What's Up With These Reins?

Chicago screws have been used on tack for many years without issues.

It's up to the user to ensure tack is in good working order. Rawhide ties break, snaps give way, etc.

Just put a drop of clear polish on them when you retighten the screws. Pretty reins use them :)

I make it sound worse than it is. Almost all my bridles have chicago screws even with my "incidents". Everything just happened because they were incorrectly tightened.

If you want to trade a set of reins though let me know. Those are gorgeous.

LOL, I don't use the screws just because, to me, they are a pain in the butt. If you don't "glue" them in some way, they come undone, but if you do glue them, then I can never seem to get them undone when I want to without losing at least a fair amount of skin from my hands.


It's funny this topic should come up. My Dad and I were talking just a couple of days ago about some of his past; horses he'd rode, people he'd shown with, etc. Apparently, sometime in the 80's, he was at some big QH show with Billy Allen (yes, the Billy Allen, they are friends and often roped together in those days). Well, just as Billy backed into the box for one of his runs, the bridle just fell off his horse...due to a broken chicago screw. He managed the run without a bridle ( I think he won too). I wish that video would have been more common back then. I would have loved to have seen that.

Smrobs, I love that story! Haha also helps that Billy Allen is one of my favorite people....