Best comfort bridle for odd sized horse

[Hollycat]

I have a 17hh dutch warmblood gelding. I am looking for a comfort style bridle as he is very sensitive and seems to like the soft padding/lack of poll pressure. His current bridle is an Albion KB bridle which is lovely but which does't fit him very well. The full size was too small but the XL too large! His XL headpiece fits well at the throat lash but the padding extends too far down his head so the browband sits very low on his head (not far above his eyes) which looks really, really odd. Cheek pieces, reins and noseband are all fine. I am going to take the headpiece in to my local saddlers to be adjusted but I am a bit worried it will be difficult to do and not turn out very nice.

What bridles would you reccommend? Elevator are expensive but look nice and they will make it the correct size for him. Kate Negus similarly will make one for him but I think they are just padded - I don't think they are designed to relieve poll pressure (though I may be wrong). Rheingold look nice but are not made to measure so I doubt they would fit any better than his current one. To compound the problem I will need a double soon and when you add on an extra 2 bits, another snaffle and a weymouth bridle I am coming close to £600

Does anyone have any ideas /reccommendations about bridles I have missed or saddlers that would make something up for me?

Thanks
H
xxx

 

[LizzieJ]

Sabre let me mix sizes for my hunter who is between a full and xfull size. I sent them the measurements I needed and they put together a cordoba that fits really well.

 

[tabithakat64]

Elevator bridles can be made to measure at no extra cost and are lovely but expensive at £145 without reins

 

[Capriole]

i bought parts to custom make a jeffries bridle for my lad

 

[darksecret99]

I have a heritage one - its a comfort double, but I just took the extra cheekpieces off and use it with a snaffle, you cant tell, cos the strap front the noseband covers the holes in the headpice for the extra cheekpieces... it was a cheapy off ebay, but is english leather etc and looks nice (although nowhere near as nice as a genuine elevator)... but you could always use that as a base and mix and match other parts if you need a flash noseband to go with the snaffle etc....

Its full size, but fits my 17.1hh (who fits XF in other brands) - the poll padding doesnt come low down past the ears.... I could email you a picture if you PM me your email address...

I hope thats of some help... good luck!

 

[not_with_it]

I bought a J Barclay double bridle off ebay for around £40. They are exactly the same as the Rhinegold bridles but cheaper. A horse I used to ride had one in X full and it fitted him really well. He had a typical WB head. I thought for that price it was well worth buying just to try and Im pleased I did.

 

[Hollycat]

Thanks for all of the fab ideas! I think my saddler stocks the heritage and possibly a few of the other brands mentioned so I am going to take in my current bridle to compare and see if we can get one to fit from the standard sizes. If not I will splash out on the elevator double and hide the extra straps as darksecret suggests! Christmas isn't that far......................

 

[charlottenicol]

I have just had a bridle made for my 17hh Clydesdale as nothing off the shelf fits, if you want the details of the saddler pm me and I will pass on the details.