This Little Place Here: Making Halter Fleece

Do you have horses? Do you have horses that wear halters all the time?

(Quick note--this thread not intended to be a debate on should or shouldn't horses wear halters 'round the clock. I have my beliefs, and, unfortunately, the barn owner where my horses live, has hers. Since it's her facility, her opinion overrules mine, and my horses are nearly never without halters.)

Anyway, I decided that to combat the rubs that tend to occur on the nose when a horse wears a halter all the time, I wanted to make some halter fleeces for the nosebands of my horses' halters. I could have easily bought some, but, being ~~cheap~~ frugal and having plenty of ability to sew, I made my own.

First, I measured the length and width of the noseband on each halter that I wanted a fleece cover for.

Then, I chose my fabric. I really wanted a faux sheepskin, but could not find any at the many craft stores I looked at in December. So, I went with a fake fur, in black. My options were white, cream, light brown, or black. I figured black would wash best without stains, so that is what I went with.

I also purchased a package of sew-on velcro to match.

Once home, I cut the fabric into pieces that were 4" wide and 1" longer than the noseband of the halter I wanted it for--for the large pony/Arab halter that was 11.5", for the regular horse halter 12.5", for the large horse (avg. warmblood) halter that was 13.5".

I eyeballed velcro to the approximate length I wanted, and cut 4 sets (1 fuzzy piece and 1 prickly piece per set) for each halter fleece I intended to make.

To make each fleece I first turned the short sides under 1/4" and sewed them down. The long sides I left alone.

On the furry side of the fabric, I sewed four fuzzy piece of velcro, fuzzy side up. Each velcro piece I spaced about 1/4" from the long edge of the fabric and the two end velcros approx. 1/2" from the hemmed short edge.

Then, on the back side of the fabric, I lined up each of the four prickly pieces of velcro with their fuzzy partner sewn to the furry side. And sewed them, prickly side up, also about 1/4" from the long edge of the fabric.

That was it!

When I stuck the prickly velcro to the fuzzy velcro, I had a long tube that was fuzzy on the outsides. The bottom side you could see the stitching where the velcro was attached, and the top side was just fur.