Why Biothane Is Ideal for Endurance Riding
Endurance riding asks a lot of our horses—and quite a lot of our gear too. Over the course of a training ride or endurance competition, tack can be exposed to hours of sweat, dust, rain, mud, creek crossings and plenty of water during strapping. Then, after travelling kilometre after kilometre, we need that same equipment to remain comfortable, functional and reliable.
It's one of the reasons Biothane has become such a natural fit for endurance riding.
At MPH Saddlery, we don't just like Biothane because it comes in an enormous rainbow of colours—although that's certainly a bonus. We use it because its practical qualities suit the realities of endurance and trail riding remarkably well.
Endurance Tack Is Going to Get Wet
There really isn't any way around it.
Even on a completely dry ride, your tack is exposed to hours of sweat. Add rain, creek crossings and Australian weather into the equation and endurance equipment needs to cope with plenty of moisture.
Then there's strapping.
At endurance competitions, particularly during vetting, cooling the horse efficiently can mean considerable amounts of water being poured over the horse while tack and equipment are being removed. Biothane is ideally suited to this environment because its coated surface doesn't absorb water in the same way traditional leather does. You don't need to worry about repeatedly soaking your beautiful leather tack or having it dry out stiff after the ride.
For endurance riders, that's a significant advantage.
Made for Sweat
A horse working over distance is going to sweat. Depending on the conditions, your bridle, reins and breastplate can be exposed to sweat for hours at a time. With Biothane, that sweaty tack doesn't require a complicated cleaning routine when you finally get home. A rinse with fresh water removes most sweat and grime. If it needs a more thorough clean, some mild soapy water and a soft cloth, sponge or brush generally does the job.
Rinse it, hang it up to air dry and move on to looking after the more important member of the team—the horse.
Perfect for Strapping
Endurance riding is unusual in just how involved the crew can become during competition. At a vet gate, everything suddenly becomes about efficiency.
Horse comes in. Rider dismounts. Tack comes off. Strappers start cooling. Heart rate comes down. Horse presents to the vet.
Good endurance equipment shouldn't make any of those jobs harder than they need to be. This is something we've considered specifically when designing our MPH Saddlery Endure range. Our Endure bridles use a clip-on, clip-off bridle section, allowing the bit and bridle section to be quickly removed while leaving the halter in place.
Our Endure Breastplate has also been designed with VGIH competition in mind, allowing the saddle to be removed quickly so strappers can get straight to work cooling the horse. These might seem like small details at home. At a busy vet gate when your horse has just completed a demanding leg, they make considerably more sense.
Ready for Australian Conditions
Endurance isn't an indoor sport. One weekend you're riding through dust in 30-degree heat. The next you're dealing with rain, mud and water running down your sleeves. Your tack needs to work regardless.
Biothane is wonderfully unfussy about weather. Getting caught in the rain doesn't mean an evening spent carefully drying and conditioning your tack. Mud isn't a disaster. Water crossings aren't something your bridle needs protecting from. And when conditions get particularly dirty?
Wash it.
That's one of the things we love most about it.
Easy Cleaning After a Long Ride
There's something particularly unappealing about arriving home after an endurance weekend with a tired horse, an unpacked float, piles of washing and tack that needs hours of attention. Biothane makes at least one of those jobs easier.
Most of the time, your post-ride tack routine can be as simple as:
Rinse away sweat, dust and mud.
Use mild soapy water for stubborn dirt if necessary.
Pay a little extra attention around buckles, stitching and hardware.
Rinse thoroughly.
Hang everything up to air dry.
Check your hardware and tack for wear before the next ride.
No saddle soap. No oiling. No conditioning.
And importantly, cleaning your gear is also the perfect opportunity to inspect it. Endurance equipment works hard, so checking stitching, clips, buckles, rings and high-wear areas should always be part of your routine.
Practical Over Long Distances
The further you ride, the more you appreciate simple equipment. After several hours in the saddle, little inconveniences have a habit of becoming very big inconveniences. Endurance tack needs to be comfortable, adjustable, uncomplicated and functional.
That's particularly important when you're riding multiple legs, coming in and out of vet gates, removing and replacing tack, feeding your horse, strapping and heading back onto track. It's also why combination halter bridles are so popular amongst endurance riders. Being able to remove the bit while leaving your horse's halter in place makes feeding, drinking, vetting, strapping and handling around ride base much simpler.
The same feature is useful outside competition too. On a long trail ride, you can stop, unclip the bridle section and let your horse comfortably eat and drink without needing to remove all of their headgear.
And Yes... There Are the Colours
We can't talk about Biothane without mentioning one of its more obvious advantages.
Colour. Endurance has never exactly been a sport afraid of brightly coloured tack. From understated black, navy and earthy tones through to turquoise, periwinkle, lime, orange, pink, purple and fluorescent colours, Biothane lets riders create gear that's as subtle—or as unmistakable—as they want it to be.
There's even a practical advantage.
When your strapping crew is waiting at a checkpoint for horses to appear in the distance, being known as "the one in the fluorescent orange bridle" isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Made for the Way Endurance Riders Actually Ride
There are plenty of materials that can be used to make beautiful horse tack. For us, the appeal of Biothane is that it combines appearance with genuine practicality. It can handle sweat, water, mud, weather and repeated cleaning. It's easy to maintain after long days in the saddle. And it lends itself perfectly to the functional designs that make endurance riding just a little easier.
That's exactly what we want from our gear.
Because after you've ridden 40, 80, 100 or 160 kilometres, the last thing you need is high-maintenance tack.
MPH Saddlery
Made for endurance. Made for the kilometres. Made to be used.
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