Two Horse Tack - A First Impressions Review

**I received a free breastcollar with running martingale attachment in exchange for my honest review**

When Jacke from Two Horse Tack initially contacted me to ask whether or not I would be interested in trying out one of their products in exchange for an honest review, I was extremely excited - I had seen multiple other bloggers reviewing their fun biothane products and was eager to try something out for myself.  I hopped onto their website and realized that they have an abundance of options for tack products available to review.  After much deliberation, I decided to go with the English Breastcollar, because at the time, I was still planning on making Leo an eventer, and a breastcollar for cross country seemed like a necessary investment.  I was also extremely curious as to what a brown biothane product would look like - would it go with my other tack, which is all leather?

Leo's post-injury career could be modeling, right?

Sizing was the first issue of concern.  Normally, Leo goes in cob-sized gear, but a quick e-mail to Jacke led to the discovery that their cob-sized items are for, well, cobs; my narrow, gangly horse was probably not going to fit well in something that was intended for a horse that's built like a small tank (and I mean that as a compliment - cobs are awesome!).  Luckily, Two Horse Tack offers an option for that - the Arab size - and despite Leo's lack of a dished face, a brief e-mail exchange with Jacke was enough to determine that the Arab size was likely our best option.  Jacke was great throughout this whole process; my e-mails were returned within 24 hours (often much sooner!), and was extremely helpful with figuring out which size would be the best choice.  I opted to add clips both for the girth and to attach to the saddle, and asked for a running martingale attachment.

Running attachment

Unfortunately, in the week between the placement of my order and my receipt of the breastcollar, Leo went lame.  At the time, we thought it was an abscess, so I put off using the breastcollar with the hopes that we would be back to business as usual within a week.  As we all know, that didn't happen; Leo remained lame, and the breastcollar hung on a hook with his bridles for some time.  When it became apparent that Leo would be remaining lame for the forseeable future, I sent Jacke another e-mail offering to return the breastcollar as I didn't (and honestly still don't) know when or if he would be going back into work, and therefore could only really do a "first impressions" style review.  Jacke was incredibly sympathetic and kind, wishing us all the best with our recovery, and assured me that a first impressions review would be fine.

Who needs leather?

It still took me a while to get around to playing dress up.  I'm not gonna lie, getting Leo all tacked and ready to go was a little rough.  But when I finally felt up to it, the breastcollar performed beautifully.  Despite hanging in the back barn forever and accumulating a rather impressive coat of dust, a quick rub with a cloth got it back into perfect condition.  I threw it on him without making any adjustments, and then proceeded to make it smaller so that it would fit  (two months out of work has begun to do a number on homeboy's musculature).

at least he still has more definition than he did when I bought him?

Adjusting-to-fit was a very quick and easy process, and within a few minutes everything was ready to go.  Leo didn't seem to notice it at all, so I'm assuming that it was comfortable for him to wear.  I continued to be impressed by how nice the brown color had turned out to be, and by how smooth the texture of the biothane was.  The hardware still looked completely new, and there were no issues with the clips not clipping.

not pictured: Leo trying to figure out wtf I was doing while taking this picture

MAKE EVERYTHING CLIP

Overall, I really like this breastcollar.  It seems extremely well-made, it was easy to adjust, and the color matches a variety of different shades of brown leather.  From a distance, it blends right in with the leather tack - and actually you have to get pretty close to it in order to notice that it's biothane.  Because it was so adjustable, I am hoping that I can get it to fit a few of the lesson horses and try it out for real.

Does this angle make my neck look scrawny?

Customer Service: 5/5 - my experience with Jacke was excellent, and she was incredibly helpful

Color: 5/5 - the brown looks amazing, and there are approximately 1.3 billion color options!

Durability: -/5 - although I can say that it cleans up well after sitting for over a month!

Fit and Adjustability: 5/5 - thanks to Jacke, I was able to choose the correct size for my horse, and it was extremely easy to adjust to his narrow frame

Price: 5/5 this breastcollar, with the additions of all the clips and a running attachment, retails for $68; the other biothane ones that I've seen retail for a similar price, but don't include the running attachment.  A nice leather version retails for almost double.

I definitely would order from them again - I've been eyeing their halter bridles now that Leo may be switching careers to pasture puff/occasional trail pony. 

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