Britchins, Cruppers & Chest Straps

Riding Britchins

(Also known as breeching or britching to some)

Oops!! Reason for a Britchin	Riding Britchin

When riding mules in hilly or mountaineous country the use of a Riding Britchin is extremely important, in our opinion. A crupper will work as long as the terrain isn't very steep. But, since most mules and donkeys don't have much withers, it's so much easier on your animal to keep the saddle back where it belongs with a riding britchin.

We recommend using leather lined britchins with double spyder and quarter straps. This is a little more expensive than unlined and with single straps, however the amount of stability and comfort the lining and second set of straps provides far out weighs the additional initial cost in our opinion. We do build both types to sell, however we strongly recommend starting out with the better quality which is all that we use ourselves.

Construction:

• Heavy Harness leather with solid brass hardware
• Butt piece lining is soft chap leather which is rolled, or not rolled (your choice), on the edges
• Spyder piece lining can be made from either soft chap leather or from sheep skin
• All straps are adjustable
• In Deluxe version, Spyder and Quarter straps are also lined and stitched
• Spyder straps and Quarter Straps have heavy duty solid brass tongue buckles with lots of adjustment room
• Saddle attachment straps have heavy duty solid brass Conway buckles and scissor snaps so that they lay flat under saddle bags
• A diagram showing proper attachment points to saddle is provided with each saddle britchin

Description of options:

• Rolled and flat linings:

With Rolled Lining - front side	With Rolled Lining - back side	Not Rolled Lining - front side	Not Rolled Lining - back side

Both types of linings provide a smooth back surface that slides easily over the hair instead of grabbing the hair as unlined leather tends to do. This helps greatly in reducing the amount of hair that is rubbed off on the animal. (We don't have a photo, right now, of an unlined backside, but if you are unfamiliar of what the back/flesh side of leather looks like, please refer to the photo comparison below.)

The Rolled Lining actually has the edges of the lining leather rolled and stitched under, which provides a smooth rounded edge that does not cut the hair on the animal.

The lining without rolled edges has cut edges exposed on the lining leather which are more likely to cut hair than rolled edges.

Both types of linings are better than no lining. We will build without lining, if so requested, but we do not recommend it.

• Lining vs. Unlined:

Back Side and Front Side of Leather

As you can see from this picture, the back side (flesh side) of leather is rough and catches on the animals hair causing chaffing. Whereas the front side of the leather is smooth and slides over the animals hair causing much less chaffing action. When an item is "lined" it has a second piece of leather glued and stitched onto the backside of the item, so that smooth leather is against the animal instead of the rough backside of the leather.

• Straps:

	Front of lined strap	Side of lined black strap

Straps can be made from either single thickness of Harness Leather, or from doubled thicness of leather stitched together so that both sides of the strap have smooth "finished" leather. Lined straps makes the straps slide over the animals hair easier, and make a much stronger strap. Harness Leather is normally strong enough even as single thickness for most casual riding purposes. However, if you do a lot of hard riding you might want to consider lined straps for extremely long durability. Lined straps are a little more difficult to buckle and unbuckle because of the added bulk and stiffness.

Britchins can be made with either single or double Spyder and Quarter straps. The Spyder straps are the straps that go from the Spyder Pad which sits up near the croup and go to the butt piece. The Quarter straps are the straps that go from the ends of the butt piece and attach to the sides of the saddle and the ends of the cinch.

In the britchins with double Spyder and Quarter straps there are a total of 4 Spyder straps, which provide the maximum adjustability and fit for the Butt Piece. With single Spyder straps (total of 2) you don't have much control over the angle that the Butt Piece lies. You want it to lie flat so that it does not rub on the edges causing soreness and cut hairs.

Pricing:

Riding Britchin prices are for up to 41" butt piece. For longer add $.50/inch

• Riding Britchin, lined, with double Spyder & Quarter straps $159.00
• Riding Britchin with double Spyder & Quarter straps, NOT lined $145.00
• Riding Britchin, lined, with single Spyder & Quarter straps $131.00
• Riding Britchin with single Spyder & Quarter straps, NOT lined $121.00
• Deluxe Riding Britchin, lined w/ double Spyder & Quarter straps lined also $208.00

Measuring for an order:

For measuring instructions go to measuring instructions

Cruppers

Crupper

Riding Cruppers provide some assistance in keeping saddles from sliding forward, as long as the terrain is not real steep. If riding for any length of time, we do recommend applying some Vaseline or Bag Balm to the tail piece of the crupper to help reduce the amount of friction on the soft under-tail skin. For longer rides on mules or donkeys, and for riding in steep terrain, we strongly recommend the use of britchins over cruppers. We sometimes use a combination of both a crupper and a britchin in every steep terrain, to help spread the pressure over more of the animal, which makes it easier for them to handle.

Constructed of:

• Harness leather with soft flax seed filled tail piece
• The crupper pad can be lined with either soft chap leather or sheep fleece
• All hardware is solid brass
• The tail piece has a spring snap on one side of it so that it's easy to put on and remove from the animal
• The saddle attachment straps have adjustable Conway buckles which lie flat so that saddle bags can lay over them, and scissor snaps to attach to the saddle rings
• Cruppers are also available in our Deluxe version which have doubled and stitched straps, making them an extremely strong piece of equipment.

Pricing:

• $47.00
• $50.00 Deluxe version

Riding Chest Straps

2 piece Chest Strap with rolled lining and pommel yolk	Pommel Yolk on saddle attached to chest strap	2 piece Chest Strap lined

We also build a single piece contoured chest strap lined with/or without rolled linging and double attachment straps. We don't have a picture at this time, but will soon.

Construction:

• Our chest straps are made from Harness leather which matches the riding britchins, if you order them together.
• Chest straps are lined with soft chap leather, on the lined versions. We highly recommend using lined chest straps and britchins vs unlined ones, as the lining helps the leather to slide over the hair and helps keep the hair from being rubbed off. The lining can be either flat lined or rolled lined. The rolled lining keeps the edges of the leather from cutting the hair.
• There are two basic styles of chest straps to choose between:
• One piece shaped type, with double attachment straps
• Two piece hinged type
• We have designed our two piece hinged Chest Straps to be used with a Pommel Yolk so that they lay nicely along the front of the shoulder blade without crossing over it. When Chest Straps are attached to the D-rings on the skirts of saddles they tend to ride over the top of the moving shoulder blade instead of laying in front and out of the way of it's movement. Also, most 2-piece chest straps require a strap across the top of the neck to keep them up high enough, which puts pressure on the neck when the Chest Strap is working hard. By using the Pommel Yolk that neck strap is elliminated also. We feel this is a superior design keeping the comfort and freedom of movement for the animal at it's best.
• Stitching can be done in white, black or brown thread
• All hardware is solid brass

For more information and photos regarding the construction of the various options, please see the Britchins section above.

Pricing:

• prices are for up to 30". Slightly extra for larger sizes.
• Single piece shaped with rolled lining $80.00
• Single piece shaped with flat lining $75.00
• Two piece hinged with rolled lining $90.00
• Two piece hinged with flat lining $75.00
• Pommel Yolk $16.00

Measuring for an order:

For measuring instructions go to measuring instructions

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To place an order, please email us.
(If the email address in the above link does not work for some reason, please use our alternate email address)