Old fashioned horsey tips/tricks

MiJodsR2BlinkinTite

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A wip wop is a better thing to use for rearers. Its a soft rope with a feathered end, so won't hurt a horse but if you can use it on its belly when a horse rears the idea is that the horse won't rear again. It goes back thousands of years to when wild boars brought down horses by using their tusks on their bellies to expose their guts, the horse would quickly die. Richard Maxwell is an avid supporter. Its also used to encourage your horse forwards and its more forgiving than a whip.

I have a whip-whop! Michael Peace I believe advocates them too. A very handy little piece of kit, also ideal for swatting flies! Was in panic-station mode the other day when I'd changed saddles around (treeless for another treeless) and I'd somehow lost the dang thing. Turned the tack-room inside out I did, then started on the house. Still couldn't find it. If I'd still had my little terrierist who we lost a year ago tomorrow I'd have said the little blighter had taken it, just the sort of thing the monkey would do ....... anyway found the dang thing eventually, it'd fallen down behind the feed bins. Mega relieved.

Am loving this thread! Lots of old remedies from my pony club youth that I remember hearing about. One that we kids were taught was "always feed a bran mash after hunting". Along with a pint of Guiness.

Along with "strapping"....... gosh this makes me feel old! But it was a good thing to do; wonder how many modern Grooms know how to do this anymore? It was second nature to the Ostlers of old.

For sweet itch I remember hearing about creosote-and-sulphur mix; just imagine slapping that on anything nowadays!

For anything that had ever reared, even if only the once, the mantra we were taught was "get off, stay off, and ring kennels". Drummed into us it was.

We had a a vet in the old days who'd always treat a laminitic pony by Bleeding it with a fleam (you don't see this anymore in vets kit nowadays!). Also of course in those days every vet used to carry a captive-bolt humane killer. Awful things. But that was the way it was back then.

Oh and I remember that everyone back then had a "Colic Drench" in their tackroom ready for an emergency, which the vets would make up for you just in case.

Good grief, I feel absolutely ancient!!
 

Horseysheepy

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I was thinking earlier how our straw at home would be perfect wisp making material! It's got a bit of a wirey texture to it which would help you to bend and twist it into shape!.
 

ponynutz

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Adding another as I remembered.
Not an old one but an excellent one I was taught a few years ago.
If a horse kicks for it's dinner put buckets full of water inside the stable by the door and when they kick they'll be splashed and won't do it again/
 

Cortez

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Adding another as I remembered.
Not an old one but an excellent one I was taught a few years ago.
If a horse kicks for it's dinner put buckets full of water inside the stable by the door and when they kick they'll be splashed and won't do it again/
You'll just have a very wet stable if you do that.
 

Melody Grey

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Using a small amount of baby oil in a spray bottle saves me a fortune in mane and tail conditioner and for moisturising scurfy bits behind cob knees.....also decanting hoof oil into a small pot with a lid makes sure not much is lost if it tips over....which my son does....frequently!!

ETA: just remembered using a small ball of straw to remove grease from saddlery.
 

spacefaer

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Ball of horse tail hair for taking grease off tack
Bran mash with Epsom salts on Saturday night for Sunday day off.
Bran mash poultices (they never stayed on overnight as the horse tended to eat them)
 

Rowreach

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Is this the same as straping?


Cob life…yes it is…Elf sorted out my misremembering..strapping is correct term.

I don't think it is. Strapping is, in simple terms, a total thorough grooming, which should take at least an hour, using different brushes for different purposes, and finishing with a wisp or stable rubber for shine. It was usually done in the afternoon, after exercise. Quartering was done in the morning, before exercise, and referred to a quick groom where you turn the rugs backwards and forwards to keep the horse warm while you groom a quarter of it at a time.

Banging is when you use a banging pad (usually a round pad covered in leather with a loop to put your hand through on top) which you apply with some force to the major muscle areas and then slide off. Used to tone and massage and did the same for the grooms too.
 

rabatsa

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To me strapping is what you describe as banging, I agree about quartering but grooming with the full set of brushes, finishing with a stable rubber was called grooming. A full groom included strapping and as my ex cavalry DC used to say "The horse would start hot and you dry and by the you had finished it was the other way round".
 
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