Rural Heritage April/May 2026

A Bridle/Halter for Safety

by Donn Hewes A long with open bridles (no blinders), I also like my horses to wear a bridle without a halter underneath. Don’t get me wrong, I never discourage anyone else from using a halter under their bridle, as it is a good idea to always have a safe way to tie your horse up at any time during work or a drive. Because I like the way the bridle fits and looks without the halter under it, I needed to develop my own bridle/halter that could do both jobs with one piece. Sometimes people assume I am using these instead of having a separate halter — just adding a bit or something else. There are cases of folks doing this, but that is not what I have been doing. Each of these horses has a normal halter that we put on

every time we lead or tie up one of them. I just use these halter/ bridles in place of a regular bridle. These can be made in two simple ways. Take a good bridle and add two parts needed to make it work as a halter as well. This works equally well with or without blinders, by the way. You need a long strap with a buckle that can pass under the chin and back to complete the loop around the nose of the horse. Now you just need a short piece with a ring that will connect the throat latch with the loop under the nose. These pieces are easy to get, or make, or sometimes scavenge from an old halter. I have also had some good luck taking a nice-fitting halter

Mary wears a custom made halter/ bridle that shows how they can be adjusted to fit. This bridle provides a good space in front, below, and behind the horses ear. This makes a bridle comfortable for a horse, makes it not rub, and harder to knock off.

These parts were used to convert Red's bridle to a halter/bridle in the photo on the left.

Red wearing a halter/bridle.

April/May 2026

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