In Part 1 we discussed saddle fit, girths and numnahs. In this post we will look at some of the most common bridle mishaps.
1. Noseband tightness
So often I am undoing peoples nose bands as they are painfully tight. If you are strapping your horses mouth shut with a noseband or flash then you are only masking another problem instead of fixing it. As well as making your horse uncomfortable and potentially causing them pain, you are also restricting their movement. If the horses mouth or jaw is restricted or put under pressure it will render the hind legs restricted, which will subsequently affect the hips. When the jaw is relaxed and released the hind legs can move freely. When doing up your noseband ensure you can get two fingers adequately between the noseband and nasal midline. Your horse will thank you for it!
2. Throatlash tightness
Similarly with the throatlash although not as common. If your horses throatlash is too tight it will not only restrict your horses breathing (of course! How could it not?!) it will also pinch/catch/restrict them when they are trying to go on the bridle. You should be able to get a hands width in between your horse and their throatlash!
3. Cheekpieces
We all know it can be difficult to find a bridle where ever single bit of it fits your horse perfectly. Cheekpieces can be one of the difficult parts, too long or too short! Whilst too short makes them unusable as you'd have to sock your horses back teeth out to get it to fit, too long can make your horse quite uncomfortable as you will need to buckle them quite far up your horses head. Above your horses eye is the TMJ joint, quite often you may notice buckles from the cheek pieces resting on or sometimes putting pressure on this very sensitive area. This can cause head shaking in some cases and can cause your horse a lot of pain. Try to make sure your buckles for your cheek pieces don't come above the eye. Anatomical bridles generally have this covered and have developed a way to keep the bridle away from this area.
4. Cheekpieces 2
Something else that can happen is that the cheekpiece can get too close to the horses eye. Sometimes this is due to the bit being used as well as the bridle. Something with shanks can occasionally lever the cheek pieces into/close to the horses eye, but this generally only happens if the bridle fit is questionable in the first place. Shorter cheek pieces rather than longer ones are likely to eliminate this issue as well.
5. Browbands
Imagine wearing a tight headband that is pushing on your temples and having to exercise at the same time. I'm pretty sure you'd have a nasty headache as well as being sore for a day or two. Yet we so often subject our horses to exactly this. Again this area of the horse is extremely sensitive and pressure on and around the TMJ can cause so many problems as well as just being uncomfortable. Ensure that your browband is fitted with a bit of room and not tight. If it is too tight it will also pull the head piece forward in to the back of the horses ears. This can also cause head shaking, bridle lameness and your horse may be difficult to bridle in the first place.
So in short, check your tack, not just once but regularly. Things change for all sorts of reasons and what fitted a couple of weeks ago might need adjusting today. Especially if your horse is acting up or starting to go "off colour" have a quick check of these things and see if anything might be bothering them. Catch them early and they're easy fixes, but ignore them and you could end up with a very unhappy horse and a potentially large vets/physio bill!