More on my bridle quest and a bit of nostalgia

I apologize for the triviality of this post, and the way I'm veering near the edge of insanity with my pickiness. But here's where I'm at. And really, with all the options available to us for customization, some might say I'm a normal horse owner. But I'm the Horse Crazy American, which includes tack.

I have a strong push from my blogger friends for Distance Depot and they truly have the best prices, and I'm told they'll customize *anything.* I wrote them today asking what International shipping would cost, and hope to hear back soon. 84$ includes stainless steel and overlay!

American Trail Gear has already PMd me, and I have less modifications to their stuff than other brands. But the price! Stainless steel and overlay is not included in the price, so I'm at 110$ before further (insane) requests like tons of keepers as bling. 

I am also shopping for reins, which I forgot to mention, and have the same crazy criteria - I want some sort of white black mix, no pimple grip and no leather, (Barefoot makes some awesome rope reins with white bling but with leather ends).

I love the feel of flat rope reins but try to find those in Germany. I gave up. *sigh*

Then I found this company I'd never heard of called Nelaya.de and they do some interesting biothane bridle designs, one with removable browband (how Mag would love to free up his forehead like Major!).

     


And check out the reins Nelaya produces! They're biothane without pimple grip and supposedly the "stoppers" keep them from slipping. I rode in my beta biothane reins yesterday because there was no rain forecasted (they're useless in rain), but it got so hot out my hands were sweating, so, no good. I love the feel of beta reins but hate the slipperyness.

Here is Nelaya's solution:

     

Supposedly the stoppers provide a lot of grip (I wonder) and I like the black ends for even more contrast. They use metal keepers on all their bridles, which on black looks really sharp, but on white I'd still want normal rubber keepers. Since I don't use a martingale I don't need open ends.

I assume all three companies will customize for me for no extra charge. Assumptions!

The shipping costs will factor strongly into my decision because on top of that, I also must pay a customs fee. Right, there's no free trade between the EU and the US.

What I've learned in this process (The Great Bridle Quest of 2018) is that all companies that sell beta biothane offer from the same manufacturer, because the color is always WH521. Why would a German retailer call its white beta WH521 unless it was produced by the same company as Distance Depot and ATG?  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it gives me confidence that they are all using the same top quality beta.

Tonight I got a mail from the guy who wants to pay me 110Euros for my Zilco bridle/reins, and he says he's measuring his horse to perhaps purchase my old Toklat girth too! Woo! I have 3 (!!!) Toklat wool girths and no one needs that many. This is my oldest, so I'm letting it go for 30, although it's in great shape. It must be 20 years old, but not used very much because it only has one breastcollar ring and only has elastic on one side, which is not optimal, for me. The buckles are like new, the nylon too, the wool has some Princess Buttercup still in it.

I'm having a great time recycling old tack for new. I don't want to have a ton of tack in my attic that I'll never use. I admit, I do have some. Or, maybe a lot. Just not tons.

I'm curious to see what will happen.

***

Found this photo today of Baasha:
     

The horse (mein Sohn) I miss every day of my life, in this photo he's being loved on by his favorite pony.

I'll be with him again someday.


UPDATE ....

I think this is over. Both companies DD & ATG want an unreasonable amount of money to ship what should fit into a padded envelope, not a crate container to Europe. : (