Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Why are there no simple/flat bridles?

From: Thea

Dear Jessica, I hope you can explain this to me. It's an issue that has been bothering me for literally years and more so the last five years! Whatever happened to plain English bridles with just a plain browband and a plain cavesson? Everything I see at tack shops anymore is so fussy, and I like simple tack. If I knew of any place that still made old style hunt bridles with flat soft leather browbands and cavessons I would buy one of those, even though I do dressage and all the judges would probably faint dead away when I came into the arena.

All I can find anywhere is bridles with flash nosebands and bridles with crank cavessons. I don't like flashes and I don't need a crank, my hands are good enough that my horse keeps his mouth shut because I don't give him any reason to open it! So what's with all the extra straps, and what is wrong with riders today that they have to use tight straps to keep their horses mouths closed? And most of all, PLEASE do you know of anywhere that could sell me the kind of bridle I want, just a really basic plain one with no extra stuff on it? The last time I looked in a tack shop, I asked the guy behind the counter and he said that I needed either the flash or the crank and the bridle would have to be raised because they weren't making flat ones anymore. This makes me sad, but if it's true, and if I am completely out of luck and the only choice is between a flash and a crank, I guess I'll have to buy one or the other, so if that's true, which one would be easier on my horse? I need a show bridle and a schooling bridle, and I'm starting to despair that I'll ever find one of them, never mind both of them. Thea

Hi Thea! Rejoice, those plain English bridles can be found - you just have to know where to look. ;-) Get the owner of your local tack shop to show you the catalogues he uses when he places orders. Any good firm, whether it be a big international one like Courbette or Stubben, or a less-well-known one like Bobby's English Tack, will have choices on offer. You don't have to buy a raised bridle with decorative stitching or contrasting trim or metal inlays, you don't have to buy a flash noseband, and you don't have to buy a crank cavesson. Flat, hunt-style bridles are still being made - in fact, you could order a new, flat, hunt bridle right this minute from any tack shop that carries products from Courbette or Bobby's English Tack. These products may not be on display in the shops, but they are being made and they do exist.

The clerk with whom you spoke probably either didn't know that flat bridles exist, or didn't want to go to the trouble of looking in the catalogues, or possibly just wanted to sell you something from the shop's existing inventory... in any case, he was in error.

If you find a lovely bridle on sale somewhere - that is, a bridle that has a flash or a crank noseband but is otherwise appealing - you should go right ahead and buy it for schooling. Just be creative with your adjustments!

If your hypothetical "can't resist such a great price" sale bridle has a flash, just remove the strap (and then, if you like, you can recycle it as a grab strap). If the little tab that remains on the cavesson drives you crazy, take the bridle indoors, sit down with an Exacto knife and a bright light, cut carefully, and afterwards you will find that you have to inspect the cavesson VERY closely to tell that the tab was ever there at all.

If your new hypothetical sale bridle has a crank cavesson, there's no harm done until you follow the directions and overtighten it. Ignore the crank's NAME - a crank cavesson that isn't, well, CRANKED is nothing but a heavy, wide, padded cavesson with very convenient soft padding under the horse's jaw. Adjust it loosely, just as you would an ordinary cavesson, and your horse will be comfortable. Yes, it's designed so that it can be tightened until the horse's nose develops a dent - but that doesn't mean you have to use it that way.

Jessica

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