Two Horse Tack Beta-Biothane Halter!

 Natasha from Two Horse Tack contacted me to do a Product Review of her Beta-Biothane tack line. I was pretty excited as I have never dealt with Beta-Biothane, and heck - who doesn't love trying out new tack?!

I went with their Turnout Halter & Lead made from Beta-Biothane in the two-colour combination.

The website states that "it's the only halter you will ever need!" due to the fact it is super strong & made of easy to clean material. The halters feature double buckle crown pieces, easy on and off throat latch snaps, an option to purchase a breakaway leather crown piece, an optional matching lead and stainless steel hardware.

Beta-Biothane

A little more on Beta-Biothane: the website claims it to be more durable than nylon or leather. It also says that the color will stay true even after years of use, and to clean dirt around the stitching you can wash the tack in the washing machine! Finally, what I found interesting is that it doesn't absorb moisture or sweat like leather does, and the web coating serves as padding so it's comfortable for your horse.

So what did I think?

well first, let's all just say how cute my model for today Buster is. I went with the black halter with red on top, because ultimately (of course) this will be Jingle's halter and those are his colours!

Fit

I really liked the fit and feel of the halter on Buster. The snap throat latch and double buckled crown is a really nice addition, plus the roller clasps work really well with easy adjustment. I'm always in the market for tack that can easily adjust from one horse to another since we're constantly using our tack on different horses in our training operation. These halters definitely have that.

Function

For what I do, I would have preferred a rope lead, and will probably end up switching out the beta-biothane lead for a traditional rope lead. I like to be able to have a long line so I can lunge a small circle if I need too, and also I prefer to tie to poles/fence/etc. with rope.

I also wanted to test how easy this halter was to clean. So I found legitimately the only mud-pit in the desert, a very gross cess pool of wash-rack run off and literally drug this halter through the muck. All I did was hang it in our wash rack, quickly sprayed it off, and then left it to dry.

After an hour it was dry, and after a day of sitting outside it was slightly dusty, but otherwise like I had never gotten it dirty or left it outside. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately the desert dust really seemed to show up on the black, so next time I might go with a different colour. 

Overall...

Overall, I really like the halter and especially like the idea of the halter and the quick-clean Beta-Biothane. At our operation we have the "home halters" and the "show halters", the home halters take quite the beating - from having the horses tied up while their saddled, washed off after we work them, tied to the fences while they are turned out - they see a lot of the elements and show it. This material is way tougher, and way easier to clean, and would be a much better substitute to have a better looking, yet still cost-effective halter at home.

I'm pretty happy with my new little halter and can't wait to throw it on Jingle and see how he looks in it! (He will look adorable... obviously) Plus, speaking of Jingle, i'm mulling around the idea of possibly trying the two different styles of Side-Pulls that Two Horse Tack provides - and if I do end up trying them out of course I will let you guys know all about it!

Try it yourself!!

Finally, Natasha over at Two Horse Tack has offered up a coupon to my readers if you guys would like to try out some of their cool Beta-Biothane tack - don't miss out!!

Tack Issues & Where We Are Now...

When I brought Jingle home, I also brought home a brand new saddle - a Jeff Smith Cowhorse, that I really, really liked. It was a bit too much money, but it was good quality, and it was pretty, and I thought that me and my boy deserved it! I also purchased a Classic Equine ESP pad.

Shortly thereafter, I decided against the ESP pad - way too thick, and didn't conform to his back at all. This was when I first noticed "slipping" of my saddle, I contributed it to the pad, and purchased an SMX Professional's Choice Contoured Pad, seen below.

It was at the same time that I was riding Jingle in a D-Ring, Three Piece Snaffle with Copper Roller, and a noseband, to try to get through his wicked head tossing/mouth chomping issues. It didn't seem to work. So we moved into the sidepull.

His first Sidepull was Weaver brand with a rawhide nose-piece that I wrapped in red vet-wrap, to match his Red Professional's Choice SMB Elites, and his Black Bell Boots. Very quickly we found a happy medium in the sidepull - my horse was stomping his hoof down, he's bitless gosh-darnit!

Yet, I was still feeling that "slipping" issue, and proceeded to take thousands and thousands of these types of photos...

This would occur right after I took Jingle's saddle off, uneven hair, odd dry-spots.

I contacted Frontier and was informed that with winter-hair coats, sometimes the sweat doesn't have a chance to soak through the entirety, which causes these "dry-spots". Uhm. No. You are wrong. Thanks for playing. My saddle wasn't fitting right, and so I found a lady that specializes in cowhorse saddles, but also takes a lot of trade-ins, I figured I would find a used cutting or reining saddle from her. But, once again, my "spend more for higher quality" mentality kicked in and I ended up with a very nice saddle indeed... too nice...

It was a Don Rich cowhorse saddle, but I discovered I still felt that "slipping" feeling, compound that with the fact that the fleece lining underneath was uneven... I quickly returned it, and got a second, even nicer one, as an apology.

what an awkward stance my horse has going on in this shot...

So nice. so dang nice. I loved it, it was beautiful. However, it was "slipping" too, always on Jingle's right side, I could just feel shifting. My trainer wondered if I'm so used to the feeling that now I over-compensate for it, and try to adjust before it actually does slip. My massage therapist commented that my right side is tighter. Jingle's massage therapist commented that his back is uneven, especially in musculature, and slightly lowered.. you guessed it... to the right. 

Add to that, Jingle actually has a nice normal back, except just behind his shoulders/withers there is a slight dip, causing those dry-spots and uneven places.

I knew I needed something almost a bit too wide, and something that would accommodate my horses funky back as we tried to get him back to being evenly muscled, and working properly. All these saddles I had been trying were just too narrow and sitting right up on his withers, even though EVERYONE and their dog told me they were all fitting fine, I knew that it wasn't. 

During this time I found a lady via Facebook that make's very nice bitless attachments for bridles. I purchased one from Amanda's Halters, and it works wonderful, not only is it attractive, it's made out of parachute chord so it's tight and has a bit of a bite if I need it. Finally, I was tickled pink because I finally had my horse back in one of his pretty bridles, not those ugly plain sidepulls i'd been dealing with. Now, my next plan is to bling up the Sidepulls I have! 

The Lady I had been working with found me a nice saddle, a Don Rich, but more of a Ranch Cutter/Cowhorse, it was a bit wider so it could sit right down on those darn withers, and it fit me really nicely. We had to ride in a demo, and then finally, mine came. She even oiled it two-tone, especially for me. I love it.

Looking a bit dirty here after a couple months of riding - the only downside to roughouts is how quickly they show use, but I love roughouts, and don't think I'd go without one now.

I am also riding Jingle in a Professional's Choice Air-ride with the built up shoulders. These pads are hard to find because Prof. Choice has been phasing them out in replacement with the contoured pads, which I don't like as much. The only built-up pads you can get right now are generally stupidly expensive, ugly, or round-skirted for barrel racers. This pad has been perfect.

Jingle also got new black SMB's, as his red ones were falling apart, and I need to get them re-stitched. I think they look quite nice on him, I really like the contrast of all the browns, blacks and whites with his tack right now. 

& of course, I had to throw in some bling... a pretty little saddle cross I picked up at Lammles.

Finally, I'm riding him in a professional's choice neoprene cinch. I don't love neoprene, infact I have quite a few very nice (read:expensive) mohair cinches I'd prefer to ride Jingle in, but the fact of the matter is Neoprene sticks, and with a hard to fit horse, that's what you need. I may switch back into mohair for summer trail riding, but for right now, neoprene is serving us very well.

Jingle says, "How crazy do you think my mahm is? I think she'z at a 10 for sure. Rumour has it she bought me a bosal for my birthday. She haz a problem."

So, what's the point of this post? I guess that I am a nut-job and completely, totally addicted to shopping for my horse. Holy moly.