The Cowboy Laboratory: It ain’t fancy, but it works!

In the first installation of our new DIY series, Dale Simanton of Horse Creek Thoroughbreds ranch shows us how to make a training fork/running martingale out of a broken halter.

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On the ranch out here in Western South Dakota, necessity truly is the mother of invention. Whether it is rigging up a fly mask from old burlap or welding a broken axe head to a gate to keep it from blowing shut when we drive through with the tractor, we rarely let anything go to waste. When you live 100 miles from the nearest tack shop or farm store, you learn quick that “upcycling” is more than just a fashion statement

Broken halter, no problem! Just take it apart and get to work!

Today’s Invention:
Broken halters are an inevitable fact of horse ownership. And buying an endless amount of training tack is another. We don’t let a single piece of leather go to waste and this training fork is an example of that.

With the throatlatch removed, all you need is a leather scrap and a rivet and you have a new training fork!

To create it, just take the throatlatch off a broken halter, along with the under chin piece. With a small piece of scrap leather, use a rivet screw to attach a small snap to the old lead snap on the chin piece. With that, you now have a training fork/running martingale that can attach to any western or English breastplate with a center ring.

Dale using the training fork on the off-track Thoroughbred, Crested (GB), a multiple graded stakes winner who left the track for a new career as a ranch horse.

Go Riding!

Dale Simanton is the co-owner and head trainer for the Gate to Great training at Horse Creek Thoroughbreds in Newell, South Dakota. Located on a working ranch in Western South Dakota, the program entails rehabilitation process that gives Thoroughbred ex-racehorses a chance to recover from the rigors of a racing career and time to develop new skills outside the backside environment. Horses in the program learn to handle themselves in new ways both mentally and physically as they are ridden across the sweeping expanses of South Dakota ranges as working ranch horses. More information may be found at gatetogreat.com.