Things you wish you'd known about years ago!!

"Cheap rugs are cheap for a reason."

Agree up to a point, but My £20 Robinsons bargains have done 3 winters and never leaked so I'm not complaining, plus my cheap rugs have never been stolen, whereas unfortunately my lovely expensive ones have. So it's cheap rugs all the way here!
 
Ditto shedding blades
putting talc onto wet grey tails to dry much cleaner
Quikplait spray - genius stuff
dettol baths
Lavender wash - excellent stuff that doesn't need rinsing all the time
leaving wet t/o rugs on overnight
zinc and castor oil cream
not using headcollars makes like much easier in the long run! (part of join up I suppose)
plaiting the night before hunting - don't know why I shied away from this for so long.
Flatwork being the key to everything else
stretches for horses
the value of having a horse vetted
headshaking (in relation to buying ponies at the wrong time of year)
to trust my own instincts and stand my ground!
 
I have learnt:
-Cleanliness is next to godliness (not freaky clean just neat and tidy).
-Wash, reproof and mend rugs as soon as the weather is good enough or you will forget.
-Judge yards by their muck heaps it tells you a lot about their attitude.
-Check the stitching on your tack regularly.
-Sit up (cure for many evils)
-Don't judge the lazy, pity them.
 
Automatic water bowls - not buckets.
Just buy turnout rugs - don't need stable rugs
Buy the best you can afford - it's cheaper in the long run
Never get cross - use your brain instead
It costs just as much to keep a good'un as a bad'un
If a horse is naughty, work out why and find a different way to get what you want
Weighing hay - would have saved a small fortune from overfeeding
Don't believe all the feed manufaturers - trust your own judgement
Have bridles made to measure - they fit properly
Don't keep a horse that doesn't match your needs and personality because 'you love it'. Sell it to someone who suits it, and go and find your perfect match, you'll have much more fun.
I ramble on ....................................
 
NOISYGIRL said:
ewe not so great for the horse ! mine has extra jammy's on at night because its colder :-)
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Not if they aren't wet inside. Blankets nowadays are designed to be used 24/7, excellent idea.

Mine have been wearing the same MW's for 4 months now, none of them have been cold, wet, or died from a lack of blanket change.

What do I wish I'd known about?
Actually I am not sure they were invented way back when anyhow, but Heated water buckets and troughs I couldn't, wouldn't, be without them now, even my dogs, cats, rabbits and goats have heated water bowls!!!!!!!! :D
 
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Llewellyn said:
I have learnt:-Judge yards by their muck heaps it tells you a lot about their attitude.
.
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Whoops, don't look at mine then:(
Mind, at -20C, in a blizzard, quite frankly neatening my muck heap is the last thing on my mind. The tractor does a reasonable job of pushing it back anyway I find.

[mmel001 12ft lead ropes.]

Noooooooooooo, hate the things, they get wrapped around everything and leading 4 horses at once with 44' of rope is a PITA.
I make my own 7' ones.
The only horse I lead with a long rope is the stallion.

Angelbones ... [not using headcollars makes like much easier in the long run! (part of join up I suppose)]
:) Nice, if you can do it, I can imagine the carnage if I tried that here though.
How would you get 6 horses to stand in the aisle of a barn and wait for the farrier without halters then?
Come to think of it, what does your farrier and vet think about no halters?
 
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NOISYGIRL said:
ewe not so great for the horse ! mine has extra jammy's on at night because its colder :-)
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....I guess it depends on how good your rugs are....?? The only one of mine that needs well rugging has a bucas power turnout, and has never been too hot or too cold underneath....it's fab....I can highly recommend them.

....and if my rugs weren't waterproof, they wouldn't be wearing them at all, so the horse won't be any wetter than if I changed rugs!!!
 
That the hundreds of expensive feeds are a waste of money. Ad lib hay, good grass and simple feeds like HiFi along with vitamins are more than enough for MOST horses. (Different for those in proper competition work - but it makes me chuckle to see people feed all sorts of stuff to horses they take in the school for 20 mins and hack round the block)

Agree about turnout rugs rather than stable - although I am partial to a cute fleece or two for my pony.

That often there are simple solutions to problems - i.e. rather than spending lots of money on anti weave grills / stable toys / supplements for stress, perhaps turning a horse out for the day might be a cheaper and nicer solution.

Finally - that smaller private yards are much nicer than big livery yards, and that there are a LOT of mad people who own horses ! :)
 
Ditto the point about turnout rugs - what a complete waste of time taking them off and then you put them on wet in the morning. I would also add field shelters so's 24/7/365 live out and not needing to spend thousands on feed when ad-lib hay or haylage plus lick easily suffices (only just learned that though)
 
Rubber mats
Watering can - instead of a hosepipe for washing off legs, she will actually let us go near her feet now and lots quicker to do as doesn't get tangled and she doesn't get stressed
Grooming mitt - Gets all the stubborn mud off on one side but the other side makes her shiny, win :D
Grey horses like to turn lovely shades of black, brown and skewbald - swore i was not buying a grey, for this reason, but fell in love and did :p :D
 
NOISYGIRL said:
ewe not so great for the horse ! mine has extra jammy's on at night because its colder :-)
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umm, but if the horses are in at night, there's no wind-chill factor, so in fact it's probably warmer overall...
good quality rugs are great kept on 24/7, i do this with FALs and Rambos and the horses are always toasty.
damp rugs are okay drying out on a toasty horse, but surely if the rug is wet on the inside, it's a crap rug that either needs reproofing or binning... i won't risk chilling my horse to dry outa rug!

loads of things: rubber matting, shelters, finding the right trainers.
carrying equal loads, e.g. two buckets 3/4 filled rather than 1 huge bucket, doing my back in.
oh, and i wish i'd learned earlier how to think and see like a horse... that would have made life easier!
 
that its nearly always my fault when it goes wrong, i did'nt plan it right, i didn't ask correctly, i was'nt sitting properly, i needed to up my management skills, make more effort to think through what needs to be improved and how to overcome problems, and prevent future problems by uping my game,
and that if i do it right i will be rewarded beyond my expectations by these wonderful creatures that that give us so much
 
not using headcollars makes like much easier in the long run! (part of join up I suppose)
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i used to run out to the field hop on the pony (beau in signature) no head collar, no hat, nothing (not even a rug to hold on to!), i know im naughty! (although for the record she is only 13.2HH)
 
Bossy Bibs - spent too many years with either rubs or horses wearing spandex anti rub vests with yet another set of buckles to deal with.

Pumice grooming block - fantastic for stripping out all the shedding hair - although I am also inspired now to try the shedding blade as recommended by most of the people on this thread:-)

Baby Wipes for Backsides, ears and noses - farewell the selection of differing coloured sponges I used to carry around.

On the non product front growing up and realising that I will make mistakes and the horse will make mistakes and as long as we overcome them together then it is not a problem.

To always have a set of excercies that are a "place of safety" for both my horse and myself, i.e. ones that horse knows inside out and backwards and gets confidence from doing. So when learning new complicated stuff and it is causing a problem rather than battling through I go back to the tried and trusted's for 15 - 20 mins horse and I gain confidence (we can actually do this with eyes closed) then try the more difficult new stuff again.....never fails so thanks to my wise old instructor for this one:-)
 
flamehead said:
1. SHEDDING BLADES!! Why on EARTH did I not own one of these before?!?!?!?!
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well over 25 years ago (when I bought my first pony) someone [can't remember whom] told me to get the longest hacksaw blade I could and use it on my pony to get the hair out...

I didn't.

I do now have a shedding blade, and I kick myself for not following the advice I was given back then!!
 
OH MY GOD! i have a shedding blade, i have always used it for mud but never knew how good it was went their moulting to get out the hair! well after reading this post i tried it.. it was AMAZING thank you HHO! (for the record i also didnt know it was called a shedding blade, that might have given it away :P )
 
I've had a shedding blade for years and until now had no idea what it was called. I just calll it the metaly moulty thing. People know what I'm talking about. :p
 
Finding out you have to sit straight to get a straight horse and most of use don't sit straight.
The use of weight as an aid is more useful than hands or sometimes even legs.
The Mary Wanless book Thinking Riding and the phrase, 'no one sets out to be a bad rider'.
The equine simulater, if I could have sorted out my position at 16 I would have been a much more secure rider.
Thining blades, no more sore horses or fingers.
 
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