Category: Reviews

The current item on the docket for review from Lund Saddlery is their Figure 8 bridle!

If you haven’t read any of my previous reviews of the Lund pieces, check out the 5 point breastplate, the flash bridle and rubber reins, and the 3 point breastplate. The leather on the Figure 8 bridle is the same as on all the other Lund pieces, so I won’t repeat myself too much there. In short, it’s a nice sturdy Sedgewick leather with soft padding, fancy stiching, and sheepskin on the nose. Like all of the Lund bridles, it has a contoured, padded monocrown to provide extra comfort for the horse. The styling is very classic, and the sheepskin is fluffy enough to provide some comfort without being Way Too Fluffy (a personal pet peeve of mine).

After I got my initial impressions of the bridle, I passed it off to my trainer for her to try out. She’s been using it on one of her young horses, and it even made the trip with them to AEC last fall. It’s sturdy enough for everyday use but it still cleans up nicely for shows, which makes it a great buy if you don’t want to have to purchase a separate show bridle.

As far as sizing goes, if you have a horse that is typically in-between sizes, it might be a good idea to size down. Red is a pretty average sized thoroughbred and Trainer had to punch some holes in the noseband for him. The full works, but a cob might have worked better. Otherwise all the straps are nicely proportioned and it sits well on his face.

As with all of the Lund pieces, the Figure 8 bridle is priced very reasonably at $215 CAD (approx $159 USD).

Lund Saddlery is giving away a free Figure 8 bridle to one lucky winner this month! Click here to enter.

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PS – I have not forgotten about the logo contest! We got so many entries there at the end that in order to make sure everyone’s gets looked at thoroughly and fairly, they’re taking the weekend to decide. I’ll have contest results bright and early Monday morning, I promise! Sorry for the slight delay.

Fans of fancy brushes, put on your seat belts – Leistner has outdone themselves this time!

I’ve carried on quite a bit on this blog about how great the Leistner line is in general, so I’ll spare you all of that weird grooming-product worship again. But, uh, for real though… they’re amazing. Yes, brushes can be amazing, I promise. Everyone else in Blogland that has bought some (*cough* Aimee *cough* Leah *cough* Karen) can back me up on that. So when Toi at Teddy’s Tack Trunk contacted me about something new from Leistner that she was carrying, I got really excited. And well, it was warranted, because omg these things are insanely beautiful. I can’t even get a photo to capture how pretty they really are in person.

The Premium Collection from Leistner basically takes their standard (awesome) brushes and makes them super fancy. They have an upgraded finish and gorgeous padded leather handle. If you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-shop-for horse person, look no further. This is where art meets practicality, and for under $40.

Currently Teddy’s Tack Trunk is stocking a few different Premium Collection brushes (although you can special order any brush with upgraded straps). I got two – the Satchmo and the Beauty. The Satchmo (a 100% horse hair medium-soft bristle brush) has a glossy black finish and padded black leather handle with lots of real Swarovski crystal bling. I’m pretty sure this should be required equipment for every DQ. Not only is the brush itself very functional, the finish is perfectly executed with luxurious leather, soft padding, and very firmly-affixed rhinestones that are set down into the leather. As soon as Toi told me that the Satchmo is Emma Ford’s brush of choice for quarter marks, I was sold. It’s now got a starring role in my fancy-pants show brush collection.

My other Premium brush is the Beauty (100% horse hair medium-soft brush with a lifted edge), with a rich brown wood stain and padded brown croc-embossed handle. The Beauty is very similar to my beloved Prinz brush, but a bit bigger, making it the perfect go-to brush for every day use. May as well have a super fancy brush for daily use too, right? Every day is Treat Yo Self. BTW, apparently the padding on these is elk leather… who even knew that was a thing? Life lesson: elk are apparently very soft.

Here’s the fun part: TODAY ONLY get 10% off the Leistner Premium Collection brushes from Teddy’s Tack Trunk with code PREMIUM10!

Another month, another Lund Saddlery giveaway, and therefore: another item up for review! This time we’re looking at the Lund Saddlery 3 point breastplate.

I already reviewed the Lund 5-point breastplate, and the majority of my comments from that piece also apply to this one. The materials are the same – Sedgwick leather, SS hardware, and strong navy (yay!) elastic. It has the same fancy stitching details on the wither strap (or as I like to call it, the emergency “oh crap” handle) as well as super soft padding on the wither strap and chest strap. There are snaps at each point for quick and easy on/off, plus a snap-on running martingale attachment. Like the 5-point, it comes with dee savers if you’d rather use those instead of your saddle’s permanent dee rings.

The cob size is a little bit snug on Red and Henry (both average sized TB’s) so I would say the sizing runs pretty true. As with all of the Lund tack, there are size charts available with exact measurements, so if you have any sizing questions it’s as easy as sending them a message and asking for assistance.

As far as breastplates go, the 3-point design is probably the simplest and easiest when it comes to every day use. Less straps = faster tacking up = happier lazy person. Another perk for lazy people – no skeepskin to keep clean! This design is also ideal if you are particularly sensitive to having any extra leather or straps under your calf.

My Lund 3 Point has been in regular use now since August (it even made a trip to AEC’s with my trainer) and is holding up beautifully. The leather has broken in and softened up nicely, and it still looks just as gorgeous as it did when it was new.

Now for the best part: price point. I’ve had a lot of breastplates over the years (some even purchased from France because I’m insane) and the quality of this one is up there among some of the best, while still only being $175 CAD (about $130 USD). There are a few similar breastplates near this price point, but it’s the details on the Lund that really make it stand out from the rest: the soft Italian leather padding, the top wither strap with fancy stitching, the dee savers, the SS hardware, the hardy Sedgwick leather, etc.  If you want high end beauty and quality and a mid-range price point, look no further.

Want to win your own Lund Saddlery 3 point breastplate? Go to lundsaddlery.com and enter your name for the December giveaway!

This is a fun one… and it’s cheap!

When the creator of the All Ears app contacted me a couple weeks ago on Instagram asking if I’d like to try the app, I almost didn’t reply. I’m kind of an old lady curmudgeon when it comes to apps. I don’t like the clutter on my phone, so I don’t download very many, and while I thought the idea behind this app was cute, I didn’t really think it would work.

Basically All Ears is a photo and video app that plays sounds while you have the camera up to catch your horses ears for photos. It’s called a “selfie” app, but it works either way. I don’t really do selfies, so I’ve used it primarily to just take regular photos. There are currently 29 different sounds (and it says more will be added), you can take photos or video, in portrait or landscape. and you can play the noises one time or set them to play continuously.

Ah, but does it work? Amazingly enough, it works REALLY well. So well that I can’t really stop playing with it because I get such a kick out of it, and I’ve told all my friends to download it. It’s a really basic interface that is easy to figure out, easy to use, and has lots of options. I’ve played around with all the noises for Henry and found several in particular that he always responds to. He even neighed back to it one day, trying to figure out what kind of witchcraft had managed to trap a horse inside that tiny box.

Video of the app in use:

There are also squeaky toy and car key noises that work really well on my dogs (uh… except for the deaf one, obviously), making this app even more useful. I’ve gotten to where I take pictures of all of my animals through the All Ears app.

I really wish I’d had an app like this while Sadie was growing up… it was impossible to get her ears up for photos. Usually lots of jumping up and down, bribery, and throwing things was required just to get one picture where she didn’t look like a bored mule. This is obviously way easier and it works a lot better. Technology, man.

The All Ears selfie app is $2.99 and can be downloaded from the App Store here. Normally I’m kind of a grump about paying for apps, but trust me, this is more than worth the 3 bucks just on entertainment value alone. It’s currently only available on iPhone but an Android version is coming soon. If you want to keep up with new releases and updates you can follow All Ears on facebook or on Instagram.

It’s a two for one review! Not just because it’s two products, but also because you get the opinion of two reviewers. I’ve been using the flash bridle and Trainer has been using the rubber reins (they went with her to AEC’s on the Lund figure 8 bridle) so I recruited her to do a write-up with her opinion of the reins.

I talked about the Lund Saddlery brand and leather in general in the last review, so I’m not going to keep repeating myself on those counts with every product from this line. Their strapgoods all use the same leather and hardware, so everything I said there applies here too. Too lazy to go back and read the other review? Short version: Sedgwick leather takes a little longer to break in but is extremely sturdy and long-lasting. The hardware is all solid SS, nothing cheap or plated.

Lovers of classic tack – the Lund line will make you happy. There are no gimmicks, no fads, just well-made items constructed from sturdy leather. I appreciate the general simplicity of the flash bridle, and the fact that while they have certainly made efforts to keep the line very classic-looking, they have not shied away from adopting modern design features when it comes to horse comfort. Specifically what is, IMO, the best feature of modern bridle design – the monocrown. The crownpiece is shaped to allow space for the ears, and it’s well padded for optimum comfort. The noseband and browband are fancy stitched, too, (h/j-ers, rejoice) which is a nice touch. I found the workmanship on the bridle to be just as good as on the five point breastplate; all the details are executed perfectly, with nary a stitch out of place.

I got Henry the full/horse size bridle. He’s usually in between cob and full, but his forehead is a fairly broad so I didn’t want to risk a too-small browband. Lund does have sizing charts for all of their tack, so if you’re unsure about what size to get, I would just ask for the chart and do some measuring. The fit on him is pretty good everywhere but the noseband… I had to punch two holes there to make it fit. Pretty typical for Henry.

I have the same minor complaint about the color that I did with the 5 point breastplate (still not an Australian Nut fan on my horse) but the bridle is holding up nicely and has taken my abuse well. I accidentally left it in the bed of my truck for a few days (don’t ask) where it got rained on and then baked in 100+ degree temps, and it didn’t even look dirty when I finally rescued it. Generally I’m the type of person to lean more toward a flashy bridle as opposed to a more classically-styled one, but for day-to-day use I really appreciate a good, basic, sturdy bridle like this. It’s a true workhorse – one that can take abuse, is inexpensive, and still looks nice.

I like that the Lund bridles are sold without reins, so that you get to choose exactly what reins you want, or keep the reins you already have. There’s nothing more annoying to me than being forced to buy reins you don’t even like (I’m looking at you, laced reins) so IMO having the option is nice, plus saves you money if you already have reins you like and don’t want to buy more. Or, if you already have a bridle you like but need new reins, you can buy those separately as well.

When I asked Trainer for her thoughts on the Lund rubber reins, she really had nothing negative to say: “I am very pleasantly surprised. I have small hands and generally don’t like thicker reins. They are supple, yet sturdy. I’ve ridden in them with and without gloves, never gotten blisters from them, and do not find them to be at all slick. Even when the horses get very sweaty or the Texas humidity kicks in, they keep their tackiness. The fancy stitching is just an added bonus that my diva side loves!”

The retail price for the Lund Saddlery flash bridle is $200 CDN (approx $150 USD, depending on exchange rate) and the rubber grip reins are $90 CDN (approx $68 USD), making them suitable for just about any budget.

Want to win the flash bridle and rubber grip reins? Go here to enter the November giveaway!