Equestrian Barns & Architecture: Start Living the Dream

Keeping Your Tack Clean and Healthy

11:14 pm

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Cleaning tack. It’s a dirty job, but we all have to do it.

Saddles, bridles, and all the other bits of leather that we use on our horses can cost a fortune. Luckily, with proper care and storage, tack can last, if not forever, a very, very long time.

Climate control: Leather is just like you: it hates humidity. Saddles in humid, sub-tropical climates like the Southeast are always at risk for mold and mildew. You know that wonderful scent of leather that comes wafting out of a clean tack room? The odor of […]

Book Review: Falling for Eli

6:35 am

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Equine Care, Guest Author Farmgirl, Misc.

How I Lost Heart, Then Gained Hope Through the Love of a Singular Horse

By Nancy Shulins, 258 pages, 2012 Da Capo Press

The author, an accomplished correspondent for the Associated Press, fills an unfulfilled need for children she is not biologically able to have, with of all things, a horse. The story follows her angst from making peace with what cannot be, through her angst in the adventure of first time horse ownership from 1996 through 2008.

I found the book so relatable on many levels. Her horse, a thoroughbred she names Eli […]

Health Tips for Horses in Muddy Conditions

9:40 pm

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Equine Care, Facility Planning & Design

Is your farm muddy?

Summer mud. Winter mud. Spring mud. Fall mud. No matter what the season, mud is a part of a horseman’s life. Whether you live in a part of the country with a rainy season that makes mud a daily nuisance, or you just don’t have the best drainage in the world, mud happens.

And mud is more than just a tedious mess that ends up all over your boots. Mud can cause a host of health problems, from soft feet to skin infections. So what should horse owners be aware of when […]

Preventing Dehydration in Horses

3:39 pm

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Equine Care, Misc.

Well, the official kick-off to summer has come and gone, and although some spots in the country might still have snow on the ground, there’s no question that most of us will be seeing hot weather very soon — if not already!

It’s nice to put away the blankets and jackets, of course, but hot weather comes with its own set of challenges for equine health.

One problem that often crops up in the summertime is dehydration. Keeping horses hydrated can be quite the challenge. (You can lead a horse to water, but if the horse doesn’t […]

Five Tips for Relieving Horse Boredom

3:43 pm

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Equine Care, Facility Planning & Design

Picture this: It’s six thirty in the evening. You’re tired from a long day at work. All you want is to get to the barn, get your horse’s stall cleaned, and maybe get in a quick ride before you head home to eat dinner and collapse.

You walk into the barn and sigh. Your horse’s stall is a wreck. There is more hay beneath his feet than bedding. He’s been working on that tunnel to freedom again, too: the gnawed spot on top of his stall door is easily an inch deeper than […]

I Want to Ride Like a Child

1:20 am

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Guest Author Farmgirl, Misc.

When I was a child I rode with no fear.

I would always ride without a saddle and sometimes even with just a halter. When I was a child I could ride with no hands. I rode with the wind. I would jump anything in my way. I was one with my best friend, my horse. With him I found my peace through the ups and downs of childhood and adolescence.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It seems so unfair, as we age, no matter how often or how much we ride, that our […]

Organize Your Tack Room

8:00 pm

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Equine Care, Facility Planning & Design

Winter is the perfect time to makeover your tack room and be organized for spring activities with your horse(s).

One of the easiest ways is to take everything out and separate items into piles: keep, store, fix, give away and throw away

•The “keep” pile might include the tack you use every day; first aid items, boots, and bandages and other frequently used items. These items should be clean and ready to go. Thoroughly inspect all your leather tack to see if it belongs in the “fix/clean” pile to repair any damage and give it a […]

Book Review: The Eighty-Dollar Champion

3:35 pm

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Guest Author Farmgirl, Misc.

Snowman, the Horse that Inspired a Nation

By Elizabeth Letts 336 pages (includes notes, bibliography and index), 2012 Ballantine Books.

Much in the fashion of Secretariat and Seabiscuit, The Eighty Dollar Champion is a well documented historical non-fiction novel, this one written by an equestrienne.

I had originally read the original children’s book many years ago, Snowman by Rutherford Montgomery published in 1962. So while I was familiar with the story, this adult version tells the comprehensive tale of the symbiotic relationship between a horse and a man with extensive detail of […]