Stallion Halter

[Sheilajeanne]

Mulesaw, yeah, the halter in that picture is pretty much the one you see most horses wearing.

I have some pictures of Man O'War, though, where he is wearing a very different halter. It actually has a bit attached to it to help keep him under control! It's a bit hard to see the details, but it has both a brow band and a strap behind the poll.

BTW, he's 20 years old in this picture and still looks like a million bucks! One of my all-time favourite horses, for sure! 

Riders sometimes use neck straps when learning to jump, but I've rarely seen them except in pictures. My instructor had us do it the old military way: drop the reins on the horse's neck, and stretch your arms out like a bird! It teaches you a secure seat, and prevents you from interfering with the horse's mouth.

 

Edited February 21, 2024 by Sheilajeanne

[Mulesaw]

33 minutes ago, Grey Drakkon said:

"As I could understand of the owner of the stallion station, the halter sits more like a neck strap and less like a halter (if that makes any sense?). So it should sit further from the ears than a regular halter as far as I have understood, but I can see your concern.  The noseband seems very large to me, I can't remember the circumference, but I think it was around 32"

 

Actually that makes sense, some places actually use a neck strap rather than a halter, and having the nose band higher up ensures that the nasal bone doesn't snap if things get dicey (on horses that bone is very long and thin, and I"ve heard of more than one case of them getting broken). 

The nasal bone could be a very logic explanation, I have never thought about that. And given the worth of most of those stallions at the stallion station, I am pretty sure that they don't want any of them to be damaged. 
The owner told me that when he had purchased those halters back in the days it had cost a small fortune, so he had the name of his stallion station stamped into the halters to ensure that they didn't "wander off" 

[Mulesaw]

21 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Mulesaw, yeah, the halter in that picture is pretty much the one you see most horses wearing.

I have some pictures of Man O'War, though, where he is wearing a very different halter. It actually has a bit attached to it to help keep him under control! It's a bit hard to see the details, but it has both a brow band and a strap behind the poll.

BTW, he's 20 years old in this picture and still looks like a million bucks! One of my all-time favourite horses, for sure! 

Riders sometimes use neck straps when learning to jump, but I've rarely seen them except in pictures. My instructor had us do it the old military way: drop the reins on the horse's neck, and stretch your arms out like a bird! It teaches you a secure seat, and prevents you from interfering with the horse's mouth.

 

He does look like a champion :-)

I have tried to make a halter a couple of years ago that also featured a brow band, The plans were  from an old German saddlers book, but sadly I had made the halter according to the measurements in the book, and it was too small for our warmblood. 

I am not quite sure what the benefit of a browband on a halter is, but I would guess that it makes the halter sit a bit better. A regular halter can be a fairly loose fit, but I'm only guessing.
I enlarged the picture, and I can see that strap you are talking about. It also looks like the poll strap sits rather tight on him, but I guess he was a powerhouse, so better safe than sorry when handling him.

A fellow parent back when our youngest was in kindergarten had some Oldenburg horses on a meadow in the village. The youngest of her horses (around 3 years I guess) had a neck strap on. I can't remember her explanation why, I just remember that it was so tight that one day when we were looking at him, I asked her if it would be ok with her that I loosened it. She seemed a bit afraid of the horse and she said that if I really thought that I could do it and still keep it on him it would be ok. I loosened it maybe 3 holes and I felt so much better for that poor horse. She moved not long after and I don't know what became of her horses. But that is technically the only horse I have seen wearing a neck strap. 

Learning to jump that way sounds scary, but I see the idea of learning to have a good seat and not jerk the horses mouth, and a neck strap seems like a much more secure thing to grip than trying to grab a handful of mane if you loose your balance :-)

 

 

[Sheilajeanne]

Mulesaw, our first jumps were over cavaletti, which sit about 12" off the ground. So, not very scary. And in preparation for jumping, we did a lot of riding without stirrups and trotting poles. The horse stretching out over the poles helps prepare for jumping and riding without stirrups develops strong thigh muscles, so your knees stay in the right place over a jump. One person asked me how I would manage to stay on my horse when it refused a fence and ducked its head. It was from all those hours riding without stirrups! 

Yes, the browband would make the halter more secure. You've got two straps securing it, one in front of the ears and one behind, plus the throat latch. The design of that halter is very similar to a bridle, actually, with the bit attached to the cheek pieces.

Edited February 21, 2024 by Sheilajeanne

[Sheilajeanne]

That's supposed to be 'we did a lot of riding without stirrups OVER trotting poles.'

[Mulesaw]

4 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

That's supposed to be 'we did a lot of riding without stirrups OVER trotting poles.'

 That was actually also how I read it at first, but now I can see that it didn't exactly say that :-)

Trotting poles and cavalettis are great for getting a fluent move on the horse. And also great for instilling a bit of security in young riders.

 

[jcuk]

Thats hefty looking Halter cant say i have ever seen one like that. Nice work too, if you get another chance to another one, where i believe you have hand stitched around the d rings and buckles which look like they are reinforced, you might want to pre-prick your stitch  marks to make it easier to go through so many layers it will help keeping the stitches neater also.

Hope this helps

JCUK

 

 

[Mulesaw]

1 hour ago, jcuk said:

Thats hefty looking Halter cant say i have ever seen one like that. Nice work too, if you get another chance to another one, where i believe you have hand stitched around the d rings and buckles which look like they are reinforced, you might want to pre-prick your stitch  marks to make it easier to go through so many layers it will help keeping the stitches neater also.

Hope this helps

JCUK

 

 

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean by pre-pricking, but I'd love to get a trick or two since it actually bothers me that it looks so wavy and disorderly in the ends. :- )

I did indeed hand stitch in the areas sort of where the leather flapped over for the D-rings etc, so sort of 3" length at each end. I was afraid that if I used the sewing machine, the stitching would be less durable and not quite as tight as I could make it by hand.  I used a marking wheel and put the (much too bulky) parts in the stitching horse, and then used a diamond awl. But those results weren't super great (to say the least).

But I suppose that I could have taken the thread out of the needle of the sewing machine and used that one to do the pre-pricking.
I have actually done that on an earlier double stitched halter, but I can't really remember why I didn't do it on this one.  

Technically I think that I could have made it a bit tighter around the massive D-ring if I had wet formed the straps first, and then let them dry in position before gluing it up with contact cement before the sewing, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't have helped much on my sewing :-)

Brgds Jonas

 

[TomE]

We all agree it is tough to awl through that many layers, and it's great for me to read everyone's methods.  I use a peg awl haft with a 2" awl for the heaviest sewing that I do.  https://osborneleathertools.com/product/peg-awl-haft-143/  It's probably the wrong tool for leather sewing but I have gotten the feel of it to reach my destination on the backside of a stack of straps.

[jcuk]

When have finished stitch marking your work with your pricking irons just put your work into your clams pre- prick your work before assembling it to be stitched, that way means you will have one less layer to go through with your Awl. And most of us will have at least two one for heavier work.

Hope this helps

JCUK

Edited February 22, 2024 by jcuk