Rural Heritage April/May 2026

The Open Bridle for Work Horses

half worked without. Since then, I have trained most of my young horses without them and transitioned a few horses to working without them, but it has seldom been 100%. Transitioning horses that were trained in blinders is a special consideration I will cover later in this article. My interest in work horses without blinders was also sparked by the great fire horses seen in photos from the early 20th century. Every fire station I worked in had photos on the walls of these great looking horses. Why? First, to be very honest, I like the way they look. In my experience, there is no farm or logging work that horses can’t do without blinders; they do just as well

by Donn Hewes U p until now I have avoided writing about working my horses without blinders as I really don’t want to give the impression that working without blinders is somehow better than working with them. I personally think it is like belts versus suspenders, just different ways to hold up your pants. That said, in this article I will explain why and how I use draft horses in open-faced bridles. The oldest photo I can find of me with an open-faced horse is a Suffolk mare named Connie in 2012. At that time, I think half my horses and mules wore blinders and

Connie, a Suffolk mare is in an open bridle while her teammate is wearing blinders. Connie is one of the first animals Donn trained without blinders.

Rural Heritage

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