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Wide hunter nose band for small muzzle?

I know I can return the bridle if it doesn’t look ok. But I thought I would ask here first.
My A/O hunter has a disproportionately small head. He wears an 81” blanket, 52/54” girth, warm blood sized martingale…and can fit into a cob sized bridle :sweat_smile:
He isn’t “fine “, just a small muzzle and small ears. Reminds me of a welsh pony.

Anyway, thoughts on whether a wide noseband would look weird or not?

I like wide nosebands on pretty much everything, but I think it’s often the padding that throws the picture off. My boy is similarly sized (although we are jumpers) and I’ve been using an unpadded wide Edgewood that looks great on him. It’s not overwhelming and it has a nice flat profile, we actually get a lot of compliments on it!

Look at the Black Oak Poppy bridle. I agree that it’s the padding on the smaller horses that can make them look off.

I like the slightly wider but not flashy noseband on this type of head. This one is a cob sized Stubben but I think it looks nice on anything.

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I have to agree with silver_charm, I find wide nosebands are usually a very attractive look on most heads even a very small, fine boned animal, if it is not padded. The padding is too bulky on a smaller face.

I vote stay proportionate to the horse’s head size and shape. Personally, I’d accentuate his more refined head with the more refined bridle. Noseband should not a focus to the observer, no matter the current fashion trends. WBs in general are not known for pretty heads, I’d show it off, thats just my opinion, YMMV.

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I love that bridle! Is it square raised? I’ve always liked that look!

While I agree that a wide, unpadded noseband looks great on most horses, I really think a nice refined bridle shows off a smaller head really nicely.

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That is a really pretty bridle.

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Thanks everyone. I had already crossed a couple off my list because the nosebands were just too obvious, and I agree, they were the ones with a lot of padding. Someone else at our barn has one and it looks lovely on her horse, but she has a plain bay average warmblood head.

@Tha_Ridge That bridle is actually one of the ones on my shortlist. I think I’m going to go ahead and order one and see how it looks. My horse has an interrupted stripe/blaze and the gap is a few inches, just where the noseband sits. I’m almost thinking that a noseband that’s a touch wider than his current one will fill out his face nicely.

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You will like it! I have that and a Red Barn Ocala. The Red Barn is obviously slightly nicer in quality given the price difference, but it’s also padded and not as suited for a finer face.

No it is just a regular raised one but the stitching is brown and not white.

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