Billy, I changed to open bridles a couple years ago. Driving on back roads (gravel or dirt) here in WV, many are
straight up on one side and straight down on the other. When meeting oncoming traffic while in blinders they would often get a wheel over the brim on the low side of the road, which raised my “pucker factor” off the scale, which in turn could be felt by the horses. When I removed the blinkers I never had another problem as the horses could see how close they were, and we all were much more comfortable with the reduced anxiety. It only took a couple trips to have them driving open like they were born to it.
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