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General consensus? Does your horse like it? Do you see an improvement? I’m bothered by the fit of the crown piece on Ariel’s bridle. I wish it were cut back from her ears. Any other bridle suggestions that are under $250?

I recently bought this, micklem style bridle for MM:

https://dapperhorse.com/collections/bri ... with-reins

I haven't ridden with it yet, but leather quality seems nice and the crown piece is nicely padded

A fellow boarder has the Lumiere. I know she likes it, although her trainer prefers the Micklem because the cheek pieces and nose band are one unit.

I have looked at the Micklem bridles and IMHO the leather felt stiff, and looked cheap.

The reason I want a Micklem is because of the anatomical crown piece. I don’t have to have a Micklem brand. Plus I don’t want a flash. I just want the anatomical, mono crown piece without spending $300+.

Bobby's makes a Micklem copy that is much nicer. I've been using mine on Tesla for maybe 8 months now and am very happy with it. Mine is raised and fancy stitched like the black one in the photos. Looks like they are doing 20% off right now, so it's $160, and comes with nice rubber reins: https://bobbystack.com/shop/anatomical-bridle/

PaulaO wrote:The reason I want a Micklem is because of the anatomical crown piece. I don’t have to have a Micklem brand. Plus I don’t want a flash. I just want the anatomical, mono crown piece without spending $300+.

You can also order a stand alone crown piece from several companies that have great anatomical ones! I've done that for RP and have a cobbled together bridle.

I have a Bobby’s bridle now and really like it. Good quality. SmartPak has a mono crown piece that I may order. https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/harwi ... tpak-24475 She’s never worn a flash and although I know it is to “settle” the bit, I think she may overreact.

Is your bridle going to work with a monocrown? Older style bridles often only have one caveson buckle. There are plenty of non flash anatomic snaffles out there. Solo Equine, Flexible Fit and I think Lumiere are a few.

I just bought a Kieffer Rachel. I think it was $230. I really like the crown piece. It has an anatomical cut back around the ears and is padded in such a way as to reduce the pressure on the poll. And I like the way the cheek pieces are set back. The flash come off. And the noseband is nicely padded.

The leather quality and build is very much nicer than the Micklem I used to own for Walker.

I have looked at a few different brands of these anatomical style bridles, in all the photos, they rea

Y do t look like they cut back that far away from ears. Or is it just the way the photos look?

Is the Bobby’s well padded?

If you wanted to use a flash can you use them with it?

I use a flash, but I keep it pretty loose.

In general, The crown pieces don’t cut much back from the ears. They swerve enough to avoid the base. I emailed Bobby’s for a better picture of the crown piece.

I like the Micklem bridles I have. They both are well made and built to last; however, I switched out of Junior's back to Monty's old FFS plain snaffle no flash bridle. My coach and I both agree that it likely was affecting Junior's breathing despite what is claimed. Of course, Junior has a pony head (cob size in length, tea cup muzzle and jowls of a cob) and as a result dental issues I must deal with every 6 months due to his pony conformation.

If a nice crownpiece is what you're looking for, you might check out Henry James. They crown shapes look really nice, and I've read good things about their bridles on ToB. They are doing a sale for the next few days £30 off code: BRIDLE30

My miklem did not in any way give me room to the horses ears. I do need to look at moutainers suggestion because I have not really found a crown piece I like.

I have the crownpiece from FSS that I bought separately and attached my existing noseband and cheekpieces too. It is very soft and I do think gives a good bit more room:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143167899933?h ... BMkKr07LRh

Or you could buy a full FSS bridle, I've had one for about 10 years and it's held up very well.

SD also sells cutback crownpieces:

https://thecollectedpony.com/collection ... -neckstrap

blob wrote:SD also sells cutback crownpieces:

https://thecollectedpony.com/collection ... -neckstrap

I would buy that in a heartbeat but they are sold out. ::sad::

PaulaO, I would check other vendors to see if anyone else is selling it!

I think I’m going with the Lumiere. Miss A has a petite head and many of the anatomical bridles have wide nose bands which would look ridiculous on her. Now I need to save the $$$$$$

I have a question for the brain trust ddbb. These supposed ear relief bridles simply pad the crown so much that the ear relief is simply a return to what it would be without padding. I have not found one that gives more earvroom than a simple single unpadded leather crown. Does anyone know of an actual ear relief as opposed to a super padded pretend ear relief. I feel like I might have to take a razor and shave mine to get actual ear relief

The tricky thing is that the horses have different head/ear shapes, so might not work well for all. Of course it's important to make sure the browband is generously sized; I think bridlemakers are getting better about sizing browbands appropriately so they don't pull the crown into the ears. I think the Passier Blue (Spirit?) bridle has pretty nice ear relief. There is a really long thread on CotH that was active not too long ago hashing over about a zillion different anatomic bridle designs, and many posters added photos of the bridles on their own horses. I think one of the best designs has some soft padding that extends a little bit more in the area where the stiffer crown leather is cut away, so there is something soft at the base of the ear preventing the harder leather edge from cutting into the base of the ear, if that makes sense. The PS Sweden bridles do a pretty good job with that.

I know I prefer to wear clothes that aren't restrictive, well-padded backpacks, and absolutely do not tolerate anything that rubs, binds, or causes pressure spots. With that in mind, I try to choose gear for my horses with more padding. My current jumping saddle has wider, softer panels than the ones of old. I tried a new blanket brand for Anz a few years ago that caused a huge rub — she wore it once — so I sold it and went back to our normal blankets. I use thick and widely padded girths with elastic on both ends.

There's no real way of knowing if any of these things help, but I can't recall the last time I saw a girth rub.

And, yes, I am absolutely loving the PS of Sweden bridle. And the reins are fabulous! I didn't know what to think of the elastic cradles for the bit in the reins and cheek pieces at first, but I rode with my old reins a few weeks ago, and immediately switched back. The contact felt hard and heavy — Maia's not heavy on the bit.

Chisamba wrote:I have a question for the brain trust ddbb. These supposed ear relief bridles simply pad the crown so much that the ear relief is simply a return to what it would be without padding. I have not found one that gives more earvroom than a simple single unpadded leather crown. Does anyone know of an actual ear relief as opposed to a super padded pretend ear relief. I feel like I might have to take a razor and shave mine to get actual ear relief

The fss one I linked does actually sit a good bit behind RP's ears than other headstalls I've tried with him.

Heddylamar, I also have a pair of PS of Sweden reins and love them. Mine also have the cradles but I haven’t tried them yet. What I like is you can use them or not.
I used the product rein aides and I don’t think I had a good connection when I used them and I thought PS cradles would be similar.
Mostly my fault as I ride with way too soft hands

Yesterday I pushed the buy button on the Lumiere Amber bridle. https://www.lumiereequestrian.com/en-us ... e509&_ss=c I didn’t spring for the rein upgrade. I’ll use the ones on her current bridle even though the new bridle is brown and the current reins are black. Don’t tell the matchy matchy police!

The Lumiere bridle has been tried multiple times and the red head has firmly rejected it. We think her objection is to the nose band which is essentially a flash. I will put the blingy brow band on her regular bridle and sell the rubber reins that came with the Lumiere.

Damn, I wish I had checked this thread out. I just got my niece one of the Rambo ones but the Lumiere has that pretty browband.

Ariel had her teeth done a few weeks ago. I put the bridle on her. It took a village to figure it out, but once it was on, she was fine with it.

Chancellor wrote:Damn, I wish I had checked this thread out. I just got my niece one of the Rambo ones but the Lumiere has that pretty browband.

I actually had to swap out the browband on the Lumiere. Although it is very pretty, MM's forelock gets caught in it and it pulls out hairs. I've never had a blingy browband do that before...so definitely something off in the construction

I bought the Micklem 2 Competition bridle. The leather is way nicer than the first Micklem and it’s more padded and has the ergonomic head stall. Hopefully, the picky princess likes it

I would never use one. I don't like flashes or drop nosebands, so I certainly wouldn't use this. My nosebands are purely decorative.

I have to say, I'm disappointed in my Lumiere. I've had it less than a year and the leather is cracking on the cheek pieces and sides of the noseband. Crown piece and parts of noseband that actually go over the nose still look good, but it almost seems like a much lesser quality leather was used for everything on the sides of the horse's face.

Between that and the browband catching MM's forelocks hairs and pulling them out, I won't buy this brand again

Tanga, they are not a drop noseband. From the directions, it is to sit 2-3 inches above the corner of the mouth. I haven’t ridden in it yet, but I’m hoping she likes it.

Ariel has always been ridden in a standard noseband. The Lumiere is not a flash, but I had no idea how she would react. She didn’t care!