Mad Tack Scientist

One of the few pieces of tack I will never sell is my beloved Frankenbridle.

yes this pic again

It's a Nunn Finer crown+cheeks, PS of Sweden reins+stops, Ocala Tack Shack custom race noseband, and a Dark Jewel Designs browband in my sportsball team colors WITH my favorite Straight Shot Metal Smashing bridle charm. It's basically perfect. It's very unique, very me, and very worthless.

As in.

No one else on earth would pay money for this bridle. If I had to get rid of it, I'd have to part it out and sell it piece by piece. That means when I have a massive tack change up, this bridle stays put because it's perfect for me and useless for literally everything else.

But of course, while totally acceptable for both XC and the jumper ring, it's not really a conservative dressage look.

I still have my mega-classy Red Barn bridle that I snagged for a song and am quite fond of. But here's the thing: it's a padded monocrown, which really limits the amount of Franken-ing available to it. 

Like. Whee! I changed the browband.

It is a good, classic look for Courage and it's very nice quality and I'm happy with it and all. But it's not "me", you know? 

Then things started changing. 

Our enabling friend gave me a niiiiiiiice white padded cavesson, but it needed to go on a bridle with a standard crown. I borrowed one of those, but it was super old and cracked.

mmm but so classy amiright

So then I went out of town to a real tack store and found a cob-size crown with horse-size cheeks that I thought I could live with. 

or like. not.

Problem: while the thinner cheeks are SUPER classy, the throatlatch is THROTTLING him and the whole thing is just NQR.

We obviously can't show in NQR with a non-breathing horse, so we borrowed ANOTHER crown from Lindsey for the last horse show.

ooooo comfort crown

That got the job done, but for some strange reason, Lindsey doesn't want to part out a perfectly good bridle and just sell me the crown and if I'm being SUPER picky, I think the cheeks are a little too wide for what I'm doing here. I like narrow cheeks on my small-headed horse, ok?

And then as long as we're playing Franken, it was time to try on a drop. It's not my favorite look in general, but it does kinda work on Courage's face. (I rode in it. Verdict: horse doesn't care if he's in a loose drop or a loose cavesson. Loose is key.)

I scoured the internet and finally came up with a decent quality bridle with kinda-ick browband and noseband with a totally fine crown and cheeks. Paid for it. Got tracking.

And then another friend sent me a fun box of toys that included a Red Barn drop noseband bridle with a padded BUT not integrated crown.

Ok at this point I realize you're like "SB YOU ARE LITERALLY CHANGING TWO BLACK STRAPS THAT NO ONE EVER LOOKS AT" and you're not wrong. But. You're also not right. The cheeks are a little wider than I'd like on this look, and I just feel like the wide, white-padded nose with the buckle cheeks is a LITTLE too busy. Not a lot. Not terrible. But a little.

So internet bridle shows up. The browband and cavesson are not attractive (but who cares, I have my own), the leather feels well maintained (yay!), and the cheeks are like an inch too long because the sizing is whacked.

BUT

The throatlatch was long enough, so I took the crown from the internet bridle, the cheeks from the tack store set up, the noseband from my friend, and the Topline Leather browband. Oh and and eBay-steal Dy'on reins with rolled fronts, hand stops, and inside rubber lining.

BAM

I bring you the dressage version of the Frankenbridle!