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Halter Bridles!

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  Kato 
#1 ·
This may or may not be the right area...but I know lots of endurance riders use those halter/bridle combos. I was wondering if you can use a tie-down with one? Just snap it to the ring on the noseband instead of having a seperate noseband like you would for a normal western headstall.

The reason I ask is my little sister has a horse who is EXTREMELY ear shy. She's been doing great with him, but she still can't get any browband or ear piece on him. It's especially bad at shows, where she's not in an enclosed area and she has to switch between a bridle and halter a couple times a day (she's a barrel racer). Right now, it's a two person job just to safely get his bridle on, and I'm not always there to help her. He needs a tie down because sometimes he likes to just flip his head up when he gets fiesty (yes, he's utd on teeth, etc.) It seems to me like it would be fine, since you attach a standing martingale directly to the noseband of an english bridle, this doesn't seem much different. But like I said, I've never used one of these things, so I'd like to make sure.
 
#2 ·
I don't see why you couldn't use a tie-down with the halter portion of a halter bridle. Most have adjustments for the width of the noseband portion. Certainly sounds like a safer idea than having a potential loose horse at an event!
 
#4 ·
I never used a tie-down, but from what I see it's reasonable to use it the way you described.

I bought an halter bridle when my (back then) new horse showed both great disagreement with the bit, and ear-shyness, and I had to change from halter to bridle in a on-enclosed area where it would have been dangerous for him to run off. So I decided to split the problems and to solve them separately.

Halter-bridles aren't really halters, so you cannot put most of them on without touching the ears, but you can put the halter part on in a quiet moment, with the help needed, and then leave it on all day and put the bit on and off when necessary.
 
#5 ·
I've never tried using a tie down with one, but I think it would work fine. Also, there are some halter bridles that go on just like a regular halter w/o a brow band. I believe Zilco makes one. There is also a company called Maple Grove Saddlery that makes them custom. I got mine (which does have a brow band) from them, but I know they make them w/o too. Very reasonable pricing and nice product.
 
#6 ·
I've used my halter bridle as a tie-down several times. My horse used to have a real problem when the other horses we were riding with would ride away from us she would flip her head up and almost hit me with it a couple times. After working with her we no longer need it. But the halter suffered no ill effects from being used that way.
 
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