I carry a rope halter with me and a lead rope. If necessary, I can put the rope halter on OVER the bridle - or remove the bridle and fasten the rope halter.
My horse’s usual halter is a finely made and lined, leather halter. COst me nearly $90 and well worth it. It’s 11 years old and still very worthy. I use that for tying in the trailer and to the high line. The rope halter stays in my trail bag.
To get a halter to fit correctly, buy one that adjusts on BOTH sides of the crown and adjusts at the chin. Hard to find. However, I am seeing more and more nylon halters with the leather crown piece with buckles on both sides. Some are stitched leather crown pieces, so I suspect they would not break as quickly as a un-stitched leather crown piece.
Big D I think makes a nice nylon halter with GOOD hardware with the unstitched leather crown piece. I can’t remember if the nose band is adjustable.
I’m not a big fan of Brenda Imus/Gaits of Gold equipment but she has 2 items that I would be tempted to buy. 1 is her saddle pad and the other is her convertible bridle. It looks to be a very good investment for those who want a halter-bridle without all the dangling straps and snaps.
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy Tory, Weaver, or Tucker equipment. But there’s lots of good leather folks out there. Colorado saddlery is one. I bought a marvelous mule bridle for a horse that is very senstive about his ears. It has a clip at the browband and at the poll.
