Monthly Archives: October 2020
Make any bridle bitless!
Our bitless bridles are, without doubt, some of the the most popular products we offer in our shop. Some folks love collecting different styles of bridles to use on their horses (and we’re happy to help them do that!) but for those who haven’t tried bitless bridles on their horses before, it can be intimidating. Who wants to buy a whole new headstall just to test out whether or not their horse will take to the style?
Lots of horses really love going bitless, but it’s not the best solution for everybody and you really never know until you try.
That’s why we offer several hackamore noseband pieces that you can use with your current bridle to test out the bitless life before committing.
We just introduced this padded hackamore noseband for people who want to add their own metal hackamore to an existing bridle. This customer from Instagram shows us how this piece is attached over the bridge of the nose to keep the hackamore attachment steady from side to side:
(This horse is modeling our Traditional Halter Bridle with their own hackamore and black padded noseband. You can order a halter bridle like this here.)
You can also fasten the bit ends of the cheekpieces on your existing bridle to one of our two bitless nosebands.
This is our sidepull bitless noseband, which will apply pressure much like a sidepull bridle.
And this is our Western bitless hackamore. It applies pressure in a similar distribution across the nose, however the Western bitless has two rings under the chin, which allow a rider neck reining or riding one-handed more precise application of pressure to one side of the jaw at a time.
There’s really no wrong answer to the type of bitless bridle or noseband you choose. And with prices as low as $25 for the padded noseband for hackamores, you don’t have much to lose!
How to choose the right English style breastcollar for your horse
You’ve read before about the differences between our Western breastcollar styles, but we’ve got a number of English breastcollars available in our shop, too.
Our standard English breastcollar is our longest-running design and is popular for being easier to take on and off. It can remain attached to the saddle D rings through the tugs, but can go on and off by using a scissor clip at the left shoulder — much easier than having to pull a martingale or breastcollar over the horse’s head. It comes with an over-wither strap that can be a good stabilizer for those occasional unexpected moments during your ride.
Our original design also has the option to add neoprene padding, and has two options for attaching to the girth — if your girth has O rings, it can be snapped on, or you can add a girth loop that slides over the girth. The original design is 1 inch wide, but we recently added a 1.5-inch width too, for horses with broader shoulders who could benefit from more stability.
We also offer a Jumping Breastcollar, which runs from the saddle side to side across the horse’s chest and over the neck. This can be a good option for horses that spend more time jumping or galloping; you’ll sometimes see this style on steeplechase horses for that reason. In those cases, riders may prefer not to have a strap that runs down to the girth in case it interferes with a hoof or a shoe.
For our polo customers, we also offer a similar style called the Polo Breastcollar. The polo breastcollar has a wide strap of elastic around the front of the horse’s chest instead of a beta biothane strap, for even more stability during intensive movement.
Whichever of our English breastcollar styles you choose, you’ll be getting a choice of dozens of colors of beta biothane, a wide variety of sizes and hardware options to suit your needs.
Two Horse Tack Blog 