Frentera
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A frentera (also testera, chapeado, chamfron, faceplate, forelock hanger) is a part of some halters and bridles, usually on a horse. It is a cord, strap, or chain attached to the crownpiece, browband, or the horse's forelock, that runs down the horse's face to the noseband or bit rings. Often, the frentera is split at the bottom into two or more parts, and supports and stabilizes a heavy noseband or bit. When it includes a disk or sheet of metal, often silver, it is a testera, chamfron, or faceplate.
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[edit] History
A frentera on a bridle is described but not named in the 1893 English translation of Xenophon's On Horsemanship, including an illustration of a bridle with a frentera. [1] The illustration is based on an image in classical Greek art. Stiff, padded and studded frentera have been found in Scythian tombs [2]
[edit] Current use
Today, the frentera is widely used in Spain on serreta bridles, in Hungary on similar bridles, in Argentina on both halters and bridles[3] In the United States and Canada, a frentera is rarely seen other than on some parade horses and for occasional use to support a bosal, where it is sometimes tied to the horse's forelock or passed between the ears to the crownpiece and is then referred to as a forelock hanger.[4] On a polo noseband bridle (Australia), a frentera-like strap supports a heavy noseband attached to the rings of a snaffle bit.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Art of Horsemanship, Xenophon, edited and translated by Morris H. Morgan, published by Little, Brown and Company, 1893; republished in facsimile by Dover Publications, 2006
- ^ Bennett 1998, page 48
- ^ online catalog in Argentina showing a bozal (muzzle) style halter with a 3-part frentera and a fiador.
- ^ Bennett, Deb (1998) Conquerors: The Roots of New World Horsemanship. Amigo Publications Inc; 1st edition, ISBN 0-9658533-0-6. p. 61.
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