# Pictures of horses in headstalls with Blinders.



## sls (Nov 2, 2010)

I have seen some minis in driving harness with and without blinders. Those with the blinders are set differently; some blinders seem to squish the poor horse's eyes and other that are extend way out that almost seem to have lost the purpose of keeping vision focused straight ahead.

Is there a correct way to make sure the blinder sit correctly? Can I see some head-on shots of horses in their driving headstalls that show the blinders in correctness to the eyes so I can get an idea?

Much appreciated.

Sherry


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## disneyhorse (Nov 2, 2010)

It is very hard to find a mini bridle that fits well. I think that's the biggest reason you see blinders that fit funny! Lots of people are not willing to shell out the money for a decent harness, and fit/style definitely suffers.

Andrea


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## hobbyhorse23 (Nov 2, 2010)

Ditto Andrea!



sls said:


> ...and other that are extend way out that almost seem to have lost the purpose of keeping vision focused straight ahead.


The purpose of blinkers is to prevent the horse from seeing the whip coming, the cart following or from scooting sideways as he goes by scary things, no more and no less. They are not to focus the vision straight ahead; a horse cannot see directly in front of himself anyway.






IMO they should be set narrowly enough to prevent him from seeing back and to his sides but no closer. Maybe I'm too much of a trail driver or maybe I'm just used to sensible horses but I can't imagine why I'd want to completely blind my partner! I count on my horse's surefootedness to keep us safe and more than once when he was green my gelding almost ran us _into_ danger precisely because he couldn't see the ditch he was about to fall into or the car he was about to pivot into. I find when I drive open we have no such problems so I tend to prefer my blinkers set fairly wide when used at all. (Yes, the horse needs to learn to trust your commands to keep him safe and not make decisions like that but that's another issue.) Under no circumstances should the blinkers be touching the horse's eyelashes; there's no excuse for allowing such poor harness fit except ignorance.

My functional choice would be a set of KantCBacks, which are a sort of half-blinker that only prevents the horse from seeing directly behind him. Barring that I will set my full blinkers further ahead than strictly necessary to restrict his vision because if they are sticking out to either side of his head like wings they tend to catch on things and cause problems. I'll post a picture of my horse's bridle when I get home so you can see what I mean but generally I aim the blinkers forward so they give the horse about the same amount of vision as the path of light a car's headlights cast.

Leia


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## RhineStone (Nov 2, 2010)

This is Alax's original bridle. Although it doesn't touch his eyes or eyelashes, I felt that it was just a little too close for my taste, so I ordered a new show bridle below.






Here is the best "head on" photo I have of the new bridle I custom ordered this year from Fully Equipped Outdoors. It has a little more eye room than my "old" bridle due to longer winker stays I measured. (I also ordered it with ornaments on the blinders and face drop. It is so cool! The tear drop on the false martingale also has an ornament, but you can't see it with the Freedom collar, so hopefully it can be seen with the reg. collar. Otherwise, that was a waste of $$.) I'm not sure I like still how the crown fits, but it doesn't pinch. I think I need to manipulate the winker stays more.






Myrna


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## wiccanz (Nov 3, 2010)

The "arms" that hold the blinkers up have wire inside the leather outer, so the position can be varied a bit.

I love this harness


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## hobbyhorse23 (Nov 3, 2010)

Here's the first photo I could find of my old bridle back in our novice days, you can see how wide the blinkers were set. The blinker stays were too long for my horse's narrow head but they did no harm this way so I didn't worry about it.






This is a shot of my current bridle taken in 2008. The blinkers point forward instead of outwards but you can still clearly see both of the horse's eyes and the blinkers allow him plenty of vision. I had to send in custom measurements to get it to fit this way but it was worth it. I love my bridle ornaments as well! We now have a longer teardrop on this bridle and I'm completely happy with it.






(And Myrna, you know we need better pictures of that new bridle. Must see!)

Leia


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## RhineStone (Nov 3, 2010)

wiccanz said:


> The "arms" that hold the blinkers up have wire inside the leather outer, so the position can be varied a bit.


For an educational moment, those are referred to as "stays". Winker, blinker or blinder "stays". All are correct terminology.





Myrna


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## RhineStone (Nov 3, 2010)

This is the best photo I have of my new bridle. (Ignore the rings on the top, they are part of a breast collar neck strap that is laid on top of the bridle to store it.) The bridle came with a double buckle patent noseband and rolled throatlatch, and I ordered it with open cheeks and the chain browband. I'll see if I can get better photos sometime.


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## Sandee (Nov 3, 2010)

Here's some good; some not so good pictures of my "gang".
















The top one I have pushed her blinkers out as far as the staves will allow. She'd drive without blinkers probably and her headstall originally had them almost touching her eyes and that bothered her.

The big guy has on a harness that was measured and ordered by the dealer made to fit him and the silver dapple has one that after I purchased it from the dealer they came to the stall and cut it down to fit him. Both of these boys have smaller than "average" heads so they required someone better than me to fit their headstalls.


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## wiccanz (Nov 3, 2010)

> For an educational moment, those are referred to as "stays". Winker, blinker or blinder "stays". All are correct terminology.
> Myrna



Lol, thanks Myrna



I knew there was a correct term, just couldn't think of it right there and then


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## RhineStone (Nov 3, 2010)

Sandee said:


> Both of these boys have smaller than "average" heads so they required someone better than me to fit their headstalls.


I found that true with almost all my minis. I have a B-mini that has a "A" headstall, a B-mini that wears a B headstall and the rest of the harness is A-size (she is really short bodied), a big B mini (pony) that barely fits in a B harness, but the B headstall is just right, and a 48" Shetland who wears the B mini headstall. That is one reason why I am a big promoter of getting a custom, not "off-the-rack" harness for minis/ponies. I think I finally have it down _better_ to be able to measure a horse's head to get that custom fit. There is only so much room on a mini head, and even a 1/4" makes a big difference.

Myrna


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## Kendra (Nov 4, 2010)

Here's my newest bridle:






The blinkers are good, but I wish it had more keepers. I keep meaning to get out the black tape.


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## Peggy Porter (Nov 4, 2010)

Butch Cassidy is wearing an Iowa Valley bridle and harness. However, the browband is actually from a COB size riding bridle. My daughter's standard joke is "Butch's forehead is so wide, it's actually a fivehead!" I think he just needs lots of space for his brains.


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## Rebecca (Nov 4, 2010)

Here's the best close-up head shot I could find to show the bridle/blinders. This is my gelding Rusty. The blinders look a bit low on one side in this photo, but other than that fit very well (and have since been adjusted). They do not touch his eyelashes and give him space while doing their job.






Rebecca


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## RhineStone (Nov 4, 2010)

Rebecca said:


> The blinders look a bit low on one side in this photo, but other than that fit very well (and have since been adjusted).


I don't know if this is the case in this photo, but sometimes mini's bridles can get "cockeyed" from the "fat" forelock. Reducing the size of the forelock can help the bridle sit "square" on the mini's head.

Myrna


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## Rebecca (Nov 4, 2010)

Thanks Myrna. I think it may have just been "cockeyed", but it certainly wasn't from his forelock, as he only has about 20 hairs in it haha!

I agree though, having a small forelock with a driving horse makes it easier (personally) to braid and tuck to the side where it can't shift anything around.

Rebecca


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## hobbyhorse23 (Nov 5, 2010)

It's funny, my horses are the opposite of most of yours! Kody wears an A-sized harness on the second-tightest holes all over but requires a B-sized halter and bridle. He's got a long, narrow head that is very deep from bridge to jaw so everything tends to be tight except the winkerstays which are always way too long.



Turbo's much shallower from bridge to jaw but just as long and narrow so he'll probably be a fitting challenge too.



Sandee said:


>


Where did this guy's harness come from? That bridle is to die for!

Leia


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## Sandee (Nov 5, 2010)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> Where did this guy's harness come from? That bridle is to die for!
> 
> Leia


His harness was special order from Ozark Mini Tack. Because this gelding measured pony for part of the harness and mini for the rest. It was something Jason Prince and (wait - senior moment - the lady that runs Ozark) "cooked up" for me. The only way I was involved was to pay for it. LOL


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## hobbyhorse23 (Nov 6, 2010)

Sandee said:


> His harness was special order from Ozark Mini Tack. Because this gelding measured pony for part of the harness and mini for the rest. It was something Jason Prince and (wait - senior moment - the lady that runs Ozark) "cooked up" for me. The only way I was involved was to pay for it. LOL


Ah-ha, awesome! I thought it looked like an Ozark harness but the browband was the one from the Ozark CDE harness and back when I got that browband as a thank-you from Lisa you couldn't buy the brownband without buying the whole harness so I thought it might be another brand.

I love Ozark bridles.





Leia


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## Sue_C. (Nov 6, 2010)

This is one of my Country Carriages bridles. I really like the blinders on this compared to many of the beta harnesses I have seen. (The winker stays and blinders are leather, the rest of the harness is beta only.)


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## rubyviewminis (Nov 7, 2010)

Thank you so much for this thread! Still learning and I had no idea the intricacies of blinder and harness bridle fit. I have only bought from Ozark so far, so I am happy to see that mentioned. I wondered if anyone felt like taking the time to explain how and where to measure for the bridles, and if there is a diagram of harness bridle pieces with names? I have one on harness but it isn't too in-depth for the bridle. Do many of you have more than one pleasure harness for different minis, not for showing, or do you adjust one harness for different horses? I have four Missy and her filly have very refined long dishy heads, avatar is filly at 2 months. One with a short dished head and wide forehead and large eyes, then one small and regular shaped. And adult height on all would be from 29" short coupled, 33" long bodied, and 31" average.


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## Sandee (Nov 7, 2010)

rubyviewminis said:


> Thank you so much for this thread! Still learning and I had no idea the intricacies of blinder and harness bridle fit. I have only bought from Ozark so far, so I am happy to see that mentioned. I wondered if anyone felt like taking the time to explain how and where to measure for the bridles, and if there is a diagram of harness bridle pieces with names? I have one on harness but it isn't too in-depth for the bridle. Do many of you have more than one pleasure harness for different minis, not for showing, or do you adjust one harness for different horses? I have four Missy and her filly have very refined long dishy heads, avatar is filly at 2 months. One with a short dished head and wide forehead and large eyes, then one small and regular shaped. And adult height on all would be from 29" short coupled, 33" long bodied, and 31" average.


I thought when I first started that I'd only do parades so the Amish type harness that came with my older gelding was fine. Ooo, then I decided to show so bought another one somewhat nicer with stays that actually held the blinkers out from the face ( he must have thought "wow, they finally did something right!").

Then when we got a second horse and started him driving, I thought I'd just use the one "show type" harness for him.....oooops, didn't fit good. Too much difference between a 31+" and a 34" in the face and, with age difference, in the belly too. Soooo, I broke down and got a second harness.

Then along comes the 3rd horse - another harness so we don't have to adjust and sometimes misadjust between horses. Then a second cart and another harness to match the brass fittings.......this goes on and on...just ask any of the drivers. Not only are the horses addictive but so is getting all the "right" equipment!


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## RhineStone (Nov 8, 2010)

rubyviewminis said:


> I wondered if anyone felt like taking the time to explain how and where to measure for the bridles, and if there is a diagram of harness bridle pieces with names?


I have a harness chart that I did on our website that has bridle parts.

http://rhinestone-ri...rness+Parts.pdf

American Driving Society also has some great harness charts that they made up for WEG. You can probably get one if you contact them. I laminated mine and hung it in my barn for students to see.

Most harness makers have measuring charts on their websites. Here is one: http://www.drivinges...0non%20fill.pdf

There are fine points to measuring, like I use one finger's width between the cheek bone and the cavesson, whereas big horses generally use two. It can also be a trick to get the browband just right on a mini. If you work with a knowledgable, reputable harness maker, they can help you with that (another reason NOT to buy an Ebay harness....



).

I have two mini harnesses for both training and showing, one considered an "A" size, and one a "B". But I have mixed and matched parts to get a custom fit on my horses. That is one advantage with having harnesses from one company. The parts usually interchange, as things like the buckles and leather width are the same size, etc. You can also order individual parts to suit a particular horse. I have an A mini with a wider head, so I just ordered a bigger browband and cavesson. The challenge with this is that every time I want to drive him, I have to take the bridle apart, and needless to say, he is the _least_ trained horse in my barn!



Ideally, it would be nice for each horse to have their own equipment, but that basically comes down to cost. And I didn't get cheap equipment.

Myrna


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## MiniHGal (Nov 13, 2010)

Coming to this thread a bit late, but figured I would share the blinders that I particularly like of my harnesses. They were custom made by a friend (very long time ago). They were made for more of an A sized horse, so look a little small on Fascination's not-A-sized head. But, the winker stays are wide enough to keep the blinders out of her eyes.

Excuse the extra people in the picture and our marathon gear. We were getting the End of Section A TPR (temp, pulse, resp).






By the way, Myrna, those ADS charts are great! I need to laminate one of mine.


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