Our Story

Two riders, one Saddlebred, and a lot of barn hair.

Mother and daughter with their Saddlebred, Ziva, in the barn aisle

Bridle Besties started the way most good barn ideas do: in the truck on the way home from a show, still in breeches, talking about what we wished someone had told us.

We're a mother-daughter team from Charlotte, North Carolina. We both ride saddle seat and we've both shown it, though our paths into the ring look a little different. I came up through saddle seat and spent time in the hunter ring (and, briefly, over fences). My daughter rides saddle seat and dressage, and she'll get on just about anything with four legs: Arabians, Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, Morgans, and of course Saddlebreds.

The Saddlebred in question is Ziva. She is an American Saddlebred, she is the reason our schedule looks the way it does, and she is the unofficial quality-control department for everything we make.

Young rider with a championship ribbon beside her SaddlebredTwo riders doubling up on a chestnut horse

Why we started this

Horse people are underserved and over-marketed at the same time. There is no shortage of rearing-horse silhouettes and "sorry, can't, horses" shirts. There's almost nothing made for the saddle seat world specifically, and very little written for the parent standing at the rail wondering whether this barn, this trainer, or this discipline is the right fit for their kid.

So we do two things here:

  • Merch that gets the inside joke. Designs for saddle seat riders, academy kids, show moms, and anyone who has cried in the truck after a class. Printed to order, shipped from the US.
  • Straight talk from people who've been in the ring. Guides on choosing a barn, surviving your first show, and understanding how saddle seat, hunter/jumper, dressage, and Western actually differ, written from experience rather than a search engine.

Where our perspective comes from

Outside the barn I've spent my career as a corporate executive and served as an elected member of our local school board. That background shapes how we write our guides: ask the hard questions, look at the real costs, and don't let anyone tell you a decision is simple when it isn't. Choosing a riding program for your child is a parenting decision first and a horse decision second, and we write about it that way.

Mom and daughter at the barn with their dog

What to expect from us

  • Every product is made to order by our print partner, so please allow 2 to 5 business days for production before shipping.
  • We test what we sell. If a design is on this site, at least one of us has worn it to the barn.
  • We're a small, two-person operation. If something isn't right, email us and a real person (one of us) will fix it.

Thanks for being here. Tell Ziva hi.

— The Bridle Besties (a mom, a daughter and Ziva), Charlotte, NC