Absolutely agree with this! I’ve come across several horses before social media that turned out to be amazing that were low cost and in unusual situations.
I think social media in general has been a great help and a great hindrance in horse sales. I’ve never come across so many dishonest, disheartening, and downright ridiculous sellers in the last year than I have in 35 years working with horses and they were all social media based.
“Word of mouth” was a lot easier in many respects.
The reins tore at the ends, at the other end of the rolled section, and at the buckle. Yikes. I don’t think I’d bother with another set of those.
Edit. Those aren’t MToulouse, fyi. The rubber pattern is wrong, and that logo that says ‘Kris’ is [or, can be] the brand. I’m surprised M Toulouse didn’t catch it.
Edit: The contrast stitching doesn’t look quite right either. I hope you didn’t get some el’ cheapos or fakes.
I called MToulouse directly (which is made by IRH) and spoke to a rep there along with the photos, they were bought directly from them by me personally, so they are definitely MToulouse made. I think the branding on the rubber is whatever flexi rubber they used for these.
I have another M Toulouse bridle and Stirrup leathers I don’t really use, I’m afraid to ever put them to use again after this.
Are they older? The new ones have a totally different rubber pattern on them.
Nope, bought within the last few months, this is the other bridle I have that I pulled them off of:
I’ve seen different ranges of their reins with different rubber patterns. I think the “platinum” ones have the soft grip. CWD uses that same large grip brand so I could see how the OP got the reins mixed up. That is pretty bad failure. Wonder if they’d been sitting around before purchase and dry rotted.
Weird, because those don’t look right either. They have stops in the picture.
Right, and these are the thicker kind (that I personally hate). The Platinum ones have an arrow pattern to them, and feel similar to Nunn Finers.
Didn’t come with stops, the second pics without them is how it was shipped
I conditioned the bridle after I bought it and used it once on another horse without issues, the leather was actually really nice and didn’t appear dry or off in any way. These are the same reins I I used on the first ride with this horse in question, I just kept the bridle setup the same since I knew I was going to be back on him soon.
If you buy M Toulouse “platinum” rolled reins without the bridle, the rubber is totally different. I wonder if they’re using a different line of reins and just slapping them with that bridle.
I’ve never seen reins fail in so many places at the same time. I’d send all my M Toulouse stuff back to them. FWIW I have never thought their leather quality was good - saddles, bridles, girths, nothing. It all feels like plastic to me.
Agree, but I will ask what do you consider a Cinderella story? A backyard find that goes on to win a medal at the Olympics? I consider a diamond-in-the-rough as an all around good horse that I can trust on a bad trail and that can lay down a nice 1st level test or jump a 2’6" line without drama.
It’s entirely possible they thee in different reins where set I bought, but they look like what’s in the photo.
The platinum line is better quality I feel, but still not up to par with CWD, Devoucoux, Passier, Schockemohle, Prestige etc which is the majority of my other tack. I mainly bought the jumper bridle because I liked the figure 8 on it and had planned use on another horse, it also almost perfectly matched my CWD color that had the laced reins so part of the reason why I swapped them out.
I also hauled on this horse HARD when he initially bolted trying to emergency circle him away from the jump standards he was bolting towards, my hands are torn up and bruised from the amount of pressure I had just trying to stop him. I don’t think reins should have failed in this regardless of the amount of pressure on them, but I’m a taller stronger rider and it was like trying to stop a freight train
Possible he also stepped on them and caused at least one more break after rider bailed and they weren’t fully attached anymore.
That I’m not sure on, I did have one broken rein in my hand when I hit the ground and was still holding onto it when I stood up 
I am about heartbroken at the turn of events.
I was so hoping for you to find a pumpkin to turn into a dreamride.
Double bummer that the reins broke.
I hope you are on the mend, you have my best wishes.
OP, I’m glad you shared your story. When you initially posted, my first thought was “uh-oh”. COTH is usually a pretty cynical group and I was surprised at the number of encouraging responses you received.
I’m glad you shared the follow up for any future readers that might happen along. I think it serves as a good warning that these days, there are not many (if any?), big, pretty, sound, well-bred horses hanging around undiscovered. Horse prices have been astronomically expensive for quite some time. People have been beating the bushes and combing every nook and cranny to find suitable prospects. Most people know what they have, and if they don’t, it’s pretty easy to do a quick online search and figure it out.
Unfortunately, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
That’s how I went into this, firmly convinced I was going to find a major unsoundness issue or underlying problem on how he ended up where he was. In the first ride and visit, I was pleasantly surprised that really couldn’t find anything major worth noting. I had an expensive PPE planned out in my head if the second ride went well because I did in fact feel like I needed to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Yes, the second ride went horribly and I was hurt 1) I’m grateful for the fact that I did find out what this horse’s major behavioral issue was before I bought him and 2) at least it wasn’t after buying and shelling out multiple thousands for a PPE
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