Blinging It Up

With a background in the hunters and an overall fondness for neutral colors it probably isn’t surprising that I don’t have much bling in my equestrian life. My cross country “colors” if you can call them that are Navy, Grey, and White. Sometimes just Grey and White if were being completely honest. My saddle pads are all usually very neutral colors as well with the occasional light blue or burgundy dispersed.

I even got all crazy and ordered an ombre bonnet a few months back. I am probably the most boring client that If The Bonnet Fits has and I appreciate Sierra working with me to help me find combinations that meet in the middle. They are still super neutral generally but we add a little flash here and there! Lately though I have been having some grabby hands over some more blingtastic items. Specifically all the grabby hands over a fun new browband. Quite a few other bloggers have blingy browbands but I started to think about it more when Emma posted last week about all of the matchy matchy berryness she had prepared for her upcoming events. I have been on the fence about blingbands for the better part of 5 years. Rather than just buy one I revisit every 6 months – put one in the cart – and then chicken out. I torment myself over purchases at times and the browband dilemma has been no different.

When TopLine Leather exploded on the interwebs maybe 5 years ago? I thought oohh those are pretty. Aimee actually has quite the horde of them! But still never took the plunge. When you aren’t sold on the idea of bling you probably shouldn’t try to go buy one of the most expensive ones out there. Unless you hate money – which with 3 horses I clearly already do enough of that.

BoyOBoy Bridleworks also recently came out with a cool ribbon browband. You can see the ever wonderful Henny sporting his over at The $900 FB Pony. Considering I had to be pushed to even include navy in my own Boy O Boy belt though I don’t think I am quite ready for a ribbon browband (they are super lovely though!) so the contemplation continued.

In March at the annual KWPN meeting I got to put my hands on a lovely brow band from Black Jak Refinery. With prices starting as low as $50 these browbands are a bit more palatable. I found the quality of the leather to be really nice too. A lot of the bling browbands I have seen are on pretty atrocious leather and as a tack snob I am not about to put some POS leather on my bridles – kills my soul a bit. I am going to torture myself awhile longer and cross all my parts that maybe Annie and I will be the random winners of her current contest! Check out @blackjakrefinery on instagram to enter!

Those of you that have blingy browbands where do you get them? Do you compete in them or just use them at home?

10 comments

  1. Leah says:

    I have so many blingy browbands 😂 (I’m sure no one is surprised by this). I would love a topline but the price has deterred me to date. Maybe I can get my family to go in together for a Christmas gift or something. I hadn’t heard of Black Jak Refinery, will have to check them out! Mine are from a variety of places, but I do have three from Equiture. I mostly pull mine out for competitions, my daily schooling bridles are usually more boring.

  2. Bette says:

    I feels ya on the bling!!! It took me years before I broke down and bought a browband that wasn’t plain. I love looking at all the bling, and truthfully love all things glitter, but not on me or my horse. I have been very happy with the golden pearl browband I got from PS of Sweden (when they still had them) b/c I thought it was a nice in between of screaming glitter and boring black 🙂

  3. Alanna says:

    I’m becoming a brow band collector! I have several strands from Dark Jewel Designs, a cute one from Delfina Saddlery, one no name one I picked up at Rolex, and I just ordered one from Highland Browbands.

  4. Karen M says:

    I am pro bling. But all my sparkly browbands are PS of Sweden, otherwise bling goes on the bonnets. I hate it when the browband leather doesn’t match the rest of the bridle.

  5. TBA says:

    This is timely, I was just preparing a post about my favorite sparkle browband! I’m obsessed with sparkles. Bling everything lol. Equiture is my absolute favorite browband that I’ve found thus far!

  6. Rhiannon says:

    Come to think of it, I’ve never owned a fancy browband either. Way back in the day I had a clincher browband, but I don’t think I ever even used it. One of my western bridles has some little silver studs, that’s as fancy as I have. I have a few random colored bright things, but mostly my saddle pads are pretty boring too. Honestly if I were going to pick XC colors, I don’t even know what they’d be. Food for thought.

  7. Rachel says:

    I have three sparkle browbands. None of them were super pricey because I’m kinda cheap. One was a birthday present and lived on my hunter bridle. I actually took Sting to a couple of local schooling shows and showed in the baby hunters with the sparkle browband. I’m sure the trainer hosting the show was appalled but I figured it was a schooling show and the trainer I was with didn’t care. The next one I picked up at Rolex a few years ago from Smartpak. It is black with clear sparkles and went on my dressage bridle and I competed in dressage with it. I picked up another one with purple sparkles for my dressage bridle at the local tack store sale this spring. For the two that I bought, I don’t think I paid over 50 dollars again, because I’m kinda cheap.

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