Idk why it takes months to decide if something is worth spending money on. I finally ordered some yacht rope and made a soft loping hackamore.

The Orange was feeling mighty good. A friend of mine recently euthanized her old guy who was about the same age as my mare, and I always think it's interesting how some of us hold on way too long to our senior horses; I obviously don't mean sound seniors, but the seniors that have clear mobility / any problems. I know a few people who have grown so attached to their older horses that they quite literally hold on until the vet tells them that it needs to be put to an end. So I really admire my friend for realizing that her gelding would not be sound or comfortable moving forward and chose to end things on a high note. Horses can "live" in abject pain for a very long time and I think some of us use that as justification not to make the hard choice, because, "he's still eating", "he still moves",, even if the horse is (for example) practically crippled by chronic laminitis, is on bute 24/7, has almost complete topline wastage, can't hardly hold up their feet for the farrier, needs their hay chopped or can only eat mashes, etc.

Not that I probably won't try to do the same thing when my horse is no longer sound lol its always easier said than done.