what are your experiences with bridles with either the padded crown pieces or the ones shaped behind the ears? do they seem to make your horse more comfortable with the bridle or is it just a nice idea?
I have one horse (prince and pea type) on whom padding makes a lot of difference, two others no difference.
I suppose they can make a sensitive horse more comfortable. My horse isn’t very sensitive about tack. I just bought a padded crown bridle to feel nice.
Re: padding on the crown
I think it makes more of a difference with the double bridle. Man, some of these curb bits are heavy! I don’t know how it would not be uncomfortable to have that weight on your poll.
For a snaffle, if the horse isn’t a sensitive type it probably doesn’t matter. That being said both my snaffles and doubles have the padding. I think it’s a nice thing to have just in case.
Don’t have experience with the cut-back crowns.
thanks for all the fast responses. For those of you who have had positive experiences, are there particular makes or models that you prefer? seems like the shaped crown piece bridles have sort of gone out of fashion in the catalogs and been replaced by the padded ones…
I bought a Kieffer dressage saddle with padding, and the crown piece where the straps come over the top not the bottom.
Love it.
I really like the crown piece - my horse’s mane didn’t get pulled between the straps, it was simpler to put on, looked sharper.
spelling errors, oops
same as NErider above, except I have an albion kb and a jeffries elite. my horse is very fussy and prefers his comfort crown.
Stubben makes a detachable padded crown - I have one for my double and liked it so much I bought another for my regular snaffle - my horse really seems to like it.
I think it makes a fair amount of difference for the doubles to have the crown padded–but ALSO important for all bridles is to make sure the browband is long enough that it does not pinch the sensitive area right behind the ears.
I have found that all my horses appreciate the extra length of the browbands.
Only one is also sensitive enough to want padding for his snaffle bridle’s crown, the others don’t care.
I have an All in One bridle from Jerry’s that is both contoured and padded. It seems to work well for my horse that is sensitive and tends to get sore right behind his ears.
