Monthly Archives: November 2016
Don’t miss our Black Friday deals!
The turkey has been cooked, the pumpkin pie eaten, and it’s time to get Christmas shopping.
This weekend only (Friday through Monday), get a free t-shirt with this gorgeous design, courtesy of Summer Frost Designs, with a purchase of $125 or more. Use promo code BFRIDAY16. Or, purchase the tee separately for $25.
(The watermark will not appear on the actual t-shirt.)
Enter code BFRIDAY16 at checkout, and the t-shirt will pop up in your cart. Click “Edit” to specify style and size. Please note, shirts will ship separately from tack, but no worries: it will be at your door in plenty of time for Christmas.
Also this weekend, get $5 off a purchase of $50 or more with promo code 5OFF50. Got your eye on a new tack set? This is the time to get it! But don’t wait–these promo codes expire at midnight on Tuesday.
Make sure you don’t miss a single sale by signing up for our newsletter here.
What’s that? Explaining lunge lines
(also known as longe lines, depending upon your sense of phonetic spelling)
If you grew up riding in the English style, you are probably familiar with the lunge line, but if you came to horses through trail riding or Western disciplines, it may be something of a foreign concept.
Lunging sends horses in a circle around their handler, who holds the excess line and sometimes a lunge whip. The whip does not typically touch the horse, but is carried in the right hand, trailing behind the horse to create noise that lets the horse know he needs to keep moving.
Lunging horses has lots of different applications; it can be a controlled setting to work a horse lightly back from an injury, or provide a chance for someone on the ground to watch a horse at work to look for lameness. Lunging is also a way of letting a horse blow off some steam before beginning a ride, and it can also be a good way to help a horse build condition or muscle (especially if you’re also using side reins or other equipment). We’ve also found it a good way to teach horses voice commands, which can transfer nicely to other groundwork or riding.
Many English riders also begin their riding instruction riding a lunged horse, because it enables them to focus on their legs and position before they need to worry about also directing the horse around the arena.
No matter how you use lunging, there are a few important things to remember. If you’re lunging for more than a couple of minutes, it’s considered good practice to send the horse in both directions before finishing up for the day. That’s because turning in a circle unevenly stretches and loads the two sides of a horse’s body. It’s also important not to lunge too often or for too long at a time to avoid stress-related injury. Another good way to avoid putting too much strain on the horse is to avoid making the circle he travels in too small. Circles measuring 20-30 meters in diameter are considered a good size.
While lunging your horse, don’t wrap the line around your hand. If the horse should spook, you’ll end up losing some skin on your palms. Instead, loop excess line and grab the loop around the center.
Two Horse Tack offers all the equipment you need to get your horse lunging. Our lunge lines come in lengths from 10 to 40 feet in your choice of 14 colors. Our lunging cavesson includes hardware sewn into the noseband, giving you all kinds of options for line placement. Cavessons are available in sizes mini to draft, in matching colors to our lines.
New Product Alert: Stylish Nylon Turnout Halters
Want to make your horse’s turnout a little more glamorous? We’ve got you covered.
We’ve just added biothane glitter turnout halters to our shop! This halter is perfect for everyday use because biothane is industry tested for strength, even in the most rugged conditions. It’s also waterproof and fade-proof—just dunk in a bucket of soapy water after the horse has taken a roll in the mud and air dry.
Our glitter biothane halters are here!
The glitter biothane halter is adjustable at the nose and crown and comes with reinforced holes.
Our glitter biothane halter is available in your choice of five colors (light blue, dark blue, green, purple) and no-rust stainless steel hardware comes standard.
Note: At this time the glitter biothane halter is only available in horse size. Sorry for any inconvenience!
New Product Alert: Jumping Breastcollar
Attention eventers, jumpers, and foxhunters: we’ve got a new product in our shop for you!
Our new jumping breastcollar gives you the security and safety of a regular breastcollar while allowing for freedom of movement through the shoulders. (If you aren’t familiar with the safety benefits of a breastcollar, check out this post from our archives.)
The jumping breastcollar runs over the top of the neck and attaches at the saddle billets. That neck strap gives you something to grab onto if your horse decides to perform an unscheduled “gravity check.”
Fully adjustable at the shoulder and billets, this breastcollar is available in your choice of colors: black, white, brown, light blue, dark blue, hunter green, lime green, purple, yellow, orange, red, wine, turquoise, and pink.
Congratulations to Heather and Fiona!
Congratulations to Heather and Fiona, who are the winners of our October tack giveaway!
Fiona is a 10-year-old pinto Spotted Draft x Arabian cross mare, and Heather is her human. Heather hails from northern Maryland and is currently a veterinary technician. Together, the two have dabbled in a variety of disciplines, from dressage to trail riding, and beyond. Heather has competed in driving, dressage, and Western disciplines.
Doesn’t she look great? Love that face!
We know they’ll love our reflective split ear Western bridle, which will be made to their size and color specifications. All our items with reflective Day-Glo overlays become especially popular this time of year as the days get shorter and more folks are riding in low light.
In the month of November, we’ll be giving away a camouflage Western breastcollar. This breastcollar will help keep your saddle in place, which is great from a safety perspective, and also gives you a great spot to hang on in the event of ‘unexpected turbulence’ during your ride. Our camo breastcollar comes in 3/4-inch width beta biothane in your choice of 14 colors with green, pink, or orange camo. It’s fully adjustable at the shoulder and belly straps to ensure a great fit.
Sound cute? Enter for your chance to win one today and you’ll get a coupon code for $5 off your next order.
Great Idea! Easy Hardware Replacement
Anyone who has horses realizes that they’re mischievous creatures, seemingly bound and determined to destroy tack, blankets, stall guards, wraps, bell boots, and sometimes even themselves. Although Two Horse Tack’s beta biothane halters, bridles, and breastcollars are super-durable, horses do occasionally manage to snap or exhaust hardware on our pieces.
For just this reason, we wanted to make sure it was easy for customers who chose snap ends for their reins to replace those snaps if they should break. That’s why we thread our snaps through the reins and buckle the reins together, rather than threading them through and stitching them down. We can replace hardware in tack which is stitched down (email us if you need a repair!) but it takes longer and can be slightly more expensive than replacing the snap yourself.
As shown here, you simply need to undo Conway buckles (if you’re not familiar with Conway buckles, see this tutorial here), thread on the new hardware, and rebuckle. Simple, right? Now finding that lost bell boot/blanket strap/fly mask is a whole other venture…
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