of Sweden Flying Change. The fit was…interesting. On Zen’s head, it didn’t look like it was going to stabilize in the “right” place, and frankly, I suspected that it might just come off. I didn’t actually ride with it as I knew it was going back regardless, because the leather had a bunch of un-fixable defects.
My next choices for ear avoiding bridles are now in the $550+ range. sigh.
I’m wondering whether with her head conformation, I should just assume the ears are going to be encroached upon and find something really padded.
can you trial the stubben freedom bridle at all? that would be worth a shot.
my KWPN is very chunky and his ears are low set but he actually doesnt mind the headpiece pushing on the base of the ear, as long as its padded. He is happiest in the super padded Fairfax despite it clearly sitting against the ears.
I find that the PS of Sweden bridle on my large eared horse seems to work well.
