Fieldsafe Headcollars

Storminateacup

Storminateacup

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 March 2008
Messages
1,633
Location
2nd star on the right and straight on 'til morning
Visit site
Please help me ally my fears. Bought a fieldsafe headcollar, it has the two different strengths of detachable velcro buckle sections to secure the strap over the poll. Well it rubbed new boy badly, so I took an old soft headcollar cut the original buckle off and put the lowest strength velcro buckle on. (30-50kilos breaking strength - the other is 90kilos).

Anyway today I found the headcollar in the field but the velcro had not come undone, so he must have just slipped it off over his ears, I had put it on rather loosely.
So I put it back on and did it up snuggly.
Now I am worrying that the velcro may not give, if he catches on something ( theres not much in the field, apart from one of his feet, when scratching his head)
Has anyone had a bad experience with these fieldsafe buckles on ordinary headcollar? or am I just being OTT?
 
Last edited:
I've got one of those headcollars and found that they only break loose if horsey catches something in them right up near the velcro. If anywhere else, they have to pull bloomin hard and fast before it tears away.

Also tried the ones with the rubber inserts instead of rings. Yes that worked, except replacing the rubber rings is a fiddly stupid job, well, I couldn't do it!

In the end, bought a crappy Indian leather headcollar that was single thickness and would just snap

Now pony seems to have got past the 'I will not be caught' stage, she doesn't need to wear anything at all
 
Aerborn do the fieldsafe ones with the rubber rings and they work, the rings give if they get caught up in something. They come with spare rings which you just superglue back together. I have only had one horse break one, found it lying in the field, superglued the ring and she is still wearing it. They are quite soft material too so less likely to rub compared to the velcro ones. They also have plastic clips for adjusting so they will break too.
 
I use the Horsewear Fieldsafe headcollar (the one the OP describes). I bought a couple of fleecy girth sleeves and used them, double thickness, to tightly wrap the whole headcollar. Now this is sewn on and it's well padded, the headcollar doesn't rub. If you're worried about that making it too warm to wear in summer, it doesn't as the fleecy texture soon squashes down and becomes matted and tight. It still provides a nice layer of padding though. My filly is extremely thin skinned and I have to pad everything to protect her.

Must admit I too was concerned at the level of 'pulling' my husband and I had to do (with the headcollar pull-of-war'ed between us) to try and break the velcro. In fact, we couldn't break either weight of velcro strap, no matter what we tried. In the end I grudgingly opted to use the 30-40Kg strap (the lighter weight one). My filly weighs about 600Kg and is 16.2hands so I'm know she's considerably stronger than the two of us measy humans, but I'm assuming the manufacturer has tested the headcollar thoroughly enough to know it works in an emergency. I assume, though. Not sure that entirely convinces me...

I used to use a lovely old, supremely over oiled, thin single-thickness leather headcollar on her... but some %$£* stole it last year. :mad:
 
Last edited:
I've had several of the aerborn ones with the rubber rings, but just find they break too easily (as in the last one only survived 30 mins!) And I saw him break it and it wasn't because he got hung up on anything. Yes you can re-glue the rings together but its fiddly and again it still seems to fall apart so easily

Also bought a velcro one. Horsewear, I think, but this one seems TOO strong and would take a lot of breaking. Also it rubbed him

What it really needs I think is for someone to design one using soft webbing like the Aerborn with the rings (preferably a bit stronger rings) and velcro so you could easily replace the rings
 
I use two types. I don't like leather for turnout as I find it goes yukky but a good compromise is a nylon headcollar with a leather headpiece & buckles both sides. I make patterns of holes in the top to weaken it further so effectively the head leather is only about 1/2".

The other type is by cottage craft and has two rings on the cheek side. One metal & one plastic. On the metal ring it is safe for leading and use the plastic so it can break in the field. It is also very easy to fasten as you can just use the clip instead of the buckle to take it on and off.

The aerborn ones are ok for on off practice, holding a fly fringe or for ID across a field but no use if you need to grab.

I'm not a fan of velcro.
 
I've got a few of the Aerborn ones with rubber rings, and virtually all of the rubber rings have snapped. I've replaced the broken rings with pieces of string which are stronger than the rubber rings, but should still snap when needed.

I also have some of the Cottage Craft ones with the plastic and metal clip and velcro. I find these seem to fit a bit lopsided though with the weight of the clip and rings all on the one side.
 
I use a thin cheap nylon headcollar, cut it across the headpiece strap, then hand sew it back together.
My sewing is so poor, I am confident that it will snap under limited pressure.
 
Are the fieldsafe headcollars suitable to use when leading a horse or are they just so you can catch the horse out in the field?!

(If they give when caught out in the field, do they come apart when the horse pulls when tied up etc?)
 
We have our 3 year old TB in a Horseware Fieldsafe headcollar, and so far, so good, it hasn't rubbed him, but he's got quite a fine head. I've led him in the field in it, but I definitely wouldn't lead him on the road in it, I just wouldn't feel that it was safe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top