Tacking up at the trailhead

[cowboymom]

Our rope halters have the lead permanently attached-part of the idea of a rope halter is no hardware so the leads are always tied on.

I never ever ride with the halter on under the bridle-too much junk on their head, just more stuff to catch on other stuff, more stuff to get itchy/hot/tangled/out of place and it just looks dude-ish to me. The lead rope left on the halter and tied back to the horn really bothers me, I’ve seen several wrecks and near disasters from horses tripping and stepping in the lead or catching it on passing brush or in one memorable steep mountain trail occasion the horse in front kicked the horse behind and got a full leg between the lead rope and the horse. lead rope was tied on hard with two half hitches-big mess.

[KSAQHA]

I use a clip on my leads to attach to the rope halters…most of the time I DON’T want them permanently attached. I also don’t keep the lead attached to the horse while riding…I wind it up and tie it to my saddle if I think I’m going to need it. As far as looking “dude-ish”, so what? I don’t trail ride with the purpose of trying to convince anyone I’m the trail GUIDE.

[Mtn_trails]

[QUOTE=katarine;6265487]
But a horse wearing both a halter and a bridle has a lot of itchy stuff on in host weather.
A halter’s poll piece migrates down the neck at speed- which annoys me visually and can get the horse’s face in a bind if left unchecked. (they try to put their heads down to drink and find they can’t).

No way I tie some horses by their necks- ain’t no way.

Takes all kinds, Mtn :)[/QUOTE]

Yes, it certainly does. :lol:
Personally, I like using a shoelace or a piece of leather lacing to keep the halter crown from sliding back, I loosly tie it to the bridle crown. If he’s itchy, he is more than welcome to put his head down and rub on his leg.

[Malda]

Does anyone know when these halter-bridles started/became mainstream? I’ve been riding for over 30 years and I only found out about them a few years ago.

[SharonA]

This is embarrassing!

So, after all that discussion about the challenges of tacking up at the trailhead and about how much I was willing to spend on a clip-in headstall… I was cleaning out my tack trunk, and what do I find in the bottom but a never-used, simple, clean, efficient clip-on headstall, nearly identical to the new clip-on headstall I ordered after this thread. I must have bought it close to 5 years ago, when I got my horse in the first place. It must have been bought in the first rush of retail induction.

D’oh!

[Sithly]

Looks like you found a solution, but just for future reference, I highly recommend these:

http://iowavalleycarriage.com/content/nose-buckle-beta-halters

There’s a buckle in the noseband so you can remove it with a bridle on. I’ve had one for the last 5 years or so, and it still looks brand new.