Desert island question!

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SarahF

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Hi all - a new forum member here! :)
I could never afford my own horse until recently - since I moved out to the Gambia.
However, there is hardly anything in terms of equestrian resources here - so I'll literally have to go back to basics!

My question for inspiration is:

If you were marooned in a desert island with your horse and could only have 5 essential horse care items - what would they be?
What could you not live without?

Thanks in advance!
 
Having grown up in Africa, and kept horses there, but admittedly the other side I'd say:

1 A well-stocked first aid kit with plenty of disinfectant, a huge pack of steri-strips - the industrial strength ones (for when your horse strips its leg of flesh like a stocking having wrapped it in barbed wire in the middle of the bush and it takes the vet 4 hours to fly out to you), possible antidote to your most dangerous snake (ask your vet's advice on this; we certainly did in the bush, but when closer to town, it wasn't as necessary), gallons of purple spray (with iodine), epsom salts for poulticing - you'll mix this with bran mash - it's cheaper than animal lintex and more readily available, a tonne of vetwrap, gamjees and an assortment of bandages, lints, wipes and pads. Include a good book on poisons and treatment.

2 A saddle pad with room for front and back shims - getting a qualified saddle fitter isn't going to happen very often and it is going to be a case of one size for all. They do go up and down with the weight according to the dry and rainy seasons - sometimes quite drastically.

3 A good headcollar and lead rope. The shiny nylon stuff doesn't last long in the sun.

4 Fly mask and fly rug. Horse sickness is a major killer - you'll be required to vaccinate every year, but sometimes you get resistance or the drug wears off too quickly.

5 A tonne of good saddle soap. In damp times, tack goes mouldy faster than David Attenborough's time lapse photography of a growing mycelial archetype. In hot weather, it dries out even faster.

There are tonnes of things to include, but that's probably what I would include. As an aside, we used to take advantage of the heat to create an extreme deep littering system (our horses were stabled at night to ensure they didn't become large cat food). We started off with a mixture of straw (extremely expensive and rare in some places), shavings (also like rocking horse poo) and horse manure which gradually built up. We'd take the fresh poo out, dry it in the sun (for two or three days), break it up and put it back in. Bedding became a zero cost item after a couple of months.
 
@hereshoping wow thank you for such a quick and thoughtful response!
1st aid kit was my first thought - I've been compiling a list so your input helps lots!
I'm not sure whether there are poisonous snakes where I am but it's something I hasn't even considered so thanks!
There is a vet who has had some apparent equine related training from a horse & donkey charity up country - but from what I can gather all he seems to give are wormer, antibiotic, anti inflammatory and painkillers. Gonna try to meet with him anyway.

I never new the sun would affect nylon - I was looking into webbing tack as easier to maintain than leather - would you advise against then? Would I need to go leather tack and rope headcollar you think?
I'm currently riding a beach horse twice a week and the leather tack they have is really dry :(

Saddle fitter? Haha you can't even buy saddles here!!
I'll be having my essentials shipped out from the uk - so
I'm looking at a treeless libra saddle and have already got my eye on some saddle pads etc :)
Ditto fly masks - and now rugs too now thanks (I hate flies) not sure about my region but I know sleeping sickness is on the country as well as malaria so yeh - good essentials there!

The bedding system sounds good - looks like I'll be on a rocking horse-poo hunting mission soon too then lol!!

Thanks for some invaluable advice there!! Feel free to post more! ;)
 
Ah. Yes. Wormers - tapeworm and redworm will be rife if you are near cattle areas. The vets - the Gambia Horse & Donkey Trust is probably your best bet - ask them for advice on what wormers to stock. It's unlikely you'll be doing egg counts for the other stuff, so a regular worming programme it's going to be.

Fly rugs will cut down on the likely bot fly infections, as well as keeping the b*st*rd mosquitoes (West Nile Virus is prevalent - it's what killed off all the horses taken to that part of the word during the War), tsetse flies and horse flies off, although if they're anything like the so and so's I did my research on at Uni, nothing short of asbestos is going to prevent their high tensile steel probosces penetrating the skin. So include a nuclear strength fly deterrent in your stable kit.

We used to use the nylon head collars, but the thread would rot after a few months, so switched back to leather and also made halters out of flat rope. As long as you clean it often, your leather should be fine. We used to cover leather in lanolin once a month - leave it on for a few hours and then use a dry cloth to wipe off the excess. Stank to high heaven but kept it supple. Just make sure you don't ride out in the rain straight afterwards, your reins and seat will slip all over the place!
 
mmmm Ive had to have a good think about this
1.fly repellent
2. bute
3.pen and strep {injectable antibiotics}
4. medium weight rug
5.body brush
I could have done with choosing another 3 things.
 
Hereshoping thanks - a fly rug didn't come to mind until you mentioned it, guess unjust pressumed it would be to hot!

Ameeyal - go for it - maybe just 5 things was a bit tight lol!
 
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