PS of Sweden Adventures

I've struggled with Connor's bridle fit for a long time.  He's definitely cob in some places, but in others he's full, and in the browband he's borderline O/S (not the only Cob I know that's like that, either!).  I haven't had a bridle yet that I really felt good about the fit, especially behind the ears.

This one is horse crown, horse throatlatch, horse browband, cob cheeks and cob noseband.
PC: Lisa Brezina

The other thing is, we still haven't totally figured out his violent headshaking right before he goes on the bit, after our warmup.  It seems to be partially caused by his hair touching his ears because a bonnet or braiding helps, but it never totally goes away.  One time, between 5 and 15 seconds, he'll do it almost every ride.

(We did, however, figure out the tongue getting over the bit issue that has plagued us for years off and on.  Turns out it was mainly a result of the tension in my thighs.  He hasn't gotten his tongue over the bit since I rode Mr. P earlier this year.  Go figure, learning to ride fixes everything. #duh  This horse is a saint.)

Saint Connor
PC: My momma

At Pony Cup, one of the mobile tack units let me try a full sized PS of Sweden  (Flying Change Revolution) on him.  I have always liked the idea of them but have never been able to pull the price trigger.  I had a bonus coming though, and I planned on being responsible with most of it but a few hundred dollars could surely go to a bridle, couldn't it?

Thank goodness Katlyn was there to help me fit it to him, she has one too.  I had no idea what I was doing (AND I would have totally lost that stupid crank keeper if it wasn't for her!)

It fit fabulously behind the ears, but the cheeks were too long (they're on the top hole here) and the noseband is so big it looks comically ridiculous.

Does this noseband make my face look dumb?

Katlyn's hand, lol

Yeah, no, just no.

That gave me a good idea of what sizes I needed (full size crown, full browband, cob cheeks, cob noseband), but it turns out PS of Sweden's tack store policy is dumb, so I couldn't order it from the tack shop that so graciously let me try it on him.  I would have had to buy it from the tack shop, mail it back to Sweden with the tags still on it, let them swap out the parts I needed a different size in, then mail it back to me.

Or I could just order it the way I needed it from PS of Sweden's website directly and save like two weeks of turnaround time. (plus there was a 15% off sale the day I decided to buy so...sold)

I felt so bad not being able to buy it from the tack shop, so I did buy a few other things from them.  #supportsmallbusinesses

But, now we have this:

I'm so grateful that tack shop let me try the full on him, because if they hadn't, he would have ended up with that ridiculous horse-sized noseband or a too-tight cob sized crown.

I honestly feel like he may even be a candidate for an O/S crown, but this is pretty decent.

The cob noseband is SUCH a massive improvement over the horse.  And he's on the top hole in it - he really could have gone pony there.

And as for the headshaking, my sample size is still too small to draw any real conclusions, but he's only given one half-hearted head shake since we started riding in it so...it's looking good so far.