PFL Inc.

Using The Sierra Horse Halter in a Cross Tie

Paul & Gail — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:37:32 +0000

After your horse has been introduced to the Sierra Horse Halter, you can put them in a Cross Tie. This is the most effective way to use the halter for using both hands. Clipping Ears, giving injections, head shyness, handling feet, etc. I have a mare that will be sold with a Sierra Horse Halter. She just hates to have her ears touched! With the halter, I can get the job done. Alberto Sierra has created a wonderful product. Gail Springer PFL Inc.

What I learned with the Sierra Horse Halter 1

Paul & Gail — Sun, 15 May 2011 22:58:27 +0000

The Sierra Horse Halter enabled us to medicate this mare and trim her feet. She had learned to fight and get away. What we learned was this:

Just because a horse seems submissive doesn’t mean that they will let you do anything you want.
Any horse needs to find out the limits of the Sierra Horse Halter before they will be totally submissive.
Do not stand directly in front of a horse when you are conditioning them to the Sierra Horse Halter. All horses learn to come forward with this halter.
After your horse learns his limits, you can then tie him in a cross tie with the Sierra Horse Halter and do what you need to do.

By Gail Springer of PFL Inc.
To buy a halter go to www.PFLus.com

How to Condition Your Horse and Teach Trailer Loading with the Sierra Horse Halter

Paul & Gail — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:08:32 +0000

This Blog is two fold. First, it shows Alberto Sierra Conditioning a horse to the Sierra Horse Halter, then he shows how the halter helps in Trailer Loading.

This horse has decided to pull backward when the owner wants to load him. He has decided that he does not want to load any longer and it has become a painful ordeal for him and his owner. Alberto puts the halter on and ties him to the trailer. First he pulls sideways on the halter at the noseband to cause pressure on the horse as if he has pulled back himself. This is to show the horse what will happen if he pulls. The first time he does this the horse does not respond. The second time, Alberto causes the horse to pull back himself. This time the horse understands that if he pulls back, he cannot get away. He then decides to co-operate. This is a well trained horse that just decided he no longer wanted to load, he is not wild by any means. He probably represents 90% of the horses out there who need the Sierra Horse Halter.

Sierra Horse Halter – New Correctional Halter by Alberto Sierra

Paul & Gail — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:32:33 +0000

The Sierra Horse Halter is a new Correctional Type of halter that should be in every barn that contains a horse. Sooner or later we just need help!!

The Sierra Horse Halter is a new idea for an age old problem. How to control a horse that is frightened, or just not wanting to co-operate with the vet, farrier, owner or trainer.

Probably the best trait that the halter has is the ability to stop a horse from pulling back and throwing his weight into the rope that is tying him to a post or rack. When the horse pulls back, the nose band of the halter pulls in towards his chest. Plus the Neck pressure rope puts pressure on the crest of his neck. Thus, the weight the horse puts into pulling back, is transferred to his nose and neck and relieves the pressure on the poll. After pulling for a short time, the horse quickly decides it is not in his best interest to pull back. In essence he changes his own behavior.

The Halter comes in three sizes: Small which fits Paso Finos, Arabians and similar sized horses. Medium which fits Quarter Horses and similar sized horses, and Large for Warm Bloods and similarly sized horses. Larger and smaller halters can be ordered special. You can purchase the Sierra Horse Halter at PFL Inc. Go right to the Halter page at the following page: Sierra Horse Halter

Alberto demonstrating that this horse hates his ears clipped.

After applying the Sierra Horse Halter the horse tries to fight when Alberto begins to approach the ears.

The horse decided it is easier to be clipped than to fight. The Sierra Horse Halter give him no place to go.

Side Dominance in Horses

Paul & Gail — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:30:35 +0000

Side Dominance is a thing that is not even thought about by most folks, but it contributes a lot to ill fitting saddles and horses that travel crooked. This can be seen greatly by visiting the article put out by the following auther. Your horse is definitely left or right handed. Some of these tendancies can be overcome with exercises which will help to balance out and even up muscles and hooves. These will be discussed on other articles. Thank you Ute for putting out such a good article.

http://www.balancedstep.com/UteSide.pdf

BALANCED STEP
Ute Miethe – LMT/LAMT
Massage Therapist & Natural Performance Barefoot Trimmer

www.balancedstep.com

How to Install the PFL Saddle Rigging Converter

Paul & Gail — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:32:52 +0000

This film explains how to install your new Saddle Fitting Converter. You can change any center fire rigging to a western rigging with this product. The Saddle Fitting Converter keeps the pressure applied by the Center Fire Rigging the same from the front to the back of your saddle, but the tightening process is super easy. Anyone with arthritis will appreciate this product. Sometimes the Center Fire Rigging is not easy to get tight. One thing that will change if you convert to this rigging system is the cinch length. For instance, if you used a 34″ cinch with the Center Fire System, you would probably need a 22″ with the Converter. Also, with the Center Fire rigging, you do not use a cinch pin and with the Converter, you do use the cinch pin. One last thing, be sure to keep both sides adjusted the same.

This Rigging Converter can be purchased at PFL Inc.

2011 — Happy New Year from The Pinto Paso Finos at PFL Inc. and the Chipmunks

Paul & Gail — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:04:27 +0000

This video was taken during one of our late December snows. Our sure footed Pinto Paso Finos were having a grand time playing in it and showing off. Being gaited horses, they keep three feet on the ground most of the time. The Border Collie, Sadie, helped to mix things up a bit. I discovered that if I film from up in the barn window, they do not know I am around and keep up the antics. The second I appear downstairs they stop playing and come to the fence to see what I am doing. Being sneaky pays off sometimes. So Happy New Year to all my friends and customers and to anyone else who may stumble upon this blog.

Gail and Paul Springer ownes PFL Inc., an internet tack store. Come visit. www. pflus.com

The J. M. Yancey Saddle

Paul & Gail — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:44:05 +0000

Going from farm to farm and testing it on as many Pasos as possible, Mr. J. M. Yancey spent six months developing the tree in the Yancey Paso Fino saddle. Although he started with a standard McCellan saddletree, the bar length had to be shortened and the amount of rock in the bars had to be changed to accommodate the deep back of the typical Paso, but not be too much for those with flatter backs. The bar twist, gullet width, and bar spread were all slightly adjusted for a better overall fit so that the saddletree is a McCellan style, but considerably different from the original tree.

This tree fits Peruvian Pasos, a lot of Arabians, Rocky Mountain horses, Icelandic, and a few others. The saddle did not fit any of the Tennessee Walking Horses that it was tried on. It DOES NOT FIT ALL BREEDS OF HORSES. Note from PFL Inc.: I have sold one Yancey to a Tennessee Walker and it fit well, but this was an exception. So far we have only encountered an hand full Paso Finos that the standard tree would not fit. Most of these horses had extremely wide withers, which was the catalyst for Mr. Yancey to develop a wider version of the standard tree that works well for them. This tree is available for others if needed. One was a special case of an extremely narrow horse, which required a specially made tree. Mr. Kurthe can now make a Yancey Saddle to fit your horse by having a custom tree made just for them. This is done by using an Equimeasure and sending it to Mr Kurthe.

Paso Finos and Peruvian Pasos are still very close to their original breed and have not been cross bred with a lot of other breeds, so their backs are very typical. Tennessee Walking horses are not typical. In a barn of five Tennessee Walking horses that Mr.Yancey visited, only two could wear the same saddle.

The Yancey saddle weighs 22 lbs, complete with rigging and stirrups. The rigging is a center fire. All J. M. Yancey saddles are bench made and a typical turn around time would be 4 to 6 weeks, depending on the season unless PFL has one in stock. (we try to keep a 16″). I believe that most customers will agree that the quality and fit of the saddle is worth the wait. All saddles, tack, and saddle pads are made in Mr. Kurthe’s shop in the USA just north of Atlanta Ga. The saddletree is made out of Southern Yellow Pine and covered with linex to improve resistance to moisture and cracking. Mr. Kurthe uses the best leather from US based suppliers. The hardware used is solid brass or stainless steel.

Come visit our store. PFL Inc.

Maggie’s Horse Saddle fit Problem and How we Solved It

Paul & Gail — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 01:22:44 +0000

I sold Maggie a saddle for her wide withered Paso Fino. She chose a Kuda Leather-Flex Trail saddle. The problem was that it seemed to be too tight in the wither and he did not gait relaxed. She felt it did not work well on him. Being a treeless saddle that has bars that twist and bend and form to the horses back, this was puzzling to me. So I asked for pictures and forwarded them on to my friends at Skito Enterprises, Tom and Colleen. They assessed that the horse had a dip behind the wither that caused bridging (yes, even with a treeless saddle). The pommel of this saddle is rigid and without the help of the straight back to hold the rider up, the wither gets more pull than necessary. When the rider sits in the saddle and the middle of the saddle pulls downward into the drop of the back, the pressure is increased on the wither. The answer, of course, is to fit a shim into the dropped area on each side of the backbone just behind the wither to help even out the pressure once more. Because the shim lifts the rider up there is no longer downward pull on the saddle and thus less pressure on the wither. With the Kuda Flex Trail, the only pull on the pommel and cantle should be from the tightness of the cinch. When the rider sits in the seat there should not be more pull on them. If your horse dips or a sway, seek help with a Skito Pad and shims. If you have a saddle pad of another brand that you love, then you can usually solve the problem by using a Skito Bridge. They fit under your normal pad to fill dips and sways. The pictures help to tell the story. .

This saddle fits evenly front to back.

Gail Springer is the owner of PFL Inc. An online business selling Kuda Leather Flex Saddles and Skito Saddle Pads as well as Headgear and other riding accessories. www.pflus.com

How to Measure Your Horses Withers for Gullet Width a Kuda Leather-Flex Saddle

Paul & Gail — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:52:08 +0000

This is the way to measure for the Kuda Gullet Size as of 10/1/2010

We now have new sizing rules: Please follow the directions above to find the size of Gullet you need for your new Kuda Leather Flex Saddle.

1. Measure the width of your horses withers as shown in the picture above.

2. After deciding how wide his withers are, choose Narrow, Medium, Wide, or Extra Wide, for your saddle choice.

3. When you sit your saddle on your horse, there should be two inches between the top of the gullet and your horses wither peak, as pictured below.

Two inches should show.

Come to www.pflus.com to see the complete line of Kuda Leather-Flex Saddles.