The origin of the sheepskin shipping halter
The sheepskin shipping halter is super fluffy and soft. But did you know that it is also a very technical product? Continue reading if you want to know more about the sheepskin shipping halter.
Designed by an Olympic groom
The sheepskin shipping halter was designed to make transport for horses more comfortable. Our product developer used to work as a groom for international riders like Micheal Jung and Taizo Sugitani. Because she traveled all around the world, she perfectly knew what horses needed during transport. A product she was missing, was a lightweight and soft shipping halter. On top of that, the halter needed to be easy to wash after long transport. When she was introduced to the artificial sheepskin, she knew that it would make a great fabric for a soft and lightweight shipping halter.
What’s so special about artificial sheepskin
The artificial sheepskin was developed by Thomas Tuytens, the CEO of Kentucky Horsewear. Thomas has quite some expertise when it comes to developing artificial fabrics as he was raised between the textiles of Europe’s best producer regarding synthetic medical fabrics. With this knowledge, Thomas wanted to develop more durable and better-quality products for the equine market. One of the fabrics Thomas liked a lot was sheepskin, but normal sheepskin is not very durable, the quality is not stable, and it is difficult to clean. So, Thomas took the matter into his own hand and started developing a more durable fabric and better quality.
The artificial sheepskin, therefore, has a lot of advantages. Where normal sheepskin breaks and loses hair, the artificial sheepskin can be washed many times and won’t lose its quality or fluffiness. Artificial sheepskin is also a lot more breathable and air permeable than normal sheepskin, this allows the fabric to absorb the sweat of the horse. On top of that is the artificial sheepskin a lot lighter and hypoallergenic as it contains no lanolin.
What’s special about the shipping halter
Now you know everything about our artificial sheepskin, you know why we like to use this material so often in our products. Unlike real sheepskin that starts to break and gets hard after washing, the artificial sheepskin will only offer softness and comfort during transport. Because the artificial sheepskin can be washed without losing its quality, it can be worn for many years.
Next to an extremely soft halter, we were also able to create an extremely strong halter. This is because we used a nylon halter as a base. This fabric is known to be really strong and very resistant. To make sure your horse is safe in case of an emergency, the halter breaks on the crownpiece. To avoid you have to buy a new halter afterward, we also have a spare crownpiece in our range.
Both materials are very light weighted so the pressure on the horse’s head is seriously reduced. To avoid rubbing marks from the halter, the shipping halter’s buckles are covered with artificial sheepskin. As the artificial sheepskin is very moisture-wicking, you don’t need to worry about rubbing marks that are caused by sweat.
Today, 80% of the horses that are shipped by plane wear the Kentucky sheepskin shipping halter. This shows that the quality and comfort of the product are top-notch. The sheepskin shipping halter is available in black, natural, brown, and grey sheepskin and comes in size full, cob, and pony.
