Breakaway leather halters??

[tabula_rashah]

[QUOTE=Mia Sorella;8833526]
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]

You’re missing the forest for the trees. Foals in turnout in non-breakaway halters is totally different. They haven’t been taught to yield to pressure yet.

And of course damage could occur if a horse really sets back. I’ve also seen a horse break their neck flipping when the breakaway halter broke. I’ve also known a horse that was killed running into a car on the highway after it broke loose from crossties. I’ve seen chaos occur at endurance rides when horses weren’t secured properly in camp. Etc and so on. Really it’s pick your poison. I choose to spend the time teaching them to give to pressure so they tie hard because it suits my purposes.

[Mia_Sorella]

[QUOTE=tabula rashah;8833544]
You’re missing the forest for the trees. Foals in turnout in non-breakaway halters is totally different. They haven’t been taught to yield to pressure yet.

And of course damage could occur if a horse really sets back. I’ve also seen a horse break their neck flipping when the breakaway halter broke. I’ve also known a horse that was killed running into a car on the highway after it broke loose from crossties. I’ve seen chaos occur at endurance rides when horses weren’t secured properly in camp. Etc and so on. Really it’s pick your poison. I choose to spend the time teaching them to give to pressure so they tie hard because it suits my purposes.[/QUOTE]

Respectfully, I don’t think I’m missing anything. Apologies for the poor quoting, but I was responding to G’s suggestion that it’s basically a myth that horses struggling against halters injure themselves.

Like you said, it comes down to a personal choice. There is no right answer. I’ve also had many horses spook, break a halter and then stand quietly as if nothing happened. I was very happy the halter broke each time and that the horse wasn’t standing there panicking & struggling for a length of time.

[ecileh]

Several years ago, I watched a mare get spooked on crossties, try to back out, get stuck against the tension of the halter, plunge forward, rear up, and scalp herself on the rafters. It took something like 60 stitches to put her face back together and she came damn close to knocking herself out with the force of the impact. She staggered around the barn like a drunken sailor until we could catch her.

Because of this, I tend to leave my mare’s throat-latch unclipped while on the crossties. People comment on it–mostly thinking I forgot to do it up–but I would much rather have her back out of the crossties than try to kill herself.

That said, I always trailer in a breakaway or just a cheap leather halter and I can attest that the cheap one-ply ones break quite easily.

I just got a Kensington breakaway from Smartpak (https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/kensington-breakaway-halter-with-lead-2322) and the strap broke cleanly while she was scratching her head against the trailer doorway after a hunt. It was the first time I’d used it, so it was a bit annoying–but the halter did exactly what it was supposed to do.

[candyappy]

[QUOTE=Mia Sorella;8833526]
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]

This is a completely different situation than teaching a horse (young or old) to tie. You have no idea how your poor foal was hung up or how long she struggled, or at what angle her body was at during this whole time.

This is why no horse ( or any animal) should be let free with something on it’s head. You are asking for something to happen and as we all know it eventually will.

[snaffled]

I don’t think the OP was asking if she should hard-tie her horse with the option for the halter to break-away if things went bad.

Maybe they’re boarding their horse at a barn where they require halters to be worn for turn-out? I like the $10 cheap leather crown pieces you can use to convert any halter to a break-away. Then, if you do have to use it for turn out you can use it on a cheap old halter that you don’t care if it gets dirty or lost.

[Palm_Beach]

[QUOTE=tabula rashah;8833544]
And of course damage could occur if a horse really sets back. I’ve also seen a horse break their neck flipping when the breakaway halter broke. I’ve also known a horse that was killed running into a car on the highway after it broke loose from crossties. I’ve seen chaos occur at endurance rides when horses weren’t secured properly in camp. Etc and so on. Really it’s pick your poison. I choose to spend the time teaching them to give to pressure so they tie hard because it suits my purposes.[/QUOTE]

@Mia Sorella;8833679

There is no right answer. I’ve also had many horses spook, break a halter and then stand quietly as if nothing happened. I was very happy the halter broke each time and that the horse wasn’t standing there panicking & struggling for a length of time.

The difference in the above quotes is that tabula rosa is going through a methodical process of desensitizing a horse, teaching it to stand, and teaching it to calmly accept new or unusual things. It’s a time consuming process, but you end up with a horse that does not spook and break halters. They learn to take another look at something that catches their eye instead of fleeing. You might get a startle reflex, but not a full blown situation where the horse breaks free.

Horses that go through this type of training just don’t panic and destroy things and hurt themselves like horses that don’t go through this training do. You are preventing the bad situation instead of doing damage control when the bad situation happens.

[kcmel]

[QUOTE=keysfins;8832757]
How about just replacement crown pieces, if your halter has double buckles for the crown? They are usually not hard to find.[/QUOTE]

This!

[Dani]

Not every leather halter is going to break! If you want a truly breakaway halter that is all leather then a single ply is what you want. I keep a halter on my mare for turn out because she’s awful to catch when she isn’t wearing one (walks right up when she has one on, it’s quite irritating actually…). Hers is double-ply everywhere but the crown, the crown is single so that if she gets caught up in something it will break.

I do not recommend tying in a breakaway, it can teach them to set back and get loose. I only tie mine in a rope halter with an attached lead because she decides when she wants to stand nicely and when she doesn’t. Sometimes she likes a bath, sometimes she can’t stand water. She’s about as marish as they come when it comes to standing tied.

Rope halters tend not to break as long as there are no metal pieces of hardware on them, they’re weak points. If you’re just looking for a turnout halter then single ply leather would be my go to, or a nice two-ply with a single-ply crown.

[SendenHorse]

make your own tabs for the halter, like those “fuses” that they sell all over.
https://www.horseloverz.com/horse-equipment/horse-halters/halter-accessories/perris-leather-replacement-tab?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&scid=scplp14980996&sc_intid=200-166230&gclid=CjwKEAjwmMS-BRCm5dn51JLbp1wSJACc61tFL4GNOrHytkeUTWaFQ-d2hjCIA6-nhKr8IuZUuWyKuxoCTf3w_wcB

[Foxtrot_s]

I’ve seen a halter that was cut almost in half where the crown piece attaches to the halter…deliberately, so it would break.

BTW - nobody mentioned Blocker ties - are they losing their appeal?

[Palm_Beach]

I tie with rope halters and long leads through Blockers for the most part.

[Foxtrot_s]

^^ That would be safe. I’d never tie a horse up in a rope halter that did not have a breakaway, like a string, or some give.

[Palm_Beach]

I don’t want them to break away. Then they learn to pull back. By the time they are hard tied they are trained to tie. I only use the blockers in case something extreme happens such as bees stinging the horse.

[merrygoround]

[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]

An outstanding English born and trained trainer saw this in action and never forgot it… I believe he saw it done with an automobile inner tube.

[Foxtrot_s]

But the point is to have the break-away before the extreme ‘thing’ happens.