John Whitaker BR055 - Ready to Ride Mexican Bridle reviews

[alexomahony]

Hi guys,

I'm hoping I'm not the only one here but a friend bought this bridle for her horse and I'm finding it quite tricky to fit correctly - we got her a cob size, which fits well everywhere, apart from the throat lash being quite short, and the noseband sitting too low for a grackle. This seems to be due to the raised leather design on the top section of the grackle stopping it being fully adjustable and leaving the sheepskin X-over sitting a little low for my liking.

Looking on the official photo's of the bridle, the noseband looks a little low too - so maybe that's past of the design? Does anyone else have one and had the same issues? Other than this, it's a lovely bridle and so so soft!! Official advert photo below. I've never had this issue with JW bridles before and recommended it to my very busy (no time to tack clean) friend so it's bugging me that it's fitting so oddly!

I know the photo isn't showing the noseband terribly low, but in comparison to his other Mexican bridles (i.e. the chestnut horse), it's much lower - I think it's just a case of adding extra holes in the noseband to raise it more.

 

[milliepops]

no experience of this range but in the photo of the RTR bridle above, it looks like a poor fit for the horse selected! The noseband is on the tightest holes around the nose and the throatlash is too small.... exactly the issues you've found so perhaps the sizing is just not that great.

I hate those raised grackle nosebands, they always seem to cause problems.

Have you got room to put more holes in the hanger for the noseband or will that put the buckle too high up next to the browband?

 

[Abacus]

Looks like that padded upper part of the noseband is poorly designed - on that horse the central nose pad couldn't be raised any further. You could lift the whole noseband with more holes on the strap but it might lift the whole thing too high.

 

[alexomahony]

Hi milliepops, thank you for such a quick reply - your thoughts are exactly the same as mine... I have an older JW deluxe Mexican and it's lovely and a great fit so no idea why this one seems so poorly made, the raised bits are a useless deign feature - one of the best things about grackles is the adjustability of them.

Yeah I'm going to try that this weekend and it should work - such a shame as the technology behind the low maintenance is a great idea!

 

[alexomahony]

Thank you Abacus, yes my thoughts are the same but I'm going to give it a go.... I wish I'd seen this advertising photo before my friend bought the bridle. Although I'd rather the sides be a little too high, than the pressure point in the central X-over being too low. Thank you x