the collection grows

So Charlie is a big horse, right? A tall drink of water, if you will. His head is surprisingly refined tho. I mean, sure, it's long (why the long face, Charlie?!) - but it's not really bulky. To the point where he actually fits into Isabel's cob-sized PS of Sweden dressage bridle.

(Yes I counted my lucky stars upon learning that!)

so many pretties!!

All the same tho, he's really not cob sized. After receiving a lovely full sized jump bridle for him as a gift (Thank you), it was time to size up my collection of Dark Jewel Design browbands and bead strands accordingly too.

I have both black and brown snap-on browbands, and prior to this week had three lovely custom bead strands done by Amelia. Two from my original browband, and the third from when things got really rough with Isabel. They are all very special to me!

what's that they say about variety?

I took the opportunity of watching Amelia and Duke compete at Loch Moy last month to hand over the browbands and strands to all get resized to full. And Amelia being her incredibly generous (and talented!) self, sent back a little extra something in my shipment: another browband, this time pearly gold with multi-faceted deep navy beads.

pictures never do the beads justice

And it's just stunning - a simple, elegant design with understated colors that are simultaneously so rich and vibrant! I'm totally in love with it! The warm gold tones will work beautifully with the brass hardware on my jump bridle too!

just bc it's hard to photograph doesn't mean i stop trying!

Really all of the bead strands just make me so happy. The very pearly ones feel fitting for the show ring, and the glitzy crystal-y strands are fitting for just about any occasion!

yesssss this will do quite nicely!

And obviously I was eager to start playing dress up with Charlie!! The snap-on browband works perfectly with the monocrown bridle, and the leathers match in hue quite nicely! Plus the fact that the browband has some nice squishy padding, I think it's going to suit this bridle for all our jumping adventures!!

blurry indoor lighting can't hide the sparkle and luster!

Mostly tho I'm just ridiculously excited about the sparkles haha. And excited that I can change out the bead strands to suit our moods (or outfits lol). Charlie's gonna look so fancy all the time!!

dis charlie's windswept cover girl face

It's kinda hilarious bc Charlie lives at a quintessentially hunter barn - where everything is very matchy and the program director loathes anything beyond a plain white saddle pad (no black pads, and certainly no pads with trim to be seen here!).

mine is easy to spot. it's the one with the bling!
(tho at least i'm not the only one whose bridle hook is playing double duty with more than one tenant lol)

The barn mgr was funny too. Upon hearing the kids ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Charlie's new sparkles, and saying their own ponies would look quite good in fancy browbands too, she told me that I was gonna get kicked out of the barn if the hunter kids started showing up to their lessons blinged out lol.

Sounds a bit like a challenge, no? Come to the dark side, young riders!! We have SPARKLES!!

What about you - are you into bridle adornments or embellishments? Do you like all out blinding bling? Or something more subtle and understated?

(Also - worth noting for those early Christmas shoppers out there: Place your orders by November 15 if you want your Dark Jewel Designs browband with the standard two fully custom bead strands delivered in time for the holidays!)