I recently purchased my first horse, an 8yo Belgian draft/warmblood mare. She is a VERY big girl and I have discovered that almost nothing “off the rack” fits her. Thankfully I already have saddle and bridle taken care of - an Henri de Rivel dressage saddle with extra wide gullet and a Smith Worthington bridle from their draft line- but everything else has been a real struggle. Turn-out halter, blanket , even bell boots. The largest sizes just aren’t big enough. For those of you that own a draft or draft cross, where do you get your stuff? Is there a retailer out there who specializes in the plus size horse market? I found a couple draft supply places online but they seem to specialize in driving equipment. Help!!
I know that Stacy from Jumping Percheron http://jumpingpercheron.blogspot.com mentions some of the places that she finds tack and equipment on her blog. I believe she gets a lot of it from Schneider’s http://www.sstack.com
For blankets, Schneiders big fella collection is what I use on my Shires. I don’t use bell boots on them, but Davis makes a draft sized bell boot which is huge. If yours is a cross they might be too big. Turnout halter as in leather? I have a custom Quillins for my big Shire, but I don’t turnout in halters and it would be a little heavy for that. I have an oversize Perri’s for my small Shire gelding (17 hands, ~1700 lbs) and it fits perfectly and is lighter weight.
Thanks! I will check out Schneider’s. For turnout I use a breakaway - nylon with a light weight leather piece for the crown. I got one from Walsh but it a was semi-custom order.
Do you have any pictures of her?
Not particularly stunning photos, but yes.
For scale, I’m 5’9". These are both the day we brought her home, about 3 weeks ago. She’s 17.3, takes a 30" nose band, an 18" brow band, and an 87" extra roomy blanket. She’s a big girl!!
As the owner of an 18.2hh warmblood I feel your pain! I have found a brand of horse clothes, EOUS, that runs large and comes in 87" and 90" sizes, great quality and of course Rambo 87" are cut very roomy. Davis XL bell boots, Smith Worthington makes 66" extra long reins and extra large halters, I found my halter on ebay, black amish leather. There is a website Warmblood Tack store too, good luck!
Drafttack.com is lovely to work with and they ship crazy fast.
Chicks Saddlery does personalized halters that juuuust fit my Percheron gelding’s big head. His original halter was from Chicks, and I just ordered a show halter but his every day halter is from MyDraftSuperStore (see below).
www.mydrafthorse.com makes great halters. I received one in the COTH Secret Santa.
These are some others that came up on a quick search that I am off to investigate as well 
Draft Tack and Blankets | www.tackwholesale.com
https://www.tackwholesale.com › draft-ta…
Draft Horse Gear | Warmblood Tack Store
https://warmbloodtackstore.com › draft-h…
Draft horse tack, draft horse bridle, draft horse breast collar, draft horse bit
drafthorsesaddle.com › Catalog
www.jtidist.com › draft-tack
If you can find them, Centaur makes a XXL bell boot. Roxie has big feet but the Davis bell boots were enormous on her. The XXL Dover dressage/turnout boots fit her huge cannon bones, and so do the Woof double-lock brushing boots in MXW (Medium/X Wide, so it’s big around, but without getting taller).
We have a leather draft halter from Paris Tack that barely fits, but it works.
Schneiders Big Fella line is great, and so is Eous, as a previous commenter mentioned. Don’t even bother with Shires blankets unless your mare has a thin neck–the neck hole on those blankets is tiny.
I get all my bits and most of my bridles from drafttack.com.
Someone mentioned on COTH not long ago that Eous had gone kaput – and indeed, the website (equisupplies.com) is rather forlornly down.
In any case, I personally didn’t have good luck with the Eous stable blanket I bought a few years ago – the hardware didn’t last a week on my big Perch cross. There are several different Rambo models that might suit, however, depending on your girl’s particular shape. (E.g., the Optimo was perfect for a giant-shouldered Perch x Friesian I used to own, whereas the Supreme works for my Perch xTB, and the discontinued XL for my 3/4 Perch.)
