Spring Cleaning And Organization

For the life of me, I do not understand how you can have a big barn and not organizing the crap out of it. So many barns have stuff just laying around, especially boarding stables. I always have a sudden urge to organize things.

Organizing feed rooms is important to keep rodents out and preserve your horses health and the quality of the feed. If you are going to organize anything do it here!

Separate grain into their own containers that seal shut to keep the mice poop out. If you buy your grain in large quantities bins are an option.

Some grain bins are expensive, so creating your own may be the way to go. I like this one that uses muck buckets and a homemade system to hold the muck buckets. The lid slide down over the bucket. Tip: buy the buckets at Target, where you pay $7 a piece. Buying at the feed store usually averages $15/each.

For boarding stables, sometimes having the boarder separate the grain into baggies with the supplements is easier, especially if you require the boarder to buy their own grain. It also provides the horse owners with reassurance that you are feeding their horse the correct items, they can always go back and see how many bags are left. It is also easy for them to add supplements without the confusion of re-coordinating with the workers or manager.

Storage cubes found in Target, Home Depot, Lowes, etc are great for supplement organization. Just throw the Smartpaks or supplement baggies in a cube basket, each horse has their own.

Horse blankets always need organization. One hanging on a stall looks nice, more than that starts to look junky, things start falling down, and it's just annoying. If you do not want to spend the money on tons of expensive blanket holders, just get hooks from the hardware store that are large enough to hold the weight of a blanket and hang from the chest straps off the hook.

If you own a boarding stable, consider a room (rug room) where during the off season blankets may be properly stored.

Also consider placing blankets in plastic (save their original plastic cases) to avoid things falling all over the place.

Don't have a rug room, consider ceiling storage which you usually purchase for garages. That way you can store heavy blankets during the off season.

It doesn't take much to organize a tack room. You are hanging up bridle racks and saddle racks anyways, hand them up in a nice pattern. 

Great for private barns, schooling barns, and trainers to have all their saddles in one spot.

Add in cabinets and shelves to hide some stuff behind doors to make the appearance of a tidy tack room.

Give your boarders the option to lock up their tack. Lockers also hide their stuff...if you have some sloppy boarders you don't have to see their mess!

Want to save a few bucks then just give the boarders cubbyholes.

Have a place for everything by hanging racks on walls in grooming stalls or wash stalls.

Use a shoe organizer in your tack locker, over the door, or in your trailer for boots, wraps, grooming tools, etc.

Great cabinet mounts organization would work well in shelves and in boarder's lockers for fly spray, shampoo, boots, and other odds and ends.

Mesh stretchy trunk luggage can be used for boots, wraps, leadllines, or any lighter items. Typically only $13. Mountable on tack trunks, tack lockers, cabinets, and walls.

For lunge lines, tack, halters...we all know hooks can be expensive if you purchase through a tack store. I suggest hitting up the hardware store or Wal Mart and buying hooks there. You can get hooks for under $10.

For manure forks, shovels, brooms try yard storage hooks found at places like Lowes, hardware stores, Home Depot, etc. $8 and up.

Both of these are at Wal Mart from $8-$12

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Schnieders Blankets

I have had 2 Schnieder's blankets now and I absolutely love them. They are tough, well constructed, warm, and sharp looking. They come with a 2 year warranty, but I haven't had to use it yet. Not even a tear! They are incredibly waterproof. These things are tough!

They have different lines for different breeds, including warmblood!

The Vtek V Free Horse Blankets designed to fit the warmblood and TB. Especially those with high withers (which these breeds tend to have). They have great buckles, well constructed, not one has broken. Leg straps, belly straps, and double snap chest closure.

They have a pressure free wither design including a wither padding. They also have a strap to adjust the shoulder pressure. Both of these features have completely eliminated my horse's wither soreness which he suffers from wearing traditional blankets.

The Stormshield model is my favorite.

They come in multiple weights, all under $200. The Medium weight is $129 for 220g, the Light weight is $119 for 100g of fill, and the sheet (no insulation) is $109!

I have the Stormshield model in lightweight (100g) and medium weight (220g). I cannot stress how much I love them! I will only buy their blankets moving forward. The quality is way up there for the low price, I almost feel like I am robbing them. The Stormshield Light Weight is not incredibly light weight, it is still rather thick. I tend to have him wear it when it's in the 30s or in the 40s at night. He is half clipped and lives in a shed/run outside.

Tip: When measuring your horse stay true to the size or round up. I had a size 78 which fits well on my horse for awhile, but then I had it cleaned and it did shrink a little...his gut was hanging out of the bottom. :) So I graduated it to my smaller rescue horse and bought him a new one, size 80....it fits perfectly and a little room for shrink.

The Stormshield, perfect for TBs and Warmbloods. Buy at SStack.com

My next big purchase, the VTek Marathon Model which comes with a belly band and a heavy weight of 380grams! We have cold winter days of -15 here in Colorado with a clipped horse the leaves in a shed and run this is necessary.

$199.00 for the heavy weight! Buy Here.

Don't have a TB or WB? The V-free model is for Arabians, Quarterhorses, and similar confirmations. They also have the Cutback model for Morgans and other horses with upright necks.

They also have a great fly sheet model, which is probably worth a try this summer!

More people should be afraid to go down the stairs!

Falling down the stairs has hurt my sacrum so much more then any horse fall I have ever had. Why in the world have I every been nervous riding a horse? I mean, I am not a wimp, but there have been some rides jumping around where I feel a little nervous. But I can't think of any times I was nervous walking down the stairs. WTF?!

Maybe because I go up and down stairs everyday, multiple times a day, and it's second nature. That only means if I rode all day long I probably would be a much better rider and never be nervous.

More people should be afraid of walking down the stairs. Less people should be worried about riding a horse!

Trying to figure out how I am going to ride. I am totally willing to ride standing up in the stirrups the entire time, just got to figure it out this weekend.

Saddle Shopping Online

I feel like I am always in saddle shopping mode. One complaint I have about living in Colorado is the limited choices in tack stores, it makes it difficult to shop for saddles. It's hard to find a used saddle and give it a try, most of the saddle shopping needs to be performed online. Over the past 3 years I have tried 4 saddles (all purchased) for one horse before finding my saddle, which I love....the Amerigo Vega Jump!

Here are a few of my favorite places to shop (online) for saddles...

Smartpak. They have a trial program for saddles with free shipping on the trial saddle both ways. I think that is an excellent deal and from a business stand point a great way to encourage riders to trial a saddle and hopefully purchase.

Smartpak is also pretty awesome about a return policy. As long as the item isn't damaged, I do feel safe purchasing items from them knowing they will likely accept an exchange or return. Smartpak also provides some tips for saddle fitting and the customer service is great making it easy to do business with them.

SmartPak Trial Saddle: 17" Amerigo Vega Jump $3700

 

Maryland Tack Exchange. Not a big company like Smartpak but they have a great inventory of used higher end hunter/jumper saddles- CWDs, Butets, Antares, PJs, etc...they have a great selection.

All the saddles are available for trial via mail. They do charge shipping and a fee I believe for the trial, but the used selection is so good it's worth it. I have trialed a saddle with them before, they were very nice, easy to communicate with, and allowed me some flexibility with the saddle.

One thing I did notice is their saddles sell fast. So if you are looking to sell you may want to send it over to  them!

 

Maryland Tack Exchange on the inventory: 17" Antares $1800

 

High End Used Saddles. This is where I bought my Vega Jump. It has mojo, previous owner was a Grand Prix rider. I thought it was cute they had a little history about the saddle. The lady who runs  this operation really knows her saddles and she has some great suggestions on what works with different breeds. All of her saddles are upper end and also priced reasonably. She is select with the type of saddle she sells so you know what you purchase from her is quality.

 

High End Used Saddle on the inventory: 2008 Butet Long Flap Saddle $2695

All that pretty pink

I found this pink kitchen. I actually really like it, it's very pretty. So I decided to find other pink things, but horse related! That is how my mind works, one thought leads to another thought, which leads to a blog.

You know there are a few of them out there...pink horse trailers! I actually helped a friend spray paint her old crappy horse trailer pink once. She was a rodeo girl, it fit, and was a fun way to dress up a basic trailer.

This horse trailer takes the cake though. It's Katie Price's horse box!

St. Tropez riding jacket along with some other pink goodies.

Katy Price's Equestrian Range features a cute sheet/cooler in pink.

Katie Price has even more items in pink, like these tall boots in pink with crystal. May be a little too much but they are still pretty to look at.

If you enjoy looking at pink every day you could paint your barn pink.

Of course, GPA makes a pink riding helmet. For girls only!

Pink headbands aren't just for little girls, they are for horses too! These brow-bands are actually very pretty and would look great on grays or a dark bay.

Well, I like a little pink...but maybe some of this is a little over the top for me to own. It was fun to look at though wasn't it? And I am pretty sure there are some riders out there glamorous enough to wear all this pink.

Injury + Snow = Reading About Horse Shows On The Internet

I fractured my coccyx bone...ugh. Of course, I am bored out of my mind! I am not able to do much. I cannot even put on my own shoes! And guess what?! This injury is not related to horses in any shape or form. That's right, I did this all on my own by falling down the stairs. Awesome.

The good news it is miserable outside, only 20 degrees and constant snow so there is not much fun things to do anyways.

To cheer my self up I decided to see how some of the big Hunter/Jumper shows are doing right now. It would also be important to note the temperate in these places...all which are better then Colorado right now.

Temperature comparison...
Lyons, Colorado: 20 degrees with snow
Wellington, Florida: 74 degrees partially sunny
Gulf-port, Mississippi: 68 degrees and sunny
Tuscan, Arizona: 57 degrees with some rain (I still would take it!)

First show, Winter Festival and Nations Cup in Wellington, Florida. I have always wanted to go to this show. Perfect time to get away from Colorado snow and watch pretty horses in warm weather. Maybe next year. The show features your standard hunter jumper classes and some high dollar Grand Prix too! The $150,000 CWD Prix and a $200,000 World Cup both which happen tomorrow, Sunday March 2nd.

http://www.equestriansport.com/

Then there is the Gulfport, Mississippi show, where my current barn is residing for the next several weeks. Over $1 million in prize money is being offered. There is at least 2 Prix per week with the biggest one being the $77,000 Week 5 Prix. The show also has some turf based classes.

http://gulfcoastclassiccompany.com/

We couldn't forget HITS Arizona. Everyone knows HITS; the six week show starting in January and ending next week, March 9th which includes several Grand Prix including the Strongid $50,000 Prix also a qualifier for a World Cup in France this April. The winner of the Strongid Prix was Saer Coulter and Springtime.

http://hitsshows.com/arizona/

Horses Need Home ASAP

From Bright Futures Farm Facebook....

https://www.facebook.com/BrightFuturesFarm

http://www.brightfuturesfarm.org/

****NEED PLACEMENT ASAP****
These four horses are located in Central PA.
They are at a former rescue. One of the spouses passed away and the other spouse is not able to care for them. The property is up for sale, so there is little time to rehome them. Information is below. What I know, I have told you so please don't ask questions about a specific horse. I can't answer them. If you can help by giving one of these horses a home, as is, please contact us via pm here, or atbrightfuturesfarm@gmail.com I do not know what is going to happen if they don't find homes very soon. Owner's children (edited)
want to rehome them, but time is an issue.
Please share. Thank you.

Gracie (in the pink blanket)
Saddlebred mare
15.1
24 years old
She can be ridden, to include children. She is very docile.
She is in very good health and recently had clean check-up. Very sweet horse.

Hope
2001 Appaloosa mare
mostly white with brown. Long stripe to snip
15.2 hands
We are not sure if she is broke to ride.

Lucky
11 year old Appaloosa gelding
approx 15.2 hands
Brown with blanket, wide blaze, socks
Nice personality. Tentative at times. Untrained.

Misty
31 year old QH mare.
Liver chestnut. Broken stripe, wide snip.
Very sweet. Good companion for a lone horse. (4 photos)