Imperial Tack Measurement Schedule

Article 1. Application

This Schedule is binding under the Imperial Tack, Restraint, and Welfare Code. It applies wherever the legality of equipment depends upon width, pressure distribution, release, leverage, rotation, material, padding, projection, fit, or measurable mechanical action.

Article 2. General measurement rule

Equipment shall be measured in the configuration in which it is actually used, including all padding, rein or line attachments, curb or rotation-limiting straps, fasteners, inserts, marker mounts, decorative additions, and load-bearing accessories. A commercial description, manufacturer label, traditional name, or advertised purpose shall not replace functional testing.

Where a device can be adjusted into both lawful and unlawful configurations, only a permanently limited lawful configuration may be certified. Removable stops, hidden lower rings, optional force-amplifying attachments, or owner instructions not physically enforced shall not cure an unlawful design.

Article 3. Individual fit

Certification of a model does not certify fit upon an individual equid. The responsible person shall confirm individual placement, clearance, pressure distribution, release, stability, and freedom of breathing and movement before every use.

Article 4. Contact surfaces

Every pressure-bearing surface shall be smooth, flexible enough for its intended function, free from sharp edges, ridges, protruding stitching, hard seams, exposed wire, abrasive rawhide, cracked material, hard knots, and concentrated internal cores.

Padding shall not conceal an otherwise rigid, narrow, abrasive, or pressure-concentrating structure. Padding shall remain resilient under ordinary use, sweat, rain, cleaning, compression, and temperature change.

Article 5. Minimum effective widths

The following minimum effective contact widths apply after ordinary working tension is applied:

Class	Minimum effective contact width
adult horses and equids above 300 kilograms	32 millimeters for a control noseband or primary pressure-bearing nosepiece
ponies, donkeys, miniature equids, and equids of 100–300 kilograms	25 millimeters
equids below 100 kilograms	20 millimeters
non-control browbands, crownpieces, and marker-bearing straps	18 millimeters unless a wider width is required by fit or load
rotation-limiting or curb straps in contact with the jaw	25 millimeters and never chain

The competent authority may require greater width for an individual head shape, thin skin, scar, injury, age, or pressure sensitivity. A narrow internal cable, cord, wire, rawhide core, or edge shall be measured as the effective pressure width even where covered by wider padding.

Article 6. Padding

Where padding is required, compressed padding thickness shall be not less than 4 millimeters at ordinary working tension. Padding shall not create edge loading, heat accumulation, moisture trapping, or unstable rolling.

Article 7. Required construction

A certified direct-action sidepull shall have one fixed lateral rein or driving-line attachment on each side of a broad noseband. Each attachment shall act substantially on its corresponding side and shall not travel, slide, rotate around the nose, draw beneath the jaw, or depend upon the opposite rein or line.

Article 8. Prohibited mechanics

A direct-action sidepull shall have no:

• central under-jaw rein attachment;
• crossed, running, sliding, wraparound, or constricting strap;
• shank, wheel, pulley, gag, purchase, curb, or leverage arm;
• force-amplifying ring arrangement;
• attachment that rotates the noseband before direct lateral action occurs;
• delayed release;
• rigid or rawhide primary nosepiece;
• rope knot or narrow cord over a lawful pressure area.

Article 9. Release test

With the headgear fitted to an appropriate test form or individual equid and the rein or line tension removed, all control pressure shall cease without manual repositioning. The attachment and noseband shall return freely without binding. A release taking longer than one-half second under clean, dry conditions, or longer than one second after approved wet-and-mud testing, fails certification.

Article 10. Stability and placement

The noseband shall remain over stable nasal bone and clear of lower nasal cartilage and nostrils throughout bilateral and unilateral rein or line testing. It shall not be capable of entering the eye, contacting the cheekbone edge, compressing the facial nerve, twisting the crownpiece, or materially displacing a marker mount.

Article 11. Driving prohibition

No hackamore, mechanical hackamore, leverage hackamore, bosal, bosal-type device, combination bitless bridle, double-rein bitless arrangement, cross-under system, or second pressure system is certifiable for driving, carriage work, long-lining for driving, ground-driving for vehicle preparation, or vehicle-attached work.

Article 12. Ridden leverage hackamores

A ridden leverage hackamore may be certified only where all of the following are satisfied:

• rein attachment is not more than 100 millimeters below the principal pivot;
• purchase above the pivot is not more than 50 millimeters;
• calculated mechanical ratio does not exceed 2:1;
• total permitted rotation from neutral does not exceed 30 degrees;
• a broad non-chain rotation-limiting strap or positive mechanical stop prevents over-rotation;
• the primary nosepiece meets Article 5;
• release meets Article 9;
• there are no multiple lower rein positions, force-amplifying slots, sliding gag action, rawhide, wire, chain contact, or narrow rigid cores.

The effective lever arm shall be measured to the lowest usable rein attachment, whether or not the user claims not to use it.

Article 13. Bosals

Rawhide bosals and rawhide primary nosepieces are prohibited. A non-driving padded bosal-type device may be certified only where the primary nosepiece is broad, flexible, smooth, nonabrasive, free from a rigid core, and no narrower than the applicable Article 5 width. The central rein attachment shall not tighten, constrict, or bind after release.

Article 14. Combination systems

Approval of a combined sidepull–hackamore, double-rein bitless arrangement, or other combination system applies only to specifically certified non-driving use. Each pressure system shall be independently lawful, separately controllable, and incapable of simultaneous constant pressure or force multiplication. Such approval never authorizes vehicle-attached work.

Article 15. Rope diameter and knots

A rope device used for lawful non-driving control shall have an effective pressure-bearing diameter of at least 12 millimeters and shall have no knot, splice, metal join, or narrowed section positioned over a pressure area. Thin cord, yacht rope used in narrow doubled strands, and rope with hard internal cores shall be measured by the narrowest force-bearing element.

Article 16. Halters

A broad flat halter used for ordinary leading shall have a noseband width of at least 25 millimeters for equids above 100 kilograms and 20 millimeters below that weight. A halter used with reins as a riding device shall additionally satisfy the direct-action, stability, release, and placement rules applicable to its actual function.

Article 17. Spurs

A lawful spur shall:

• project no more than 20 millimeters behind the rear surface of the boot;
• terminate in a smooth fixed half-sphere or sphere not less than 20 millimeters in diameter;
• have no rowel, disc, serration, point, hook, edge, rotating element, upward angle, or downward hook;
• remain stable and shall not rotate into a narrower contact surface.

No spur is lawful where it marks the skin, parts the coat repeatedly, causes flinching, tail clamping, kicking, rushing, defensive behavior, or is used to maintain constant pressure.

Article 18. Whips

A lawful whip used for a permitted cue shall have a flexible shaft, a smooth contact end, no hard exposed core, no weighted lash, no knot, and no rigid striking edge. It shall not be used with enough force to raise a welt, break skin, cause panic, drive an exhausted equid, or replace training.

Article 19. Non-control attachments

A marker, illuminated marker, lamp, camera, sensor, ornament, tassel, badge, battery, switch, cable, diffuser, housing, or service attachment shall not:

• become a pressure-bearing control device;
• stiffen or narrow a control noseband;
• create a hard edge, heat source, rattle, swing, glare, or concentrated weight;
• alter rein or line action;
• delay release;
• obstruct vision, ears, breathing, nostril expansion, or head movement.

Article 20. Attachment testing

Every attachment shall pass pull, vibration, rain, mud, cleaning, heat, sealing, power-failure, and entanglement testing appropriate to use. An illuminated marker shall additionally pass full- and low-battery switching, brightness, dimming, color, flicker, glare, thermal, ingress, and unpowered-recognition tests and shall remain fully retroreflective when switched off or without power. A detachable component shall release safely before it can trap a limb, rein, line, harness part, or vehicle component, unless detachment would create a greater road hazard and the competent authority approves another fail-safe design.

Article 21. Measurement instruments

Dimensions shall be measured with a calibrated ruler or caliper. Rotation shall be measured with a calibrated angle gauge. Force and release testing shall use calibrated load cells or tension gauges where mechanical action is disputed. Instruments used for official certification shall be checked at least annually and after damage.

Article 22. Wet, mud, and wear tests

Equipment whose action may change when wet, muddy, sweaty, frozen, dusty, or worn shall be tested in those conditions. A device that becomes slower to release, more abrasive, narrower, heavier, stiffer, or more force-amplifying fails certification.

Article 23. Certification mark

A certified model shall bear or accompany a durable certification number identifying the approved configuration, size range, permitted uses, prohibited uses, revision, and expiry or review date. Alteration of a pressure-bearing part, rein attachment, shank, stop, core, width, padding, or release mechanism voids certification until reassessed.

Article 24. Field inspection

An inspector may measure the equipment as fitted and used. Refusal to permit measurement, substituting another item for inspection, concealing an attachment, disabling a lower ring, adding temporary padding solely for inspection, or altering the equipment after an incident is an offense.

Article 25. Stricter rule

This Schedule supplies minimum technical limits. An individual veterinary restriction, Passport restriction, specialized Code, route rule, or competent-authority order may require greater width, lower leverage, shorter projection, different materials, or complete prohibition. The stricter welfare-protective rule prevails.