Tack reference Tuesday

This is a very typical lower-level dressage bridle. It's similar to a hunter bridle, but it's black in color, the cheek pieces attach to the bit with buckles rather stud hooks and there's a built in flash noseband.

If - like me - you'd rather not use the flash, it's easily removable. However, you still have that little loop on top of your horse's nose.

If - unlike me - you want a flash on a bridle that doesn't have one, historically, this has been the most available option. It works okay, but tends to place the flash too low on the horse's nose. 

A couple weeks ago, I was unboxing tack at work and noticed something interesting about this LeMieux bridle.

It's looks like it has a typical built in flash.

But looks can be deceiving.

This one is completely removable, loop and all.

It's a little hard to see in my photos, but the loop piece slides through a gap in the noseband. This is the bottom edge of the noseband...

and this is the top. 

Although I am not a big fan of flash nosebands, I really appreciate the elegant simplicity of this construction.

I started looking at some of the other bridles on our wall and found another interesting flash option, this time from Schockelmöhle.

Like the LeMieux design, this also attaches through a gap between the noseband and padding.

However, this one goes around, not just through.

It's probably more secure, but it's also a lot more complicated.

I like the first one better.

Back in the day, I made several removable flash nosebands in 1:9 scale. Most were of the buckled on variety shown above, but there were also some cheaters, which just had the loop sticky waxed to the bottom of the noseband. If I was still making tack now, I'd probably have to try out the LeMieux version, just because. Since I'm not, I'm dropping these pictures here as inspiration - and challenge - for all the talented and ambitious tack makers who continue to push this part of the hobby forward.