[ruralcanadian]

picked an slightly incomplete old harness that I was planning to eventually match with an unwanted collar of any decent sort and use this as indoor rafter-hung deco but eventually decided I just wasn't sure I liked the idea a lot. trying sell it for any price locally at the moment

with that context out of the way, for a few days I had wondered about that it was a bit of an unusual bridle setup and so after quite much web search on and off till by yesterday I finally decided to find somewhere online to ask about it in particular. its not very sunny weather this morning now but I still managed to take some decent photos of it for to post on here with nevertheless..

the photo of me holding the top of bridle up a bit was as to better show one of the two short straps coming off rear of the brownband

I do know of half-cheek snaffle bit but is/was it usual for them to have long tips too?

main question here of course is, whats with the attached straight bit? yesterday morning I finally thought about it and took me a while to find the name again, but so far the few photos I could find of bearing reins seem to have the rein running all the way to the saddle itself but this particular one seem to instead 'dead end' just behind the head by running into the main reins (or thats what I suspect)

and if thats not too much to ask at same time too: whats with the matching detachable martingale? any references I could find myself so far seem to always indicate martingales are pretty much for saddle usage but I'll be happy to be corrected on that

 

[Saranda]

That looks like a straight overcheck bit from a standardbred harness to me, although I'm no expert in this type of driving tack.

 

[dogpatch]

It's a standard Amish-style overcheck driving bridle, although it's got an additional little feature or two... one looks like a standing martingale attachment and it looks like the overcheck straps that lead back to the saddle have been cut and fitted with "gag swivels" (the Conway buckle/loop hardware) to accommodate a side check rein. Narrow bit is an overcheck bit theoretically to avoid mixing signals between the check rein and the reins to the hands. That must have been a hard horse to hold!! (Retired harnessmaker here)

 

[ruralcanadian]

thanks saranda and dogpatch, now that I know what names this went by I had to want to look up other examples on the web and mm yeah thanks for that

not surprisingly I had early on very much thought that this bridle sure looked like it would have to go with someone who was already a good old hands at horse driving