Tips for Horsemen

tip from Emily - For highlighter use a little bit of Vaseline for around the horses eyes, muzzle, and inside the ears. Because it is cheaper and it is not prone to sunburn like Baby oil

tip from Emily ~ Are you wanting to make your horses coat as shiny as possible? Feed them flax seed.. it is found at Wal-Mart or Kroger... it is cheaper then "coat enhancing supplements" and it works better.... if you want to make it a more fun and rewarding treat for your horse.. make oatmeal cookies with flax seed in them... they LOVE them!

tip from Donna Canada ~ After girthing up, go to front legs of your horse & stretch straight out to keep from having girth rubs or sores on elbows especially if horse is on the heavy side.

tip from Jade ~ Florida
tip = For horses with a white or lighter colored tail, there is always a possibility of yellow stains. Mix a half of bottle of peroxide in with a half full bucket of water. Set the tail in the water/peroxide mix, for ten minutes. When the time is up, rinse the peroxide out of tail, and re-wash your horse's tail. Be careful not to dry the tail out with too much peroxide! :)

tip from Jana Basler ~ Do you show a horse with a fake tail? To keep it from getting caught between your horse's legs, spray your horse's back legs with WD-40. It keeps the tail from sticking, washes off easily, and does not pick up dust and dirt like show sheens or Peppy.

Cleaning ears can be tricky, because horses hate to get water in their ears. what works for me- dampen a rub rag and add a tiny bit of ivory liquid soap. scrub the inside of the ear with this. Don't forget to keep your horses ears clipped inside so they stay cleaner. Also, always put fly spay in your horses ears (squirt some on your hand and rub it in their ears) to avoid bug bites. if your horse does have bug bites in its ears, clean them often, they start to itch and dead skin collects.

tip from Kathryn: To make a homemade hoof polish that really conditions your horses hooves ~ Put olive oil, garlic cloves, and Cheyenne pepper in a blender and mix. More Olive oil than the others, but enough garlic to smell it. It should smell like Italian dressing when you are finished. This really helps cracked, dry hooves if applied everyday. This is an old secret from my great aunt.

Tongue depressors make excellent applicators for salves in difficult to reach
places (like under the belly). They are also good for mixing liquids or helping a powder dissolve in a liquid.

Zip lock sandwich baggies make good storage bags for treats or supplements when you go on a trip. Measure out the supplement portions and carry them in your trailer for easy addition to the feed when you are on the road.

Put a little bit of Vegetable Oil in your horse's feed to help enhance coat shine

For those horsemen (and others) that allow their dogs in their house and on the furniture - I've found that a King size fitted bottom sheet fits my sofas perfectly and stays in position on the sofa so that I can keep the sofa clean and allow the dog a comfortable place to sleep at night - this is easily removed for cleaning and human company

For white markings, and paint horses, you can use oxy clean powder (like for your clothes) shampoo with a reg. shampoo to remove most of the dirt first, then mix some powder oxyclean with shampoo (showhite/xtreme or quiksilver works great) into a paste and work into white hair...leave on 2-3mins then rinse out. Also, the new dawn with oxy dishwashing soap works wonders! Remember to condition your horse with horse conditioner to put back the pH levels as the oxy is pretty strong. It wont hurt your horse though, and isn't bleach. Works great!

To help combat odors in a horse's stall, use a box of baking soda on the wet spots when you take down a stall.

To give a horse a pill form of medication ~ take a coffee grinder and drop medicine in and grind. If the horse does not like taste add a couple of peppermints in the grinder. Then clean grinder w/white rice and throw out.

To make a horse's white legs look bright and clean - shave the legs and brush Corn Starch into the white hairs

Use a 10% Clorox solution in your horse's water buckets to clean them and reduce bacteria count. Use the Clorox solution on girths to help kill fungus

Put feed goldfish in your pasture watering tank - they will eat the mosquito larvae thus reducing the mosquito population

Flies feed 1-4 feet off the ground so when setting out bait or traps make sure that you set them no higher than 4 feet

Spray Show Sheen on the inside of your horse's hide legs to help keep a tail extension from getting caught between his legs

Pull the hairs of a tail extension in with the natural hairs of your horse's tail to make it blend

Green plastic pot scrubber pads from the supermarket are great for removing dried mud from your horse. Their flexibility and size make them easier to use on the horse's legs than a curry comb

Mix one cup white distilled vinegar with 1/3 cup Blue Dawn dish detergent and one cup water and place in a spray bottle for a fly repellent (too much dish detergent will make the horse sticky for a couple of hours.

For poison oak/ivy - mix equal parts of buttermilk; table salt; and vinegar and coat liberally on the skin. The salt actually provides a delightful abrasive to scratch the itch while the buttermilk and vinegar seem to neutralize the poisons that cause the itch

If you are a member of the AQHA, you are entitled to $10 worth of FREE Internet records every month. Sign up for your password and visit the membership section.

During the week keep a hair conditioner on your horse's tail to keep it from becoming dry and brittle

To reduce breakage of your horse's braided tail, start braiding it at the top, using a French braid; then use a long cover such as support stockings (hose) so you don't have to fold the braid.

If your saddle is driving you crazy squeaking, try sprinkling baby powder between all the flaps

Laura King CHT NLP - laura@summitdynamics.net

KNOW WHY YOU RIDE

Perhaps you started out in equestrian sports because you loved horses. Perhaps you took it up for exercise. Maybe it was the competition that originally attracted you. Many equestrians after riding for a while, however, lose sight of their original intent and get caught up in the negative aspects of competition.

Riding is not only about winning and losing, it’s also about being in touch with yourself and finding your unique talents and abilities. Think of riding as a metaphor for empowerment, a metaphor for concentration, a metaphor for the strength we all have but don’t think we do.

As soon as you find yourself losing sight of what drew you to riding in the first place, take a moment and picture how excited you were the first time you climbed up on a horse. Remember the sights, sounds, and feelings of that day, and remind yourself how excited and lucky you still are to be involved in such a rewarding activity.

The first step being to decide your personal motives for riding, ask yourself these questions as often as you can: What do I want from riding? What do I want from myself when I ride? What do I want for myself?

Riders believe that it is imperative to nail the “perfect spot” on the first fence, to perform flawless transitions, and to have perfect lead changes each and every time. When, once in a while, we don’t perform perfectly, we feel frustrated, embarrassed, and humiliated. Our performance then goes downhill very fast from there as we start to berate and reject ourselves right there in the riding ring.

All of this occurs because we expect perfection from ourselves.

To overcome the problems that occur because of a poor mind-set, I suggest you look at your riding from a brand new perspective. Take a step back. Realize that you are only human and that people make mistakes. The best athletes in the world and the most successful riders make mistakes as well. Remember that very few performances are flawless.

When a mistake is made it is important to learn to forgive yourself because you are only human. You must not let these imperfections, either large or small, to get the best of you.

Once a rider demands of him or herself that they be perfect, it is a downward spiral from there. Not only do they judge themselves against a false ideal, but they become convinced that other people expect them to be perfect as well. The end result is that the rider feels an extraordinarily unnatural and unhealthy amount of pressure when competing before a crowd. The rider becomes afraid of making a mistake because of the fact that it may reveal them as being less than perfect.

This fear causes muscle tension, negative self-talk, loss of focus, and an accompanying array of other harmful thoughts that stand in the way of achieving their own peak performance.

If you happen to chip a fence, or miss a transition, remind yourself that the mistake does not reflect on you as a person or an athlete – it’s the way you respond to that mistake that does.