What is safer for 24/7 turn out - leather halter or collar?

[StarPattern]

I have a 21 year old Standardbred mare who has always been hard to catch. On a good day, I can catch her in 20 or so minutes. On a bad day, I’m still walking her down at the 5 hour mark. If I go in without a halter, she’s the first one to greet me at the gate. When I catch her, she is generally fed, groomed and hand grazed for a bit while I tell her how pretty she is and then put back in the field. When the calendar calls for it, she’s “subjected” to the inevitable health care appointments.

She lives in a 10-acre field with a handful of other senior aged horses (I think the average age in that pen is 25 years old). Logically, I could move her to a smaller pen to make it easier to catch her, but she does not do well in smaller pens. She goes off her feed, drops weight, gets sore and is just lethargic. She needs that big pasture and her herd to feel good, so moving her is not an option. My convenience is not worth her discomfort.

She’s not overly food motivated and she has no issues standing back while the other horses allow themselves to be lured in with a bucket of food. She’ll come when she’s good and ready because she’s a mare and mares do what they want (lol). Normally, I don’t mind walking her down, but spending hours slogging through the mud in a spring time pasture gets tiring real fast and to be honest, I’m just looking for a bit of an advantage since she has double the amount of legs and way more stamina than I do.

I’ve never turned a horse out with a halter and I’m a little leery of it. She lives outside 24/7 with her group of senior cronies, so there’s not a lot of rough housing that goes on. There are a couple shelters, but not a lot else she could get caught on. Is a leather halter with a short catch rope safe or should I look into a leather broodmare collar? All I really need is something to hold on to and lead her to the gate where I’ve left her halter/lead. Is one safer over the other? If you were in my situation, what would be your choice?

(Please realize that I’m not asking for training advice. She has been hard to catch for her entire life, even as a youngster, and I’ve been working for 6 years to fix the issues without any progress, aside from realizing she’ll come right up if I don’t have a halter. I need a bit of an advantage that doesn’t involve locking her in a smaller enclosure. )

[tazycat]

I’d go with leather halter or a breakaway halter. I’ve used a thin leather strap like from a throat latch of a bridle to put around neck. They are usually thin enough they break if horse gets caught. I used this on a horse who was difficult to get a halter on,not hard to catch.

[StarPattern]

Would a short catch line attached to the halter pose an issue, do you figure? I’m thinking like 1ft length or so, just long enough for me to grab.

[tazycat]

@StarPattern

Would a short catch line attached to the halter pose an issue, do you figure? I’m thinking like 1ft length or so, just long enough for me to grab.

Depends on the pasture,i have known people to put catch ropes on that were a foot long never had an issue. My concern would be rope getting caught up on something. All the horses i ever saw with a catch rope were in an open field with no trees/brush. But a foot of rope isn’t all that long so might be ok.

[StarPattern]

The field where she is in has nothing really for trees. Two shelters, and some random half dead shrubs, but nothing that would be strong enough to catch and hold her if the catch line caught. The “plants” in the field are mostly long grasses and the branches of the shrubs are frail enough that they snap when I brush against them. They’d be no match for a horse pulling back if she somehow managed to tangle the foot of rope in them.

I suppose it would also be safe to just use baling twine as a catch line. That stuff breaks pretty easily too.

[tazycat]

@StarPattern

The field where she is in has nothing really for trees. Two shelters, and some random half dead shrubs, but nothing that would be strong enough to catch and hold her if the catch line caught. The “plants” in the field are mostly long grasses and the branches of the shrubs are frail enough that they snap when I brush against them. They’d be no match for a horse pulling back if she somehow managed to tangle the foot of rope in them.

I suppose it would also be safe to just use baling twine as a catch line. That stuff breaks pretty easily too.

I think you’ll be fine then, make sure baling twine isn’t the plastic type stuff that’s orange colored, that stuff doesn’t break very easy.

[StarPattern]

I have a stockpile of the blue stuff. That stuff seems to break nicely. haha.

[pasolover2]

Have you tried a quick catch rope? It is a length of rope with a ring on one end that you put over the horses neck/poll, slide the other end of the rope through the ring to make a loop which goes over the nose, instant halter. I have one of these I use to catch any one of my horses who will also move off if I have a halter in hand, but not with that. I take a balancer cube out as a treat, offer it and while they are getting their cube slide the rope over their neck/poll, make the loop and slip it over their nose and can then instantly take them to their stall, or wherever. I have used this when my husbands gelding got out of the pasture and brought him back to the barn which was some distance. With this if a horse should suddenly act up and pull away, you can release and it will fall off the head for safetys sake.

[sascha]

Leather halter with short catch lead would be my choice.

Having seen a cow almost die from getting her collar caught, I would not choose a collar. They don’t break nearly as easily and can’t be slipped out of like a halter can.

editing to add, I also like the lightweight Bucas halters which have really cheap frangible hardware on them and are made of polypropylene rather than nylon. Polypro is supposed to break more easily than nylon. The hardware on those halters will definitley break under pressure.

[Florida_Gator]

I have a pony that sounds identical to your mare. I leave a leather halter or a breakaway halter on him 24/7. I thought of the catch rope idea also but I found that with just the halter, I have enough to grab onto while I attach his lead that the catch rope wasn’t really necessary.

[tazycat]

@sascha

Leather halter with short catch lead would be my choice.

Having seen a cow almost die from getting her collar caught, I would not choose a collar. They don’t break nearly as easily and can’t be slipped out of like a halter can.

editing to add, I also like the lightweight Bucas halters which have really cheap frangible hardware on them and are made of polypropylene rather than nylon. Polypro is supposed to break more easily than nylon. The hardware on those halters will definitley break under pressure.

I used a leather throatlatch strap from a bridle that was around neck,it broke when it got caught. So it depends on strap being used. I worked a trail riding stable that left on halters, horses were on 100 acres to graze roam during the night. When i got there next morning one of the horses didn’t come up, did a headcount and one of the mares was missing.

Got on horse i used for a guide horse to go find missing horse as did several of the other guides. I found her after looking searching for over 45 minutes. Her halter got hung up on a tree branch and there she hung by her halter dead. Was a leather halter that DID NOT break. Trail stable owner never left halters on after that,but that was too late for the mare who strangled herself to death.

[twadwis]

Make a neck collar using inexpensive plastic ‘chain’, (we used bright yellow) at garden centers, cut to a length that is loose but doesn’t slide off and then use double ended snaps. Both the chain and snaps break easily and if the chain comes off you can easily see it on the ground. Light and easy to clean too.

[StarPattern]

I have tried a quick catch rope… she’s wise to those too. If she sees me carrying anything that resembles a halter, lead rope or some item designed to catch her, she keeps her distance. It’s the funniest thing - I can go in with a halter and lead, and she stays away. The minute I hold the items up and make a big production out of dropping them and walking away, she comes right to me. So I feel like most of her issues are because she wants to play tag and sometimes, I just don’t feel like playing. haha.

I’ll give the leather halter a try. Once she’s caught, she’ll follow me without an issue. I just don’t think she likes giving up her freedom that much, even though it usually just means she’s getting food and groomed. In the ideal world, she would come up to me all the time, but I’d be happy with being able to consistently catch her in under 15 minutes. LOL.

Thank you, all!

[invinoveritas]

Heather halter on horse in turnout. Carry treats with you to catch horse.
The crown piece on a leather halter will break if the horse gets caught up in anything except a wire fence. (Crown pieces pop right off in crossties, BTDT.)

[Simkie]

I’d vote for a super light neck strap…the suggestion for a lightweight plastic chain above sounds ideal. Less to snag, less to RUB.

[sascha]

@tazycat

I used a leather throatlatch strap from a bridle that was around neck,it broke when it got caught. So it depends on strap being used. I worked a trail riding stable that left on halters, horses were on 100 acres to graze roam during the night. When i got there next morning one of the horses didn’t come up, did a headcount and one of the mares was missing.

Got on horse i used for a guide horse to go find missing horse as did several of the other guides. I found her after looking searching for over 45 minutes. Her halter got hung up on a tree branch and there she hung by her halter dead. Was a leather halter that DID NOT break. Trail stable owner never left halters on after that,but that was too late for the mare who strangled herself to death.

Yeah, I should have qualified. NOT a sturdy leather halter. Those fancy triple stitched things are almost as bad as heavy nylon. Thin, crappy, half worn out if possible, and if not, cut a nice slash in the crown piece about half the width so that if it needs to break it’s got a head start.

A breakable makeshift collar would also work. When I think collar, I think the things that are available on the retail market and think no way because those are much too sturdy.

[DJohn]

Agree. Not the thick kind of leather halter, but a cheapie $35 single-stitch would be fine. 1 or 2 feet of catch rope.

[Palm_Beach]

You’ll save so much more time just teaching her to be caught. I don’t think there is a real answer to your question - a horse can get the halter or collar stuck on anything.

[gypsymare]

Quillin makes a single ply leather turnout halter. My three live in them. I live near a very busy road and if they make a break for it I want them to be easy to catch for even a lay person. Despite being thin, they are going on 3 years of abuse and only one scrubbing/oiling.

[tazycat]

My horses never have halters on in pasture,the two i have are easy to catch. I feel it’s a major safety issue, plus it must be annoying to horse, to consistently having something hanging on their head. If they want to be hard to catch, i can run them down with the 4 wheeler.