Putting together a horse bridle varies depending on the type of bridle, as some require the use of a screwdriver, some are made with quick connect straps and others are made with latigo leather straps. Assemble a horse bridle according to its construction with advice from a riding instructor in this video on equestrian living.
We're going to discuss how to put together your bridle. What I like to do is point out that you may or may not need some tools to get started. It's a very common thing to have what we call a Chicago screw. That is a screw that requires a flathead screwdriver, may or may not have some ornamental design on the other side, but it would require a screwdriver as we get started. We might also have what we call a quick connect, which would be this, where they've designed it very nicely so the leather pulls out, those things pull out and we can take that apart very easily so that we don't have to work as hard switching out bits on different headstalls. Then we might also go to one that has the features of, somewhat old fashion but still very commonly used, would be just latigo strips holding the piece together through holes that have been punched, those need to be tied and secure, and they can sometime with age get really difficult to change out, so that's where people have gone to some different and quicker styles of changing out your bits. I even like and have some of those that just simply have the snaps on the end so I can change out bits frequently when needed. When we go to put together the bridle after we've decided what tools we need, we have to consider the style of the bit. I've chosen a bridle that's just very simple so we can look at those features that are important. We have a basic D ring or O ring snaffle. However if you look at it closely the mouth piece itself does have a contour, and the hinge, you can see the shape is here at the sides, different. We have to be sure that that contour is facing so the tongue can lie easily within that roundness. So you want to be sure that the contour is forward like that. Then of course we put the headstall onto the bridle so that it is connected on the D ring itself, that's a fairly simple design, one that you could easily figure out. However, as we can see, when we go to something that's much, much more complicated and/or has leverage that requires a curve chain or curve strap, we've got to be pretty knowledgeable to make sure that it all comes together correctly. If we look at this bridle it's a good example of all those things. We have our cheek piece of the headstall coming down to a solid ring that connects to the rawhide nose band and also connects or holds the bit itself. All of that said, you would want to make sure that that also is facing forward so that your bit is in the front of that, similar to the nose band. Now it has a place that we put the curve chain that's designed, so therefore the leverage is ensured by the design of the bit, we don't have to guess that piece, and then of course equally we have the spot for the rings. So as long as we position the bit correctly, in line with the headstall, the ear piece, we're going to be in good shape. So we come to a bridle where if we weren't being careful we might make some mistakes given by the design of the bit. We have a bit here that may look like the leverage would not be as important to have that strap, which we now have correctly here to the cheek piece, but rather some people often place it down here on the O ring of this bit. We know that the leverage only works for any bit if the curb strap is placed as close to the cheek piece, so I've seen many of people make that error, that you want to place that curb strap down here or on any other ring, but it must go here, in that close proximity to your cheek piece for it to be effective. So that takes care pretty much of all of the types of bits and how we need to be careful of the orientation of the bit as it's attached to your headstall.
