Halter for shipping? Leather? Breakaway?

[eosinophil]

I going to be shipping my four horses and two donkeys out to the west coast. I am looking into shipping companies and have gotten a reasonable (that’s a relative term) quote from Equine Express that I’m considering.

One question I have is what sort of halters should I use? I was debating between breakaway and leather but I wasn’t sure what would be better. One issue is that one of my horses loves to break breakaway halters. He’s just a big old dummy and I’m worried he’ll manage to snap it just by rubbing his big old head on something within the first twenty minutes of the trip. Then he’ll be all confused about why he isn’t tied and start rubbing his big old head on his neighbor or who knows what. He’s kind of a doofus.

Anyway, upshot is, is a standard leather halter okay for shipping? I certainly don’t want him hurt if he DID get stuck, but I also don’t want to have him accidentally loose, which seems like a much more likely scenario.

Thanks!

[Hawks_Nest]

Standard leather is fine, I’ve handled plenty of horses (our barn gets used for a layover) from a pro shipper and they’ve all been in standard leather halters. When my guy was imported and shipped up from Miami he was in a nylon halter the whole time, no one cared (he had been in that halter since leaving his home country with no problems)

[Highflyer]

Either is fine. You can always send a spare with him if you’re concerned.

[horsepoor]

I have used leather halters - they will break if needed and I think they are more comfortable for the horse than nylon.

[lorilu]

Leather. Never nylon.
If going a long way, cover with fleece tubes.

[yellowbritches]

I am a all leather, all the time kind of girl. My kids wear a leather halter every day, for everything. So, yes, also for shipping. For your big doofus, maybe a second, lightweight halter (either a breakaway or single ply leather or maybe a rope) so he always has something on his head, in case he does destroy his main one.

[merrygoround]

Leather with fleece tubes for long haul shipping. Leather for the rest of the time. I refuse to turn put in nylon halters.