Noseband With a Bad Reputation?

[Goldshot Ron]

I had to look twice to see if you actually installed a crank or pulley on the nose band.  Like usual Tom, your work is flawless.  Keep posting for us "want to be's". Thumbs up.

Ron

[JDFred]

Beautiful work as always.  Don’t let the keyboard warriors get you down the bridle is just a tool like any other, in the wrong or inexperienced hands it can cause problems.  As you and Jonas already pointed out it is the riders responsibility to ensure proper tack and gear fitment.  Keep up the good work.

[TomE]

On 9/9/2025 at 8:54 PM, Goldshot Ron said:

I had to look twice to see if you actually installed a crank or pulley on the nose band.  Like usual Tom, your work is flawless.  Keep posting for us "want to be's". Thumbs up.

Ron

Ha, ha!  I guess it lives up to the name in the hands of some riders.  Thanks for your kind words, Ron.

 

14 hours ago, JDFred said:

Beautiful work as always.  Don’t let the keyboard warriors get you down the bridle is just a tool like any other, in the wrong or inexperienced hands it can cause problems.  As you and Jonas already pointed out it is the riders responsibility to ensure proper tack and gear fitment.  Keep up the good work.

Thank you, @JDFred.  Already planning the next one in my head.

[Tove09Tilda]

Really great and inspiring work! 

As someone who rode in such a bridle for years (they are very common here in Germany!), I can say that I made no bad experiences with them, maybe as I was amongst the last generation of riding school kids, who were taught the two finger rule. Mine was never too big nor too tight. If you follow the rule of putting two fingers upright underneath the noseband when tightening you can't do anything wrong! That btw applies to all nosebands, as I was taught. So it's a lot of fuzz about nothing and a lot of wrong information, in my opinion. But look around on social media and pay attention to how tight the nosebands really are. Most are too tight. My instructor always said: "If you need to tighten anything so much, that your animal can't comfortably breathe anymore, the answer is easy. You are the problem, and maybe you should take a step back". 

The bad rep comes from people using this type of bridle as its very easy to "over-tighten" due to the "pulley-effect". As with most things in equestrian sports, if used as intended/correctly there is nothing grim about it! This type of bridle is often misused in dressage to make the horse more "controllable" in my experience. 

And I love that you don't have a snaffel strap and how comfortable you have designed it. I only know it, that the padding is a bit thicker and "overhanging" where Dee rings are build in, but I actually like your design more, as sometimes, especially after the leather got softer the padding was becoming a bit fiddly to place correctly within the pull area (especially with cheap bridles, like most riding schools used).