(Parts of the bridle):
"Then with Ms. Anna, we're going to just go through the parts of the bridle. I'm only going to do that once, because they're the same no matter what bridle you're wearing.
The bridle, parts of the bridle that every horse person should know about the bridle.
The crown piece is the part that goes over the top of their head.
So, over the pole, remember we talked about parts of the horse, why we need to know the name pole, the word pole.
The crown piece goes over the pole like a crown.
This is a browband.
Most of you know about the browband, because you can order any browband now.
You can get them in mega bling and I mean mega bling, total dazzle your eyes bling or you can just get nice and simple like this with the stitching.
You can get any bridle and put a different browband on it.
You can order the browbands by themselves and if you have a specific color for your horse or whatever it is, you can order a separate browband and put it on the bridle.
So crown piece, browband, this is called the cavesson.
With the English bridles, they're usually just the cavessons, just a noseband.
Just a noseband, we call it a cavesson.
Okay, crown piece, browband, cavesson, if you want to call it a noseband, fine, but it's a cavesson.
These are the cheek pieces because they run down his cheek.
Remember the parts of the horse?
These are the cheek pieces and this is the throat latch.
And that's all you guys got to know.
It's so easy.
It's crown piece, browband, cavesson/noseband, cheek pieces, throat latch. It's a no-brainer.
Crownpiece, browband, cavesson/noseband, cheek pieces, and throat latch. Super easy.
Western bridles pretty much never have a noseband.
Sometimes Western trainers will put a drop noseband on to teach the horse to keep their mouth closed, but pretty much across the board Western bridles do not have nosebands."
(Don't forget to tuck everything in):
"Don't forget to tuck everything in! It shouldn't look like that. It shouldn't look like that! I'm going to really drill it into you guys. It shouldn't look like that. Take a moment and tuck everything in. I have a blog post that talks about tuck it in, tuck everything in. There's no reason for it to be flapping about. One, it looks terrible. Two, there is a possibility it could pop off. I mean, if it's not closed, even at the top, if the horse pops their head in just the right way, it might pop off. Tuck everything in, please. With your halters, tuck the crown piece in. Tuck everything in, please, please, please." (Bridle positioning and adjustment/fit):
"Once you have the bridle on, make sure that the browband is not pinching anywhere and make sure it's not crooked. Eek no, eek no. It should be straight. What I do is I put the bridle on, and then I wiggle the brow around and make sure it's not pinching his ears and I make sure it's perfectly straight across. Same with the noseband. When you put the noseband on, it shouldn't look like that. Slide it, get it straight and even, and then put it on, snug but not tight." (Throat latch fit):
"Four fingers. Four fingers for a dressage bridle. Because the horse, when it rounds off and flexes, the throat latch fills up, the throat latch on the horse fills up. You do not want the throat latch on the bridle to feel restrictive and tight. You don't want anything to discourage a horse from wanting to round off and go on the bit. That's going to be very loose and it's just going to dangle and it's totally fine if it just dangles. There's not a lot of use for these anyway. But for a dressage bridle, four fingers please, loose. The Western and the English people go much snugger. The Western people usually go there. The English people usually go there. I don't care what style of riding it is, I like them loose for when you round them off." (Bit Fit):
"You want a quarter of an inch from the ring to the corner of their mouth. You want about a quarter of an inch there. This bit fits him fine. I'm not sure if this is a five, a five and a quarter or a five and a half, but for it to fit properly, there'll be a quarter of an inch between the corner of his mouth and the hole that the ring goes through."