The Baling Twine Halter

This is one more way to waste my time. However, it is something I wanted for my horses for the winter.

I have halters galore but they all have metal buckles and side pieces. I was able to buy rope halters for Dream and Frilly last summer, but I didn't own Willow or Sammy until fall.

I really dislike having metal touch their faces during the winter and the metal has rubbed the fur off in places. So, as a consequence I decided to make halters for the two of them. Sammy's is almost finished. It is the same. The new halters are made to be comfortable for the horses as well as being less obstructive to the feeding and vision needs of the horse. They are strong and should last for many years, becoming more supple with each passing day. They are made specifically for each horse, but can be re-adjusted as needed at the same time.

The beautiful blue halters are made of the baling twine that comes wrapping the large bales of hay that are larger than our little truck. I ended up with so much of this twine and had no idea what to use it for. This halter has loops, one on either side in case I want to cross-tie her and one under the chin for hooking a lead rope to. I can easily have hooked rings into the halter instead of using loops but I have made raw sheep wool covers for the halter to make it as comfortable as possible and the rings would have been in the way.

The greatest majority of the baling twine is this pretty baby blue in color, but I have a large ball of black with a yellow strand through it. I'll be using that for some project or another. It is my plan to knit myself a pair of slippers with the blue twine, make a bridle, reins and breast strap as well as good solid straps for horse blankets which I intend to get into making. Eventually I will probably put them crafts up for sale, here on this blog and in a store blog that will be linked to each of my crafts.

These pictures aren't very good. It is very difficult to run after Willow, my little French Canadian horse, when she wants her head stuck into a bale of hay. I tried and may be able to get better pictures of Sammy with the halter. Sammy is a much more patient filly. Strange, my youngest horse, two year old Sammy is my most patient horse. Willow loves to eat and stops for no one to get at the food even though it is constantly with her.