Equestrian is an expensive sport. Yet there are many small things that can make equestrian sports cheaper. For example, you can buy an expensive bling bling browband, but you can also make it yourself! This article explains how you can make a nice browband yourself in different ways.
What is a browband?
A browband is part of a horse’s bridle. The browband runs under the ears from left to right over the forehead and ensures that the bridle stays in place better. A browband is often made of leather, just like the rest of the bridle, but nowadays you also see many browbands made of thin chains. On standard bridles, browbands are always straight pieces of leather that run across the forehead from left to right, or vice versa. Nowadays the browbands are also taking on more and more shapes, such as the teardrop shape or the V shape, whereby the browband runs in a teardrop or V-shape over the forehead.
How can you make a nice browband yourself?
There are several ways to make a browband yourself. You can “pimp up” an old browband, but you can also make your own browband from fabric or leather. It is important to know how big the browband should be. Bridles are divided into sizes namely: Shetland, Pony, Cob, Full and Xfull. If you take a browband from an Xfull bridle for a Shetlander, this will never fit. Always measure the browband in advance. It is important that you take the loops on each side so that you do not find out at the end that the browband is too small because you have forgotten the loops that must be attached to the bridle. No standard sizes are given as one bridle needs wider loops than the other bridle. You have to measure this yourself.
Browband made of a cheerful fabric
The easiest way to make your own browband is to make one out of fabric. Choose a nice fabric and sew it double together as wide as you like. For example, you can take a bright blue fabric or a pink one, we leave this completely up to you. Using the same or a different black fabric, for example, sew a loop on each side in the width of the strap of the bridle to which it is to be attached. You can also write a name on the fabric, but in principle the fabric browband is now ready.
Browband with bling bling stones
To make a browband with bling bling stones, it is best to use your old browband. You can also use a new piece of leather, but leather is difficult to double stitch to form the loops. Buy cheap stones in the colors that you like in a hobby store. You can choose different types of stones. Some people use ironing stones, which you have to iron on the browband. But you can also stick the stones on it with superglue. Please note that the stones can fall off, so always buy some spare stones. If you want, you can stick some stones in other places on the bridle, for example on the noseband.