Our barn uses the plastic zip ties to attach the nylon cross ties with the panic snaps to the metal rings on the wall. We use two per cross tie (four per pair of ties). They give fairly easily though, but are dirt cheap when bought in quantity. (My horse actually knows exactly how to break them by grabbing a cross tie in his teeth and yanking when he thinks he’s been standing on the cross ties too long.) If you increase the number of ties used, the harder they are to break. But they definitely give when a horse panics.
For a leather halter, definitely Fincham’s - been buying theirs for almost 40 years. Excellent quality and if it’s not yearling sales time, they’ll do the brass nameplate and attach it while you wait.
I’ve also used just an ordinary nylon halter converted to breakaway style by the addition of a small leather piece at the crown. (Just like the ones already made that way except I just had the leather portion riveted in place. You could probably have a saddler use a Chicago screw instead of a rivet if you wanted, and have spare leather inserts.) And they did work properly. However, these days, and with current horse, I prefer solid leather halters.
