Okay, while I'm being wildly offtopic--where's a good place to find a visual reference for the type of bridle that would be in use in the West in the 1830s?
Are you thinking of the cowboy era? There's no significant American settlement of the West until after the War, except for the settlers to the Pacific Northwest on the Oregon trail. The cattle drives started in 1866; Dodge City started in the 1870s.
To be honest, I have no idea exactly where this is set. Just when (1836) and Western. If I have to reconcile visually with one over the other, I'll go with Western.
BTW, according to the scary website that posted it, the JDM-JA-JP photo was a manip combining a photo of JDM walking down the street with some other guy and a photo of JA and JP walking down the street in Vancouver. I will admit it took me a bit to recognize JDM - I don't know if I've ever seen him in glasses before.
Would this help any, ita?
Here's a guy who makes historic reproduction tack [link]
They were walking down the same street to the same place. They just didn't arrive at the same time.
No, it's just a basic parts diagram. I've searched for western, and period western--I'm finding a lot of bitless hackamores, which is not what you'd want, I'd think.
I found this.
It sort of...arrested the search.
Wow. That's gorgeous. I wish it were appropriate. I'd totally deck out the Impala like that.
ita, I'd say most modern breeds don't look much like they did in the 1800s, and your best bet's going to be to look for pictures of 1800s horses.
Horse
[link] (Okay, wrong era, but Impala = Bucephalus)
Calvary, basically. Look for pictures of calvary mounts.