So around 2 years ago in Wellington I bought myself a very expensive but lovely Antares bridle. It was kind of special as they gave me a different nose and brow band than it regularly comes with. But after about 6 months I noticed the buckles on the cheeks and noseband had begun to show spots/stains like the way brass does however these are silver and Antares claims they are aluminum alloy.
Within another 6 months the spots would regularly turn green and under where the parts of the bridle were fastened together it would often have rust. The bridle is used daily but its also been cleaned daily or atleast wiped down. It has maybe been rained on while riding less than 5 times ever.
I tried to take it to Antares last year at the show but Covid-19 happened and we all packed up and headed home. I had told them about it prior and they did say it was very unusual.
The problem continues to get worse until this weekend when both the noseband buckles broke. The pins snapped right off as I was cleaning it at the show. I reached out again showing picture of the broken buckles also showing that the rest of the bridle is immaculate it looks quite new still. I was told it was probably my tack cleaner or my fly spray BUT I use Antares products and don’t flyspray my horses face?
I was contacted by a representative saying that the only thing they could do was offer my 15% off a new bridle. I just want a new set of buckles the bridle is perfect otherwise and if i bought another bridle what if this happened again? no thank you Antares. They have also discontinued the noseband so i cannot just buy the noseband. I will aslo add my “throw away” bridles from the bargain bin do not have this absurd issue.
has anyone had this experience trying to work with Antares? Does anyone know of good tack repair places I can ship this bridle to have all the buckles replaced? Does anyone have a bridle reccomendation in dark brown, pull back noseband no flash, with a wave brow band?
