Snaffle Riding Bridle: Cheeks, Slit Head Strap, Front, Throat Lash and Reins (Hasluck, Saddlery, 1904)

"All the stitching must be done from behind, so that the best face of the stitches will be next the horse when the bridle is on."

Cut two cheeks about 7/8 in wide and 9 in long. Each has a buckle at each end: one on a chape turned down, the other on the flat end of the strap without turning, with the billet underneath. Leave room for a loop before the buckle and the point of the cheek, and set the billet far enough behind the buckle for two loops; put a runner loop on the cheek and stitch another in with the chape. Cut the billets 9 in long. Stitch them in single-handed and back-stitch with linen thread, all from behind. Make one hole in each billet.

Cut the head strap 1-1/8 in by 1 ft 10 in and slit it 5 in at each end. For a 3/4 in cheek, slit 3/4 in on one side and 3/8 in for a 3/8 in throat lash, with the wide slits on the same side at both ends. Punch four holes in each wide slit and six, closer together, in each narrow one.

Cut the front 3/4 in by 1 ft 2-1/4 in from the end of one bend to the other, after bending. Turn it over the head strap and mark a line across close to it, so there is 1 ft 1 in between the cross lines. Stitch the ends down, with a row along each side.

Make the throat lash 3/8 in by 1 ft 7 in after turning down for the buckles. Put two runner loops on it besides the loops at the buckles of each end.

Cut the reins 1 in or 7/8 in by 4 ft. Prepare them for the bit buckles like the bottom of the cheeks, in the flat. Put a 3/4 in covered buckle on the other end of one rein, narrowing its chape to the buckle's width, and narrow the end of the other rein for buckling. Put in the billets, 10 in long, with one loop before the buckle and two behind, "and always put the strong end of the rein in the billet end".

Buckle the cheeks to the head strap's wide slits and the throat lash to the narrow ones, run the front over the head strap, buckle the cheeks' lower ends and the reins to the snaffle bit's rings, and buckle the two reins together. Buckled billets let the bit be taken off, which he prefers to stitching the cheeks and reins fast to it.

From **Saddlery**, edited by Paul N. Hasluck, David McKay, 1904 (archive.org saddlery00hasl), chapter VI, "Riding Bridles", the snaffle bridle; every fraction was read on the scan. Not made here: his Pelham, Weymouth, gag, exercising and stallion bridles. The bit is bought. The metric figures are ours.