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How To Bridle A Horse - Page 1 of
2
Bridle your horse easily and safely using our
step-by-step photos. While the bridle
in the photo is a
Western bridle, the information is still appropriate for most
other bridles. When you're done reading this page, please see a few common sense
safety precautions at the bottom.
Putting On A Bridle
| First of all, when you're bridling a horse it's
important to understand there is an area in every horse's mouth known as
the "interdental space." The interdental space is an area, both on the
upper and lower jaws, where there is not any teeth. This area is between
the front teeth (the incisors) and the back teeth (the molars). When a
horse is bridled,
the interdental space is where the bit rests. On the bottom jaw, most horsemen refer to
this area of bare gums as the "bars." The interdental space
is not only the area in a horse's mouth where the bit rests, it is a
safe place for a person to insert their thumb to ask the horse to open
its mouth to accept the bit during the bridling process (this will be
illustrated in step three). |
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The blue arrows are pointing to the
interdental space. |
Removing The Halter
| While some people ride their horse with the
bridle over the
halter,
we're going to remove it. When you remove the halter, you will still
need to maintain control over the horse. One method is to take the
halter off of the horse's head, then buckle it around the neck as shown
in the photo. The horse in the photo is accustomed to being bridled
without being tied up, so after his halter was buckled around his neck
the lead rope was allowed to fall to the ground.
If the horse can be trusted not to move off, you can
also remove the halter completely and use the
reins of the bridle around
the horse's neck to maintain control. See the next photo. |
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This horse's halter has been
removed and refastened around his
neck. The halter can also be slid a little farther back down the neck. |
Bridling, Step One
Place your right arm between the horse's ears. This will
encourage the horse to drop its head, and will also put your right hand
in a good place to lift and guide the bridle. Use your right hand
to hold the crown of the bridle.
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If you don't loop the reins over
the neck of the horse as shown in the photo,
you can lay them over your left arm or shoulder to keep them off of the
ground. |
Bridling, Step Two
| Use your left hand to place the bit at the horse's lips, and to move the
curb strap behind
his chin so it won't accidentally slip into his mouth.
During this step, do NOT bump or bang the bit into the horse's lips or front
teeth. This is painful to the horse which is not only unkind, the horse
may also react to the pain by flinging his head, possible whacking you
in the face and causing serious injury. Repeatedly bumping the horse in
the lips or front teeth with the bit during bridling could (understandably)
cause the horse to become hard to bridle. |
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The bridle in the photo is a
Western style that has a curb bit and a curb strap.
Other styles of
bridles and bits may not have a curb strap. |
How To Bridle A Horse (you are on page 1 of 2)
Go to page 2
Think Safety!
Even a small horse is a large and
powerful animal. During the bridling process, the person doing the bridling can
easily be injured. It is common sense to take a few, easy precautions to avoid
injury.
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If it is fly season, consider
applying
fly spray to the horse. During bridling you will need to stand very
close to the horse's head and front legs. If the horse is fighting flies you
could be stepped on or hit in the face by the horse's head.
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Don't cause the horse pain or
discomfort during bridling. In addition to simply being wrong to mistreat a
horse, causing one pain or discomfort is also a safety hazard. A horse
reacting to pain in the face or mouth area is likely to quickly and
powerfully move its head, possibly hitting anyone nearby in the face and
causing serious injury. The two main ways people accidentally hurt a horse
while bridling it is to bump its lips or teeth with the bit, and to smash its ears.
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Saddle first, bridle last. When getting ready to
go for a ride, saddle the horse first then put the bridle on just as you are
ready to ride. This way, the horse can remain tied up with a halter and lead
rope while you are saddling.
Halters and
lead ropes are the proper equipment
to tie a horse up with, not bridles.
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