Hello! I just got a new horse, very green, and am looking for a leather breakaway halter. The only ones that I have found have nylon with the leather breakaway pieces. If anyone knows of a brand which is breakaway, all leather please let me know!! I saw in another forum someone had said Thinline makes one however after looking could not find it.
How about just a cheap leather halter that will break wherever? (Others can probably make specific recommendations.) I’d definitely prefer that over anything with nylon.
Cheap leather halter is about as breakaway as you can get. I really like the low-end HDR halters for this purpose: they break easily but the leather is still fairly soft and unlikely to leave rubs.
These days the hasps on the lead ropes are so weak they break first.
Or are you in a place that demands halters be kept on during turnout.
Make sure it fits well.
Any all leather halter is going to be a breakaway halter (Which is why I only use all leather). You can buy inexpensive single ply leather halters just about anywhere.
How about just replacement crown pieces, if your halter has double buckles for the crown? They are usually not hard to find.
Why do you want a breakaway halter? Then you have a loose horse with no halter. Train him up to give to pressure, lead, stop, not panic and you won’t have to worry about what’s on his head.
PS - congrats on the new horse, and it’s a rule that you MUST post pics of your new horse!
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8832879]
Why do you want a breakaway halter? Then you have a loose horse with no halter. Train him up to give to pressure, lead, stop, not panic and you won’t have to worry about what’s on his head.
PS - congrats on the new horse, and it’s a rule that you MUST post pics of your new horse!:)[/QUOTE]
+1
G.
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8832879]
Why do you want a breakaway halter? Then you have a loose horse with no halter. Train him up to give to pressure, lead, stop, not panic and you won’t have to worry about what’s on his head.
PS - congrats on the new horse, and it’s a rule that you MUST post pics of your new horse!:)[/QUOTE]
In some boarding situations it is a rule that all horses wear halters. Not a rule I like but that is it at some places. A breakaway is a good idea then.
Pony club is at odds with the tie them hard an fast idea as well.
[QUOTE=LookmaNohands;8833072]
In some boarding situations it is a rule that all horses wear halters. Not a rule I like but that is it at some places. A breakaway is a good idea then.
Pony club is at odds with the tie them hard an fast idea as well.[/QUOTE]
The “breakaway” for field wear I get. The opposition to “eye high, arm’s length, with and to something that won’t break” I don’t get.
G.
It’s always a good idea to have a halter that will break under great pressure. Even reliable horses can have an “event” and I’d rather not have one break its neck because I found out too late that when startled all my training fell by the wayside. Which happens, they are flight animals – though I believe in tying and even my yearling is excellent tied.
To answer the actual question, if I have to turn out in halters I prefer these: http://www.vtosaddlery.com/product/CO/CCNSH.htm
They are super cheap and while sturdy enough to last, they’ll break in a bad situation. I have some lovely leather halters that are just too thick for turnout, I would worry. Of course, you have to resign yourself to pink if you use those.
these are not so flimsy they won’t last either, I’ve had 2 in regular barn use for several years. I guess that is proof my horses tie pretty well or they would be long gone. :lol:
I have a no halters in turnout rule, but even I sometimes break that (new horse that doesn’t catch well will wear one for a couple weeks until he or she learns that horses here are to come when I call!) And I turnout fatties in muzzles, the risk of that is a better alternative than founder.
As long as your leather halter is not padded, it will break.
My horses have broken cheap and expensive leather halters while in crossties multiple times. The crown pieces even on new halters will break when my horses jerk back sometimes.
I know people will argue endlessly about hard tying, but honestly, I am in the camp that prefers that something OTHER THAN THE HORSE will break if the horse panics… Especially in a boarding situation. I don’t quite understand “train your horse not to panic.”
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8832879]
Why do you want a breakaway halter? Then you have a loose horse with no halter. Train him up to give to pressure, lead, stop, not panic and you won’t have to worry about what’s on his head.
PS - congrats on the new horse, and it’s a rule that you MUST post pics of your new horse!:)[/QUOTE]
Better a loose horse with no halter, than a tied horse with a broken neck.
I’ve never understood this mentality. Seems like a bit of a paradox to me. If the horse is trained to yield to pressure, then it shouldn’t need an unbreakable halter. If it isn’t trained to yield to pressure, then why risk injury by putting it in an unbreakable halter?
And what exactly do you use while you are training them? It’s not like they seamlessly transition from untrained to trained. Do you just hope they don’t seriously injure themselves during this training process? Even the most trained horse in the world can still have a moment and panic while tied.
A horse is far more likely to be injured when a halter BREAKS and lets the horse go suddenly than fighting a tie set up that doesn’t break.
If the horse doesn’t tie well, either don’t tie it or teach it to tie. Tying it in something that breaks is only teaching it to be worse about tying. A horse that expects something to break when it sets back is just so dangerous, and so much more likely to really injure itself.
Once a horse is reliable about tying, I’d be ok with tying it to something that will give if he is an honest horse - a bee can sting any time.
[QUOTE=quietann;8833339]
I know people will argue endlessly about hard tying, but honestly, I am in the camp that prefers that something OTHER THAN THE HORSE will break if the horse panics… Especially in a boarding situation. I don’t quite understand “train your horse not to panic.”[/QUOTE]
I hate breakaway anything except for turnout and trailer. I expect my horses to do things like high-line or tie to the trailer overnight or tie in the middle of god knows where. If Dobbin gets loose at the barn for most riders, meh, no biggie. If one of my guys gets lost on a ride, it could mean lost in several thousand acres of mountains/wilderness. It is not that hard to train them to give to pressure correctly and it works- I had a horse who somehow found a good bit of old wire in the field and got completely tangled. He could have sliced himself to ribbons but instead he stood (for what looked to be hours) until I untangled him. It’s not training your horse not to panic so much as training them to give to pressure.
[QUOTE=Mia Sorella;8833346]
Better a loose horse with no halter, than a tied horse with a broken neck.
Unless, of course, said loose horse runs out onto a public road and gets hit by a car. Or causes a school bus full of kids to swerve into a ditch to avoid hitting the horse. Or runs amok and tramples a three year old in a stroller rending them brain damaged (happened at a horse show in Houston some years back).
I’ve never understood this mentality. Seems like a bit of a paradox to me. If the horse is trained to yield to pressure, then it shouldn’t need an unbreakable halter. If it isn’t trained to yield to pressure, then why risk injury by putting it in an unbreakable halter?
I will risk injury to a horse before I will risk injury to a person.
As the owner of a horse with a bad habit of “setting back” when she felt she’d stood in one place long enough I don’t have much faith in the “horse will get hurt” argument. I don’t have personal knowledge of that ever happening. I’ve never met a lay person with such knowledge. I’ve never dealt with a vet that did (and I ask this question of most vets I meet). While it may have happened to someone where, some time, it appears to be about as common a unicorn hair.
Then there’s the question of equine “temperament.” If you have a horse that will fight to the death (or serious injury) if frightened I see a really serious issue of equine temperament. What’s going to happen when the horse takes that sort of “fright” under saddle? Will they “do what it takes” to escape in terms of rider injury? It’s a fair question.
My “set back” mare never did it because she was frightened. She did it because she didn’t want to stay where she was or was trying to avoid some human behavior she didn’t like. A prior owner had taught her these behaviors by using a “breakaway” system. We got her broke of the habit to some degree be teaching her that “tied” means “tied.”* When it hurt her too much to keep pulling she quit. She was a good ride, well trained, docile, and left us to become a “husband horse.” She was also a first class brood mare; when I sold her I made a particularly full disclosure to the new owner.
And what exactly do you use while you are training them? It’s not like they seamlessly transition from untrained to trained. Do you just hope they don’t seriously injure themselves during this training process? Even the most trained horse in the world can still have a moment and panic while tied.[/QUOTE]
You train them as weanlings to yield to rope. If no one has done that you do it as a yearling. Or as a greenie not under saddle. Or as a greenie going under saddle. Or some later time. The later the human does this the harder it will be on the horse, the human, and the equipment.
G.
*Using the “bad boy wall” (a heavy sheet of plywood betweeen heavy timbers with the “tie point” being a heavy duty “eye bolt” mounted through and through to an 8" timber). The rope was heavy, soft laid marine line secured to the “eye” bolt and then to a rubber “donut” made from a bicycle inner tube. The “horse” was tied to the donut. The whole rig was about 18-20 inches long. We also had the highest quality, heavy duty nylon halter we could find. When she would sit back the donut would stretch and when she would quit pulling it would pull her back right where she started. She learned real fast that she could not get away.
[QUOTE=Guilherme;8833496]
You train them as weanlings to yield to rope. If no one has done that you do it as a yearling. Or as a greenie not under saddle. Or as a greenie going under saddle. Or some later time. The later the human does this the harder it will be on the horse, the human, and the equipment.
G.
*Using the “bad boy wall” (a heavy sheet of plywood betweeen heavy timbers with the “tie point” being a heavy duty “eye bolt” mounted through and through to an 8" timber). The rope was heavy, soft laid marine line secured to the “eye” bolt and then to a rubber “donut” made from a bicycle inner tube. The “horse” was tied to the donut. The whole rig was about 18-20 inches long. We also had the highest quality, heavy duty nylon halter we could find. When she would sit back the donut would stretch and when she would quit pulling it would pull her back right where she started. She learned real fast that she could not get away.[/QUOTE]
I happen to own a horse that was injured as a foal in a halter-gone-wrong incident…some sharp individual turned his foals out in chainlink fence paddocks with halters, one of the barn staff found the filly hanging from the fence when they went to feed in the morning (I found this out about a year after I had purchased her). My mare’s whole head is, for lack of a better term, wonky. There’s obvious remodelling where injured facial structures healed from this incident. She’s very sensitive to poll and nose pressure and absolutely cannot tolerate a hackamore.
So yes, it’s entirely possible for a horse to injure itself from pulling back when tied (or while their head is attached to something). Just because you can’t see the damage being done by a horse struggling against a halter, doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
[QUOTE=Melk;8832431]
Hello! I just got a new horse, very green, and am looking for a leather breakaway halter. The only ones that I have found have nylon with the leather breakaway pieces. If anyone knows of a brand which is breakaway, all leather please let me know!! I saw in another forum someone had said Thinline makes one however after looking could not find it.[/QUOTE]
There are three types of breakaway halters:
Completely leather
Nylon with a leather crown
Nylon with a leather “fuse”
I don’t quite get what you’re looking for, as any completely leather halter is, by its nature, breakaway. Cheaper halters will breakaway easier.
(Funny note: I had an older, well used, nylon halter with a leather fuse. Pony pulled back and the hardware holding the halter together broke, fuse stayed in one piece.)
