Flying Changes: Breyer Bridle Upgrades

Small tweaks that make a big difference!

By Kristian Beverly

Customizing Breyer tack is a great first tack project, and can upgrade the appearance of your tack for the model horse show ring. In this how-to, I will show you some easy hacks to customize and upgrade your Breyer #2458 English Hunter/Jumper bridle to make it more realistic.

When looking for inspiration, I look at real horse tack. Tack catalogs and creators who make tack accessories can give tack makers great ideas, and show how tack is correctly positioned on horses.

The first thing you can do to this bridle is to add a seed bead to the bit. When a bit is in a horse’s mouth, you can see the mouthpiece that connects to the ring peeking out of its mouth, which is what the seed bead will be! To do this, open up the jump ring and slip the bead onto the ring. Be sure to close the ring so there’s no gap. To make the bit stick to a model horse’s mouth you can use sticky wax, which can be found at craft stores.

A small seed bead makes your bit look just like the real thing!

If the leather lace of your bridle is a bit fuzzy, you can smooth it down with a material called Gum tragacanth, a slicking compound for leather. It feels a bit like slime, but rubbing it against the lace helps slick it down, making the bridle look clean and tidy. 

If after adjusting your bridle of your horse you find that the straps are long, trim them. 

After fitting the bridle to your intended model, trim the straps using scissors or a craft knife for a more realistic length.

Real bridles often have stitch marking. For tack to be in scale, you want to give the idea of effects like this instead of copying it exactly. You can replicate stitching by using a stitch marker tool – the smallest you can find. I bought my tool off of a miniature train maker website, but dollhouse makers also have them. Run the stitch marker tool along the outside of the leather lace to make “stitching” indents.

Using a stitch marker tool to make faux "stitches" along the reins

Decorating the browband can really make a bridle stand out. As with real horse browbands, there are many options for customizing. I’ll show three different ways to customize your English bridle’s browband.

The simplest method is to add detailed topical shapes to your bridle’s browband with nail stickers. They come in a plethora of colors and shapes - just make sure they aren’t too large for your lace. Simply pull them off the sheet and stick them on. If you’re worried about the sticker possibly falling off, add super glue to the back, making sure the space around the stickers is transparent.

Nail stickers are an easy way to add visual interest to the browband.

The second option is to decorate your browband with small flat-back beads. I like to use flat-back crystals. You want them to be tiny so that they are in scale. Place them equally along the browband, but leave the last quarter inch of each side empty. Glue with super glue gel and you’ll have a pretty beaded browband. Using a toothpick to apply the glue ensures your fingers don’t get stuck together!

Glue flat-backed beads or crystals along the browband to decorate it.

The third and more complicated browband customization is to add chain. This method requires an X-ACTO knife (with a fresh blade!), safety beveler tool, leather lace, and Tacky Glue. Super glue gel can also be used.

To start, slide the browband off of the rest of the bridle. Check where the loop is on the browband (where the rest of headstall goes through it). You’ll want your chain to be a bit shorter that that loop. Like the previous browbands, you want to leave about a quarter inch on each side without any decorations. I own an English bridle with a decorated browband, so I used that for inspiration.

Mark where the loop of the browband ends underneath. Your cut will end just before this point.

Begin by thinning the leather. I use a safety beveler tool that you can get from Tandy Leather, which works well for projects that use leather lace or leather hide. You’ll want to scrape the tool against the leather lace until it’s less than half of its original width. This takes a bit of skill and patience. Then cut a sliver of leather out of the middle of the browband with the X-ACTO knife. Measure this area, as it’s where your piece of chain will go - you want it to be a tad longer than the area cut for it.

Thin the browband leather before cutting the sliver out of the middle. You should now have three components: the original browband, a small piece of chain, and a second piece of leather to fill the area behind the chain.

Next, you’ll pick a piece of leather to back-fill the hole, which is what you’ll glue the chain to. Select a piece of leather lace that is the same width as the browband, and make sure it’s very thin. Glue the piece of chain to the leather, and once dry, assemble the pieces together with glue like a sandwich. Your browband is complete! Slide it back onto the bridle once dry and try it on your model.

First glue the chain to the backing piece of leather, then glue the original browband on top so the chain shows through the sliver.

Customizing your Breyer tack is a great way to start tack making, and it will make your existing tack pieces more realistic. I wish you luck on your journey!

Our bridle before and after modifications!