It is well made.. and to my eye, has not really even been used much. It's good thick leather. No matching reins. I've been thinking, I like the feel of that lead rope you made for us so much, I may go get some of that to use as reins, with some good sturdy snaps, and have my 'lead rope' as well.
Being as you’re pretty close to the ocean, I’ll bet y’all have some places where you can get odd lengths of surplus nylon yacht braid. Seems like it’s around $1 or $1.50 a foot at retail, but can be had for around .50 a foot if bought at surplus. I’ll bet Ramius knows how to do an eye-splice for the snap ends, since he’s into boats and all.
But if you can’t find any cheap yacht braid, I’ve got some of that same rope left, or I’ve got some black that’s very similar. I could probably make you a 10ft one-piece rein and ship it to you for less than you’d pay for just the rope if you have to buy it at retail. Check around and see what your rope prices are and let me know.
The nylon split reins that I’d been using all these years were sooooo long so I decided to make myself a one-piece rein out of the black not too long ago and I really like it. I pulled the core completely out of it so it’s flatter and lighter than if I’d left it in there. The only thing about the black is it’s cover is more tightly woven than the white, so it can’t really be spread enough to do an eye splice. You just have to fold it over and sew it back to itself to attach the snaps. It’s not as neat looking as the eye splice, but it doesn’t look too bad either.