Collar Types and How to Measure for a Horse Collar

I often get this question: What type of collar should I buy? Full Face? Half Sweeney? Full Sweeney?

Then when I make a suggestion I get the question: What is the difference?

And then I have to go look it up because I always forget. LOL! So I made this graphic. It’s a quick look at the differences and also a little coach about how to measure for a collar:

This is an excellent article about the different collar shapes, how to measure for a collar and how the collars can change shape over time, as we use them: (The brown words below are a link!)

Fitting a Collar

This above article has this photo showing the difference in shape how the collars are stuffed.

The Full Face is the collar used most by miniature horses, and slender necked horses, such as buggy horses. The Half Sweeney is the collar used most often by draft horses and horses with a lot of muscle at the top of the neck. The Full Sweeney is more rarely used and is for horses that have extremely thick upper necks. I think the above photo is a great one for showing how the shapes are different.

I show how to measure for a collar in the newest How to Measure for a Harness video as well!

Links shared above:

http://www.ruralheritage.com/Scraps/FitCollar.pdf

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg4VpxIP0ws