Just 4 Fun Tack

01/08/2023

Wow the end of the year ended very sadly over here. I am having to take a break of several weeks .

Mid Dec , I got Covid very bad with high fever , nausea, severe headaches and body aches. I was testing pisitive for weeks and my covid test line showed up shockingly within seconds with a super dark line.

So Xmas was spent in bed and quarantine . Than sadly I sat helpless in quarantine when I was notified that my mother had passed away unexpectedly with a heart attack at her senior care apartment . I was supposed to take her to her favorite yearly place to eat during Xmas but got sick so it never happened.

Burial and funeral arrangements suddenly happened. Gouging by funeral homes knowing that immediate decidions had to be made. Unreal fees, like $2500 for just a funeral home doing paperwork and talking to you; fees at $400 for every 15 minutes the funeral home lets you have family visit; thousands for embalming; 5x the casket cost for one that Amazon sellers sell as their least expensive one and you can get a much better one online but the funeral home treats you like dirt for trying to get something nicer quality than the one that they want for over 10k. Their endless shockingly high priced fees become over 20k for their cheapest services that have to be done quickly as their daily meter ticks away. Their tens of thousands that they want for services is 10x the cost of each listed service fee for your area when you Google what costs should be for your zip code. I guess those posted Google article data prices are the fees if you plan and pay inadvance.

Going through personal effects , boxing up, trying to planning on sharing the care for my severe end stage dementia father who keeps asking where his wife is.

Where is all the paperwork ..,, needing many death certificates and knowing to get mamy copies from the funeral home or it will add many more weeks and cost more later on. bank accounts , recurring payments, services, credit cards, insurance , etc that must be dealt with .

It is so overwhelming .

I know now just how important it is to make organized final arrangements. A checklist of everything, passwords, services, and someone trustable you can leave cash with in a safety box that will pay for things that people want money now for , not weeks later…

Additionally, if anything happened, i have horses and dogs that i dont want them to have them become the horror story where no one checked to see if they were being cared for during the weeks before a will can start to take action financially.

So i maybe slow getting back to your questions. I sure hope this year gets better .

12/08/2022

Beaded Southwestern Center Ring , Endurance AddOn , Convert A Bridle , Halter Bridle . Beaded Center ring style browband with my exclusive Grip Tight Loop system Stainless steel ring, buckles and snaps.

Pictured Browband alone: $60
Pictured Add On bit strap: $40

Bridle set as pictured: $90.
NOTE: some styles are
Ready To Ship and are
SALE PRICED at $80 while they last, plus SH USA.

Browband option:
Backside lining
( None,
Black nylon,
Black beta +$5,
durable silky light padding +$5)

Size :
13.5” + 2” drape forehead Horse,
12” + 1.5” drape Arab
Cheek pieces:
(Horse 10.5”, Arab 8.5”, Custom)
Poll piece (26”, 28”, 30”)

Overlay options:
Pictured in grouping.

Base:
( Weaver Blue Turquoise,
weaver Teal,
Weaver hot pink,
weaver orbit yellow,
weaver blaze orange,
weaver alpine Green,
or
Bioplastic Brand :
Beta black , beta brown,
all other Bioplastics colors
add $5 BB only ,
Add $8 Addon Bit strap only.
or add $10 set.

Jewelry:
( none -$5,
standard beads,
upgraded bead options
custom +$TBD)

12/06/2022

Coming soon for 2023, online shopping cart for easy ordering of Ready Made Tack as well as semi-custom tack . This is an enormous time task , taking product photos, creating item descriptions and options. So the most popular items will be loaded first. This will let you window shop and get a price estimate online without having to contact anyone.

New durable and colorful overlays for endurance Add On bridles in my Straight, Futurity Knot, Solid V and Beaded Center Ring styles.

Inflating high costs to buy materials is not just happening at the feed store and fuel, it is also dramatically affecting the costs of most any the materials I need to make tack as companies pass along their higher costs to manufacture hardware, webbing and overlays. I have to admit the sticker shock of material prices is super hard to get used to and deal with.
Some large Beta biothane tack companies were able to buy out by the semi truck load , snaps, buckles, and other hardware at the start of Covid . That resulted in even the wholesale hardware manufacturing companies becoming backordered because of lack of raw materials and short supply of skilled workers. These companies are not even offering some PreCovid hardware styles. Their New inventory is far more expensive than before Covid happened, just like gasoline, hay, feed and even used trailers have increased.

I was on a backorder list for 3 years to get simple stainless steel buckles and snaps. Some styles are still on backorder. I sadly also have to pass along the increased material costs along with new federal taxes on tiny owner operated businesses .

With 90 billion dollars and 87,000 additional IRS agents allocated to go after small businesses, hobby sales and gig work starting with the coming tax returns, I just had to decide whether to quit or take sales as seriously as the new IRS collection laws.

Having an online store will help window shoppers a lot in being able to see what items cost discretely and help me spend more time making tack.

Pictured are New 2023 durable and colorful overlays for endurance ,”Add On “ browbands in my Straight, Futurity Knot, Solid V and Beaded Center Ring styles.

I will be posting the store links once I have more items input into the ecommerce store.

11/29/2022

Black with brown Aztec Southwestern overly Endurance Addon style “halter bridle” . Converts any halter into a halter bridle combination.

The Grip Type loop system on this browband adjusts to fit like Both sizes of Zilco brand addon endurance snap browbands.
The snap loop opens up and wraps around most any type of halter.

Pretty Aztec Brown woven overlay on black beta with stainless steel snaps and cheek buckles.

Conway buckle bit ends lets you size from horse size to as small as Small horse hackamore lengths!

Easy care, just hose off and hang to dry. No more green mold ,dry rot or rusty hardware .

Business Paypal invoices sent out to USA addresses. Priority Mail $10.95 shipping , unassembled. Sales tax maybe applicable.

Browband only: $45
Pictured Addon Bridle: $75

Poll piece select from : 28” or 31”.

Prices subject to change with material cost changes.

11/28/2022

Endurance Addon ”halter bridle” style bridle. Biopladtics brand brown beta in standard thickness(thinner than heavy weight beta) . Stainless steel hardware.

Browband has my exclusive engineered Grip Tight Loop system that fits like both sizes of Zilco style addon snap browbands.

Average size poll piece is 28-30” long. Cheek piece with overlay is about 10.5” long.

Browband only: $45
Addon Bridle: $75

Paypal imvoice sent to USA email shipping addresses. USPS priority Mail flat rate $10.95, sent unassembled.

Sales tax maybe applicable .

Wholesale and combined shipping discounts available.

Prices subject to change based on materials.

05/31/2022

05/31/2022

New for 2022, I hand tie rope halters using rope made in the USA ! 1/4” soft rope to prevent rubbing when worn with a bridle that has a tight pick outer braid to help prevent fraying !

I make a lot of foal, yearling and small horse size halters. I usually add a few more inches at the poll from the commercial sizing chart as it is so sad when a rope halter fits a refined head perfectly but the poll piece is too short. Extra length is easily cut off and wrapped with electrical tape .

I make sliding celtic beads above the fiador knot so that you can adjust a tighter fit easily without having to adjust the fiador knot

05/31/2022

05/30/2022

Maroon and Black Overlay, 1/4" Maroon Rope Halter. Foal-Large Horse hand tied sizes in TX, USA

05/30/2022

People often ask if I make matching beta, biothane or nylon halters to go with my browbands. Yes, I do, I make them in several styles based on Big Name Expensive brands I have bought in the past.

I typically warn people that biothane or beta halters are not as strong as nylon or rope halters. I have even seen a retailer of TT halters post on the description for their deluxe halter that the poll piece will break to release a horse that is struggling against it, unlike nylon halters. . The hope is that the halter will break at the holes. Bioplastics Company that makes beta/biothane webbing rate the hole strength at only 300lbs.

For serious halter pullers, use a rope or nylon halter. I make my endurance Ride and Tie Snap browbands wide enough to wrap around not only rope halters but also wider nylon or leather halters.

I also can tie a rope halter. But sadly, the cost of rope per foot is more than the cost of you just buying a rope halter online at a horse tack shop. I usually buy my rope now from USA commercial rope manufacturers , and try to get some color that will match one of my halters. The USA made rope has a better feel of quality to it.

For those that want to have a lot of different looks without breaking the bank. I suggest getting headstalls and halters in a solid color, like black. Than mix and match the HUUUUGE assortment of trims and styles of browband I have to dramatically change the bridle look on your horse. Most people look at your horse's face first and will center on the browband. So, I recommend if you like to wear a lot of fun colors on your horse to suit the riding mood of the day, stick with a plain colored headstall and halter.

So, for those of you who like to stick to one set of tack, forever, I do make and sew trim on halters, breastcollars, reins, etc.

I am not a big retailer. I am a severely disabled senior citizen that does this as a tiny owner operator business. I haven’t make anything for my time so far. My time is precious . I am getting to that age where no one will say " oh how sad, she was cut down at so young of an age...", so I would like to think that whatever I make for someone will truly be appreciated and used.

I do have to pay retail for most of my materials. So there are going to be some things I cannot make at a cost people will want to pay. Those are usually items that use too much material that I have to buy from the distributor who also makes and sells tack so marks up their webbing by 10x or so to keep competition from happening. I also live in Texas, not China, Mexico or India. So I cannot compete with items made in those countries. If you are looking for the cheapest place to buy something simple, I will refer you to online retail tack shops that sell tack at those prices.

In most cases, if you are looking for something truly unique and not have to worry that a lot of people at a ride are wearing your same tack set, this is the place to come . Pretty sad to pay many hundreds of dollars for a tack set only to find that no one notices it because it is just like a lot of other people's tack that everyone has seen. People notice when you wear something that Nobody has. Custom Designer clothing is noticed and worth so much more than mass produced clothing.... I make custom designed browbands.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my tack! It is usually better to DM message me here on Facebook as I rarely see comments . I don't always get notified when someone comments but i fo try and kerp up with private messages .

Carol

05/30/2022

Custom made Rope and Beta halters.

Rope Halters tied from Foal to Large Horse size with Rope made in the USA.

Beta/Biothane/Weaver Webb made halters using all Solid Stainless Steel hardware in various styles with overlays or not. Super thin, average to thicker made construction because people are different in what they prefer on their equine or mule.