What is a breakaway halter?

A breakaway halter is a halter with a deliberate weak point, a part designed to break or release if the horse gets caught and pulls hard. Horse Illustrated describes the breakaway as a section between the crownpiece and the noseband that is designed to separate under force. Commercial versions, it says, use leather crownpieces, hook-and-loop fasteners and thin leather fuses.

The idea is simple. Halters can get hung up on fencing, trees and other things around a horse, and Horse Illustrated notes this can lead to injury. A halter that gives way is meant to let a caught horse free himself. We carry breakaway halters from several brands in our halters and leads category, including Weaver, Ovation and WeatherBeeta styles with 'breakaway' in the name.

A breakaway is a design feature, not a different kind of horse. The rest of this page covers how the feature works, which halters have it, and where it stops being a good answer.

A weaker section holds the halter together in normal use and gives way when a horse pulls with enough force. There are three common designs, and which one you have decides what you replace when it breaks.

No breakaway is absolute. LeMieux, which makes a breakaway field-safe headcollar with hook-and-loop release points at the headpiece and noseband, says on its product page that no breakaway solution is absolute and must be used at your own risk. It also says to keep the hook-and-loop clear of dirt and hair so it works as intended.

Horse Journal adds that throatlatch snaps are optional and let you take a halter off without unbuckling it. Some riders worry that snaps can catch on wire fencing, and it names swivel snaps as an option. Whatever the design, the release only helps if it is the weakest part, so read the maker's description before you assume which part will give.

No: a leather halter is not automatically a breakaway, so check the product name and description. Horse Journal says all-leather was long considered safest because it tears under stress, while nylon does not. It also says it takes quite a bit of force to rip a leather halter or crownpiece. That is a reason leather is trusted, but it is not the same as a built-in release.

Breakaway is a design that can be built into leather or nylon. Many nylon halters are breakaway because they have a leather crown. The 2021 headcollar survey in Equine Veterinary Education compared safety designs with standard headcollars of the same material, and found that leather and synthetic safety headcollars were each linked to about 0.8 times the odds of injury. In other words, both leather and synthetic halters come in safety and standard versions.

There is one more wrinkle. Horse Journal says fuse-type halters suit normal, trained horses, and that young, very strong or dominant horses that learn they can break free may do it again and again. For those horses it recommends all-leather halters or nylon halters with a leather crown. Some halters use a sewn-in leather piece rather than a replaceable fuse, so look at how yours is built.

Riders use them so a horse that gets hung up can free himself, but the sources agree on turnout and disagree on trailering. On turnout, the advice is to leave the halter off if you can. Horse Illustrated says halters should generally come off for turnout because they can get hung up, with an exception for horses that are hard to catch, who may need a breakaway halter left on. Horse Journal says a horse should only be turned out in a halter with a safety or breakaway feature, and that it still prefers turnout without a halter. AcreageLife's advice is that if the horse is easy to catch, leave the halter off.

Trailering is where the sources split. AcreageLife reports that some people choose a stronger material for the trip, since a leather halter could snap in a panic on the trailer. Double D Trailers, a trailer maker, says leather halters are the safest standard type for a traveling horse, because many breakaway designs have a synthetic face with a leather crown that lets a horse who pulls back get free. It adds that rope halters lack breakable hardware and are not safe for trailering, and that nylon is basically unbreakable by horses.

If you trailer a horse that panics, talk to your trainer, and look at how your trailer tie system is set up. A breakaway trailer tie is a different piece of gear from a breakaway halter, and some riders choose that route instead. We found no authority that settles it for every horse.

One US Pony Club region's gear sheet lists a breakaway halter as mandatory gear for its members. The 2021 survey in Equine Veterinary Education, described below, also found that travelling was linked to lower odds of headcollar injury (about 0.7 times) than other uses, though it does not say which kind of headcollar was involved.

Nylon is the easy-care workhorse, leather is the material that tears under stress, and rope is a training and Western tool. The table pulls together what AcreageLife, Horse Journal and Double D Trailers say. Browse our halters and leads category to see what is available, including leather, nylon and rope styles.

Take halters off when you can, do not tie a horse with a breakaway you expect to hold, and do not treat any breakaway as a guarantee. Horse Illustrated says to remove a breakaway insert before tying a horse, since it will release if the horse spooks or leans back. AcreageLife's trainer source takes the Western view that if a horse is tied, it should not be able to break away, and prefers gates to tying.

The 2021 survey in Equine Veterinary Education was a self-reported online survey, so it has limits, but the numbers are worth knowing. 31 percent of respondents reported a horse injured by a headcollar, and using a headcollar while mucking out raised the odds of injury by about 1.7 times. The authors called for better education on fit, safety features and basic handling.

Grazing muzzles are a special case. AcreageLife notes that a horse wearing a grazing muzzle needs a halter, and suggests one compromise: replace the synthetic halter's over-ear strap with a leather strap that can break under poll pressure. Whether a horse should wear a muzzle at all is a question for your vet.

It should sit snugly enough to stay on and loosely enough not to rub, with an adjustable chin and a nosepiece about two to three fingers below the cheekbone. That is Horse Journal's guidance, which also asks for plenty of padding because nylon can rub the skin.

Size matters too. AcreageLife points out that a too-large nylon halter does not resize as easily as a rope halter, and that people often set rope halters too large. Our halters come in sizes from mini and cob through average horse and draft, and sizing varies by brand, so check the brand's chart before you order. The 2021 survey's authors call for standard guidance on correct fitting, which tells you fit is something many owners get wrong. When you check the fit, look for rubs on the nose and behind the ears, and ask your vet about any hair loss or sore spots you find.

Replace the part that broke with the maker's replacement, check the hardware, and retire the halter if it is damaged. Horse Journal says replacement leather fuses are fairly easy to find from the halter's dealer, and that Chicago screws are sold at most tack stores. It says to check the Chicago screw periodically to make sure it is still tight. Some halters, it notes, have a sewn-in leather piece rather than a replaceable fuse, and the authors prefer the replaceable kind.

We carry replacement leather breakaway halter parts, such as the Shires replacement leather breakaway, in our halters and leads category. If a halter keeps breaking, take that seriously. It may be that the horse is hard on equipment, as Horse Journal describes, or that the halter does not fit.