We went to the PA Horse Expo yesterday for a few hours and had a great time! Unfortunately, I’ve also come down with a cold and am feeling pretty crap today, so I’m going to keep this blog post short and sweet, so please enjoy a few photos that I took at the Expo in the gallery below.
During the month of January, I held a sale on several items where I gave 50% of the proceeds to RSPCA New South Wales to help animals threatened by the Australian Bushfires. I’m happy to say that I sent nearly $30AUD off to help animals in need last week! I know that isn’t a lot, compared to what some artists and influencers are raising, but being able to give anything to help pets and livestock in need made me happy, especially since January is notorious for being a slow sales month!
The items that were eligible for the charitable donation were my Australian Brumby designs (mugs, ornaments, prints, and the original Brumby drawing), as well as the PDF download sketchbook of the pieces I created for Equine March 2019. Here’s a photo from one of my fantastic customers who purchased a Brumby mug to help with the cause!
Giving back to horses is so important to me and I definitely want to focus more on it this year, so this was a great start as far as I’m concerned. I chose the RSPCA New South Wales because they help livestock and pets as well as wild animals, and being able to help some of the horses that have been impacted was something I definitely wanted. I still think about all the photos I saw online of horses on the beach with the crowds of people who had nowhere else to go, or horses running from the bushfires, and I really wanted to help those horses. I’m so glad that I found the RSPCA and was able to give even just a little bit to help!
I’m hoping to do more charitable work throughout the year, especially with local organizations and rescues. If you know of any horse related charities in the Western Pennsylvania or Western Maryland areas that would be happy to work with a local artist, let me know! I have a few I’m considering already, but more leads are always great!
Let’s be real for a minute: having almost any type of pet can get expensive. But make that pet several hundred pounds and the costs just go up exponentially. Anything with the word “horse” in the title or a picture of a horse on it can cost more than double the same item that isn’t marketed to horse owners. I don’t make a lot of money, but have still managed to find ways to have a horse and enjoy her without spending tons of cash. It takes some planning and careful shopping, but it can be done! Here are some tips to cut your horse expenses.
Disclaimer: Check with a veterinarian or a trusted professional before making choices about horse feed, supplements, or other nutritional needs for your horse. Each horse is different, with different needs and workloads. The following is general advice and not meant to diagnose any specific need for your personal horse!
If you don’t have a horse yet and are looking to buy one, make sure that you get a vet out to do a pre-purchase exam on any horse you are seriously considering. I don’t care how much you love that big, young Chestnut gelding at the rescue, without a PPE you may take him home and find out two years later that he has a terrible case of kissing spine because you didn’t get x-rays and a vet exam before adopting! If you already have a trainer you trust, take them with you horse shopping to get a second opinion. If you don’t have a trainer, find one with a good reputation and get their opinion before buying. It may seem silly to spend money on a vet exam for a horse you may not buy, but it could save you lots of grief and expense in the long run by catching potential problems before you’re the one responsible for thousands and thousands of dollars in vet care.
Keeping a horse at home is the cheapest and easiest option for owning one, but sometimes having a horse in your backyard just isn’t possible. When searching for a boarding barn, see if you can do self-care (if allowed!) for a discount or if you can help out with barn chores or by trading some other service or goods for some of your board price. (For instance, if you’re handy with tools you can offer to repair fences or do other tasks around the facility!) Self-care only makes sense if you can afford the gas and time to come out every day, possibly multiple times a day, so be sure to figure that into your planning before committing to it. My best friend and I currently self-care at her parents’ farm, and we take turns coming out to feed the horses and change blankets so that all the running around isn’t just on one of us.
Barring medical issues such as Cushing’s, most horses will do just fine on a steady diet of quality grass. Hay is cheapest in the summer when grass is plentiful, so buy as much hay as you can store during the growing season. Buy the best quality hay you can afford, and feed from hay nets or feeders that are up off the floor to minimize wastage. Just remember that horses are designed to eat from the ground, so try not to feed their hay TOO high. And if using hay nets, hang them high enough off the ground so that your horse won’t get a foot stuck in it!
Horses are designed to forage most of the day, not eat big meals all at once. If you are going to supplement with a feed, make sure that it’s appropriate for your horse’s needs and that you aren’t overfeeding grain and skimping on hay. Feed, supplements, and concentrates can add up quickly, so unless your horse needs “extras”, feed more hay than grains. Never feed horses any food that is for cattle, as it can contain ingredients that are dangerous to horses!
Thanks to the internet, it’s becoming easier and easier to find horse tack second-hand. There are groups with thousands of members that are dedicated just to buying and selling used tack, from Western to English, and even Driving tack! If you need a piece of tack, look for it used first before buying new. Not only is it better for your pocketbook, but it’s also better for the environment, too! Also, most tack stores have a consignment section where you can purchase gently used items from other local horsepeople.
Once you have your tack, be sure to perform regular maintenance on it. Clean your tack regularly to check for signs of wear, leather fatigue, or metal fatigue. Check saddle billets, girths, and bridles for wear. It will be cheaper to keep your tack in good shape with regular cleaning and conditioning than it will be to keep buying new tack. Also, keeping up with tack maintenance will help prevent sudden tack failures that could lead to vet or hospital bills.
If your horse doesn’t NEED shoes, he probably shouldn’t be wearing shoes. Obviously your circumstances will vary, but it will be much cheaper to just pay for a trim whenever the farrier comes out than having to pay for shoes. As a bonus, the horse can’t pull a shoe if they don’t have one on, so you won’t have to pay the farrier to come back out after you find the left hind shoe out in the muddy paddock two days after it was put on!
Or, don’t blanket your horse at all if they don’t need it. Most horses don’t need a blanket at all unless they are clipped, old, underweight, or don’t grow a good winter coat. So you can save a bundle just not blanketing your horse at all!
But, if you do blanket your horse, you can clean and repair blankets on your own! There is a commercial blanket wash you can purchase that you use in the washing machine. Taking your blankets to the local laundromat will likely be cheaper than having them washed by a professional blanket person in your local area. Just be sure to use only recommended cleaning agents so you don’t damage waterproofing on your blankets, or treat them with a waterproofing spray after they’ve been cleaned.
You can also repair rips and tears either with iron-on patches specifically designed for horse blankets, with patches meant for tents, or by sewing the rips by hand. We’ve sewn up several rain sheets because Raven is tough on Glory’s blankets and like to rip them up, and have even re-attached broken straps on a bellyband of a winter blanket just by sewing it back on with a heavy-duty curved needle and waxed thread.
If your horse blanket does get a rip and you purchased it recently, contact the store you purchased it from or the manufacturer and see if the damage is covered under any sort of warranty. The previously mentioned winter-blanket-with-the-broken-bellyband was brand new and was still covered under the warranty, so we got a refund for the cost of the blanket and bought a new rain sheet (bonus: we got to keep the winter blanket, so after we repaired it we’d gotten two blankets for the price of one!)
Those are some of my tips for keeping horses on a budget. For more ideas, be sure to check out one of my favorite YouTube channels, The Budget Equestrian.
Do you have any money-saving tips for taking care of your horse? Share them in the comments!
Birthstone horse shirts are available on Amazon! You can get February-October’s designs on a variety of fits and colors, while taking advantage of your Amazon Prime benefits! I got to see one of these shirts in person just yesterday and I am BLOWN AWAY by the quality. The print looks amazing and the shirt itself is high-quality. Definitely recommend getting a shirt for yourself or someone you know who loves horses through my Amazon shop if you want the best feeling shirt ever!
I will be adding more shirts to Amazon as I can, however the way that this program works is different from other t-shirt storefronts I have. With Amazon, you have only so many design “slots”, and as you sell more shirts you rank up and get more slots. I am currently on the lowest level and only have 10 design slots, so I can’t put up all the months until I open up more slots. This means I have to get more people to buy shirts on Amazon! So if you know someone who would love one of these designs, please share the link with them! I need to sell 7 more shirts before I can get to the next tier, so there’s still a ways to go but I know we can do it.
Featured photo created by katemangostar – www.freepik.com
Horse with saddle photo created by topntp26 – www.freepik.com
With horseback riding, it’s not a question of “if” you will fall off the horse. The only question is “when” are you going to fall off the horse. Some horse people even say that if you haven’t fallen off a horse, you haven’t been riding long enough! In my almost-seven-years of being an equestrian, I’ve had my share of falls. Thankfully, most of them have been pretty minor- like falling off a horse at the mounting block (which I have done multiple times…), but there are two times so far where I had a pretty dramatic horse-related accident. The one that did the worst damage to me and to equipment was the great cart crash of 2014, where I managed to destroy an entire breaking cart and make my forehead bleed.
I want to preface this by saying that I believe EVERYONE who is doing something around horses should be wearing a helmet. We wear helmets whenever we ride or drive. I can make an entire blog post about the arguments against helmets that I’ve heard, and maybe I will one day, but I personally believe that a helmet is important whenever a horse is being ridden or driven. In the two accidents I’m about to write about, a helmet saved my noggin from being hurt even worse than it was. Okay, now that I’ve been on my Helmet Soapbox, let’s get into the story.
It was a beautiful Fall morning, and I was in a pretty bad mood. I decided to go to the barn and drive Glory, even though I would have no one to drive with and that makes it a little boring for me. I hadn’t been around horses for very long, but I’d been working with Glory for several months now and had been cleared to drive the cart on my own. So, believing that some horse time would cheer me up, I headed for the barn. After grooming and hitching up the cart, I headed down the fields.
Back behind the arena is a pretty steep hill, but if you stay toward the left side of the property and go through the ditch between the hill and the arena, you will get to a decent-sized flat area that is great fun to ride and drive in. At the time I didn’t like driving in the arena much because I felt like I would crash into the fence all the time, so I preferred to drive out in the fields where I had a bit more space. Despite being with Glory, I still wasn’t out of my bad mood, but I decided to stick with it and work the horse.
We got warmed up in the little red wooden breaking cart, and a little bit into our drive I decided to work Glory at the canter on the flat bit of land behind the arena. We were going around to the right, at a lovely even canter, and suddenly everything went in slow-motion. I don’t know if we hit a gopher hill, or if the tires were too full and bouncy and we just hit a bump in the ground, but suddenly the cart was airborne. The cart, with me in it, bumped and then rolled to the left in mid-air. Both shafts snapped away from the body of the cart and came away as Glory kept cantering on for a few more yards. The cart flipped and dumped me out onto the grass, face-first. I hit the front of my helmet on the ground first before rolling a few feet.
I didn’t lay in the grass for long, got up almost right away because I was worried about Glory. Thankfully, my rock-star driving horse had stopped only a few yards away and was standing there, looking back at me as though to say “Why did we stop? I was starting to have fun!” The only reason why she wasn’t eating the grass, I believe, is because the overchecks were keeping her from doing so. I stumbled over and grabbed her, then took stock of the cart, which was in pieces all over the field. I believe that Kennedy was out of town this day, but her parents were home and we up at the house, so I pulled out my cellphone and called the house to tell them what had happened. I called Kennedy too while I waited for help to come down, and she actually thought I was joking!
In the midst of my frantic phone calls, I noticed blood dripping down above my left eye. I took off my helmet and realized that when I hit my helmet into the ground, the helmet lining had scraped open a spot of skin on my forehead. After Kennedy’s parents got down the field to me, we took the broken cart shafts off the harness and gathered up the rest of the parts, and we all walked up the field together. Below is a photo of what was left of the poor little red cart…
All things considered, this entire accident could have been a LOT worse. Glory wasn’t hurt, and I was only minorly injured. I was sore and had a scrape on my forehead that hurt like hell for about a week, but it would have been a lot worse if I hadn’t been wearing a helmet. The breaking cart did exactly what it was supposed to do- breaking apart if something happens. I got off really lucky. And I’ve been pretty lucky with riding as well, since I’ve only had one really bad fall while riding and one semi-bad fall… but those are stories for another blog post!
Birthstone horse shirts are available on Amazon! You can get February-October’s designs on a variety of fits and colors, while taking advantage of your Amazon Prime benefits! I got to see one of these shirts in person just yesterday and I am BLOWN AWAY by the quality. The print looks amazing and the shirt itself is high-quality. Definitely recommend getting a shirt for yourself or someone you know who loves horses through my Amazon shop if you want the best feeling shirt ever!
I will be adding more shirts to Amazon as I can, however the way that this program works is different from other t-shirt storefronts I have. With Amazon, you have only so many design “slots”, and as you sell more shirts you rank up and get more slots. I am currently on the lowest level and only have 10 design slots, so I can’t put up all the months until I open up more slots. This means I have to get more people to buy shirts on Amazon! So if you know someone who would love one of these designs, please share the link with them! I need to sell 7 more shirts before I can get to the next tier, so there’s still a ways to go but I know we can do it.
If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen my new series of horses I’ve been working on this year – Birthstone Horses. These are horses with coloring based on the birthstone associated with each month, and they also are bordered on two sides with sprigs of the monthly flower as well. I’m so happy with how well these designs are being received, and I wanted to introduce the next four horses to my dear readers. So, read on to see some new Birthstone Horses and to read about the properties of each stone and flower.
The first part of this blog post series can be found here.
Emerald is the first green stone in the line-up, and with May being a month where everything really starts to bloom and be covered in green, it’s a fitting choice! Emerald mines existed in Egypt as early as 300 BC, and the stones were used in jewelry in ancient Greece and Rome. The stones weren’t introduced to Europeans until the 1500’s, when the Spanish invaded South America. The Inca people had valued emeralds for hundreds of years! During this same time in history, the brilliant green stone was cherished by Indian Emperors, who used the emerald as talismans to get the protection of the gods.
In mythology, emerald is the stone of Venus. This gives the emerald an association with romance. It is said that emeralds bring passion, bliss, and unconditional love. Wearing emerald has been said to give the ability to see the future and the truth. Some of the most famous fans of emerald are Cleopatra and Elizabeth Taylor.
The flower associated with May is the Lily of the Valley. Another name for this flower is “May lily.” The name of the flower means “return to happiness” and it symbolizes chastity, purity, luck, happiness, and humility. The Lily of the Valley is used in religious ceremonies, perfumes, and in celebrations around the world.
The ancient Greeks believed that pearls were tears of joy from Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Ancient Egyptians were buried with pearls to show their wealth, and Cleopatra once crushed up a pearl and drank it in a glass of wine to prove to Mark Antony that she could “devour the fortune of an entire nation in one meal.” Greek culture viewed the pearl as a symbol to make love and marriage more abundant, while in ancient Rome the pearl was a status symbol that showed wealth and power. Many countries in Europe banned regular people from wearing pearls, as they were seen as a sign of power and so could only be worn by those with power.
The pearl is said to bring clarity, innocence, and faith. It is also said to improve focus, inhibit overexcited behavior, increase productiveness, relieve bloating, and even ease childbirth. Pearls are commonly worn by brides.
Roses are the flower of June, and I specifically chose pink roses for this drawing. Pink roses symbolize gratitude, grace, joy, and admiration. While researching for this series, I learned an interesting fact about roses! Did you know that in the Middle Ages, roses were hung from the ceilings of rooms where important meetings took place? Because of the flower’s association with secrecy, it was understood that anyone under the roses was sworn to keep the meeting confidential.
Roses are used on four of the traditional Tarot cards: The Fool, The Magician, Strength, and Death. The white rose on The Fool symbolizes purity and is a reminder to clear the mind. The rose on The Magician signifies unfolding wisdom. It represents balance on the Strength card. And on Death, it is a reminder of purity and clarity.
The July birthstone, Ruby, was regarded by ancient Hindus as the “king of gems”, and was believed to protect its wearer from evil. It was believed that wearing a fine Ruby would bestow good fortune upon its owner. To this day, the ruby remains the most valued gemstone. The most important characteristic of the ruby is its color. Rubies come in a wide range of color, from cool red to orange-red. The most prized color is often the “Burmese ruby”, a rich, full red color with a slight blue hue. This color is also referred to as “pigeon’s blood” in the gem trade.
The hardness of ruby is second only to diamonds. In centuries past, it was believed that the ruby could predict misfortune, cure inflammatory diseases, and soothe anger. Burmese warriors believed that the stone made them invincible in battle. Medieval Europeans associated ruby with health, wisdom, wealth, and success in love.
The July flower, water lily, is the national flower of Bangladesh. It symbolizes love and life, and is used there in almost every religious ceremony. The scientific name for water lily is “Nymphaea”, which comes from the Greek word “nymph”. Nymphs were a feminine spirit in Greek mythology that inhabited bodies of water. The water lily has been given symbolic meaning in various cultures all around the globe. The lily was the symbol of Upper Egypt, and when paired with the papyrus flower (the symbol of Lower Egypt), it depicted the unity of the people. In Buddhism, however, this flower represents universality and enlightenment.
The word peridot comes from the Arabic “faridat”, meaning gem. Throughout history, peridot has often been confused for other gems such as emerald and topaz. Topazios, an island in the Red Sea and probable source of the name “Topaz” actually produced peridot. The Shrine of the Three Holy Kings in the Cologne Cathedral has 200 carats of gems that were believed to be emerald, but are, in fact, Peridot. Some historians even speculate that the famous emerald collection of Cleopatra may have been made up of peridot.
Peridot has been used for centuries as a protective talisman against evil spirits and nightmares. It began being used in priests’ jewelry as early as the second century BCE, and later was used in chalices and churches of medieval Europe. Peridot can be found in many locations around the world, but it has also come to Earth via meteorites!
The August flower, Gladiolus, gets its name from the Latin word “gladius”, meaning sword. They were named for the sword-like shape of their leaves. This flower symbolizes strength, moral integrity, and also represent infatuation. A bouquet of Gladiolus is supposed to convey to the recipient that they pierce the giver’s heart with passion. Gladioli are part of the iris family, and there are over 255 species of them. They are most diverse in South Africa, which is where they originated, but can now be found all over the world.
I will be continuing to do more Birthstone horses until I have all twelve months complete. Here is the list of stones and flowers I’m planning, broken down by month.
September – Sapphire and Morning Glory
October – Opal and Calendula
November – Topaz and Chrysanthemum
December – Turquoise and Holly
You can purchase prints of each of the Birthstone Horses in the shop here on my web-site, or on Etsy. T-shirts, stickers, bags, journals, hoodies, and more are available with and without text on TeeSpring, RedBubble, and TeePublic.
Wow, it’s February already! January felt both extremely long and like it went by in a flash.
Today I wanted to write about a fun project that my best friend and I started two weeks ago, and we’re having so much fun with it that we’re hoping to really branch out! There’s a little backstory though that I’m going to talk about but not go into too much detail about because I don’t want to paint anyone involved in a bad light. The story I’m about to tell is true, but I won’t be calling anyone out.
A while ago, I purchased some brush cleaning items from a small business. I liked the brush cleaning items enough that I recommended them to another friend, who placed an order in summer 2019 with the same business. Weeks passed and the order never showed up. After several attempts to contact the seller, my friend got a message saying that this person had suffered an injury, that someone was coming to help them fill orders, and that they’d get their items soon along with a free gift to make up for the delay. So, they waited another few weeks for their order to show up, but it never did. It still, to this day, has never arrived, and the seller disappeared off the face of the Earth instead of continuing to communicate with those who were waiting for their items.
Since I’m a small business owner myself, I totally understand getting behind on things- especially if an emergency happens. But what I don’t understand at all is getting an order from someone and then not only not delivering the item that was ordered but also not communicating. So, since we were all disappointed by this turn of events, Kennedy and I decided to do something nice for our friend. We decided to learn how to make “bath bombs” that would clean horse brushes!
First, we had to do some research on the ingredients that we’d need. We wanted our brush cleaner to have a satisfying FIZZ when added to water, to smell nice, and to be antimicrobial. But they also couldn’t leave any residue that would be difficult to rinse out. We decided on a recipe and some secret ingredients to use, then set to work on our prototypes.
As with any new product prototype, we ran into some issues with the first batch. Since we only had two of our molds and we wanted to make four different scent blends on the day we were making prototypes, we decided to try to “kiln dry” our brush fizzies in an oven that was set on a low temperature. Little did we know that we had added too much of our wet ingredient and there was a chemical reaction going on that made them puff up out of the molds! Plus the heat from the oven made the edges hard and almost melted? So that experiment did not work at all!
Once we got those out of the molds, though, we started to get the hang of things. The batch that got messed up turned into our testing batch and we used every single one of them that day to clean brushes with because we were having too much fun tossing them in the water and watching them fizz. Plus, the amount of dirt and grime they got out of our brushes was insane! I’d cleaned Glory’s brushes a few weeks prior, but even then the water was coming out gross and dirty. As we mixed and tested, we came up with fun names for each of our scent blends.
Now that we had our brush cleaners made and tested, I got to do the really fun part- design packaging! We wanted a label for each individual scent, as well as a label that would go on a larger bag to contain a collection of different scents. By the time I got to designing packaging, we had come up with six different scent blends (and now we have two more on the way, for an even eight!)
“Run for the Roses”- A romantic floral scent that will take you to the Winner’s Circle. This blend was inspired by the wreaths of flowers given to winning racehorses.
“Florida Cracker”- A bright and sunny scent evocative of warm and sunny days. This blend is made from orange and lemon and has a zesty, bright scent! (This was the first blend I created and the initial batch is what is pictured in the image where the brush fizzies puffed up and didn’t come out of the mold correctly, but the ones in this photo turned out perfectly now that we have the recipe down!)
“Winter Ride” – A wintery blend of pine and cinnamon, reminiscent of a ride through a snow-covered forest. This is one of my favorite blends. It smells so nice and like you’re riding through an evergreen forest! The cinnamon also reminds me of the cinnamon pine cones you can get around Christmas.
“Cubbing Season”- A woodsy scent that brings to mind early morning Autumn hunts. This blend is so nice. It really reminds me of the woods in Fall because of the oils that Kennedy put into it!
“Spring Invitational”- The scent of a warm breeze in your face as you gallop cross-country. The best word to describe this blend is “green”. It’s not exactly a floral scent, but more the smell of nature.
“Muddy Boots” – Tea Tree Oil and Mint pack a powerful punch for extreme muck and grime. First of all, I am so proud of the name I came up with for this blend. This is like our “super cleaner” for when you really need to fight some nasties. I did add quite a bit of mint though because it has come to my attention that not everyone likes the smell of tea tree oil as much as I do.
We have two more blends in the works, “Mare Stare” (Dragonsblood) and “Foal Watch” (Lavender), but I don’t have photos of those.
And here’s our big packet of assorted scents! The large bag holds four of the four-packs, so it contains 16 brush fizzies. We’re hoping to start selling these to other people who want a fun and easy way to clean their grooming stuff. The tabs fizz really nicely when you toss them in water (Click here for a video!), they get the gunk out of the bristles, and they rinse clean very easily. So, we met all our requirements for brush cleaners!
After we had these packed up, we delivered them to our friend who never got her order from the other seller. She was so happy that we surprised her with these that she cried a little! I can’t wait for her to test out her cleaners and tell us how she likes them. We really enjoyed using our test ones!
How do you like to clean your brushes? Let me know in the comments!
Over the past years that I’ve been able to achieve my dreams of working, caring for, riding, and owning horses, I’ve learned a lot. I read hundreds upon hundreds of pages in books about horses when I was growing up, but even those books couldn’t prepare me for the things that working hands-on with horses would teach me. This list goes beyond such things as general horse care and goes more into the ways I’ve changed as a person because of my contact with equines of all types over the past few years.
This one should probably be obvious, but I had no idea the effect that just being around horses would have on my confidence levels. I’m not talking about arrogance, either. Horses are inherently dangerous animals to be around, and you need to be confident to even be on the ground with them, much less ride them.
When I first started being around horses, I was scared and timid. I didn’t know what to do to work with them, or even how to properly lead one on a lead rope! It took a lot of weeks of working with Glory on the ground, taught by my best friend, in order to even get to the point where I was confident enough to lunge Glory and make her back up on the lead.
I have discovered that horses respond to a quiet sort of confidence. They respond to the anxiety of other animals, and as someone with an anxiety disorder, this means that I have to get hold of that around my horse or we are going to have a bad day! The horses I’ve had the honor of working with in my time around them have taught me to be a quiet, confident leader, who is both firm and fair in their decisions. Learning this lesson has helped me in my art career and taught me to stand up and be the leader without giving in to my anxiety.
One thing I’ve definitely learned, especially because of setting riding goals, is that small steps forward are better than no steps at all. The first riding goal I ever set was to learn how to canter, and after that I wanted to be able to canter on my horse. Glory has a pretty terrible canter sometimes. She rushes into it, bucks in her transition, she’s off-balance, falls forward, and she pulls herself with her front legs instead of pushing with her hind end. To a person who is a bit timid in general, trying to get her to canter under saddle is downright terrifying. You MUST commit to the canter aid, you can’t be wishy-washy with your aid, and you need to be balanced and breathe.
So, in order to get to my goal of cantering on my own horse, I had to break every part of getting her into the canter down into small steps. Glory also needed to build her strength and stamina so that she would rush less. Over many, many months, we worked both in the harness and under saddle to build strength at the trot, work on transitions, and I also worked on my canter aids. Then, once I was used to the feeling of her super-fast-trot-that-is-trying-to-be-a-canter, we worked on me getting my aids clear and precise enough that I could get her to canter just a few strides. Once I knew that I wouldn’t die or fall off with a few steps of canter, we worked on getting further and further around the arena, and now cantering on my horse is one of the joys of my riding time.
Though we may want to get to the end of the road as fast as possible, sometimes we need to break down the trip into small steps and just go forward a tiny bit each day. Eventually, you reach your end goal and grow exponentially in the process.
Long hours of doing barn chores, riding, and doing all the other things that horses require you to do leaves you with a lot of time to be in your own head. Especially if you’re at a larger barn and spending hours and hours each day doing things all by yourself! Horse care, whether it be mucking stalls, feeding, brushing, or even going for a hack, can be contemplative and quiet. In a world that is becoming more and more noisy, this quiet is invaluable sometimes.
I’ve found that time with horses has really put me in touch with my thoughts and feelings. If I’m having a bad day, the barn is the best therapy ever. But if I insist on continuing to be in a bad mood after I get to the barn, then therapy is not going to go well that day. Some of the worst days I’ve had around horses are days when I’m in a bad mood and trying to stay in that bad mood. The day I crashed my first cart was a day when I was in a bad mood and didn’t really want to go for a drive, but I did it anyway and ended up destroying a breaking cart. Now, could that have been a coincidence? Sure. But did my bad mood possibly have a hand in distracting me from what I was supposed to be doing? Possibly.
Horses have taught me to be present in the moment. To reach inside and try to figure out what I’m actually feeling before I get my horse reflecting something I don’t want back on me. If I’m afraid, my horse will be afraid. If I’m calm, Glory will pick up on that and trust me to take care of her.
Speaking of trust…
Working with horses requires a lot of trust, not only in the large prey animals that you’re working with but also in the other people that you can encounter along the way. In order to begin doing things with Glory, we had to learn how to trust each other. She had to know she could count on me to not lead her into harm, and I had to learn how to read her body language and adjust my own so we could communicate. Earlier, when I was talking about learning how to canter on Glory, I left out the fact that we had to learn not only the physical way to get to the canter but also learn to trust each other at that gait. I had to trust that Glory wouldn’t throw me off and run away, and she had to trust that I was ready to go.
Because of the way my childhood friends treated me, I found it hard to really trust people for a long time. For most of my life I’ve had only small groups of friends, and most of them I would keep at a little bit of a distance out of fear that someone would turn around and hurt me. But if you aren’t keeping your horses on a personal piece of land and doing all their care yourself, while teaching yourself to ride, then you HAVE to trust others. For several years I kept Glory at a boarding barn, and though I worked there 5-6 days a week and could make sure she was being taken care of, I had to trust that she would get her dinner, would be fed and taken care of in the hours I wasn’t there and on my days off. Later on, when I stopped working at the barn I kept her at, I had to trust even more that my horse would be taken care of. In a boarding barn, you need to trust that other people will respect your property and respect the facility so that it’s all in good working order to be used. And now that my best friend and I do self-care for our horses, we each have to trust that we’ll do what needs to be done to take care of our girls when the other person isn’t there and make informed decisions on what they need.
I’m happy to say that today I have a great group of wonderful friends who I trust, all because of horses!
Riding a horse isn’t like running marathons or playing soccer. Your teammate in equestrian sports is a huge prey animal with a fight-or-flight instinct, a distinct personality, and a mind of its own. Even after you’ve gained their trust, worked with them, and taken the baby steps, sometimes your time with your horse just might not go as planned. Horses have bad days, they have days where they’re tired, cranky, or just want to go back to the barn and eat instead of being ridden. You have to pick your battles when you’re around horses. It’s a delicate balancing act to be both assertive and caring, to be a leader and also to know the limits of your team.
Because of horses, I have learned that sometimes you just need to know when you’ve done all you can do. You can have a plan for your ride or your groundwork session, and your horse just might not be feeling it. In those cases, you have to learn to be flexible and patient. You don’t have to give up on those bad days when things aren’t going to plan, but learn how to adjust the plan so that you can achieve a different or smaller goal. If you can’t get your horse to canter the entire way around the arena, go for a small circle, or one side of the arena, and be happy with that. This goes hand-in-hand with the second lesson I talked about, where you sometimes must take small steps in order to get to the big goals.
Those are five things that working with horses have taught me. I’m sure I could come up with a hundred more, but those are the five biggest ones that I’ve noticed have an impact on me even in my non-horsey life. What lessons have horses taught you? Let me know!
A tour of our tiny tack room might not be particularly exciting to those who have much larger barns or a fancier set up. But I think our tack room is quaint and that we make decent use of what space we have. Besides, maybe this post can give someone some storage ideas for their own tack room! (Also, does anyone not realize how messy something is until they look at photos? Because that’s what I’m going through right now with this post, but I didn’t have time to straighten up when I was taking these photos. So please know that I share my unedited life with all of you!)
Welcome to our little tack/feed room! This is the view from the door. On the left wall are the cart harness that we use for both horses, extra lead ropes, rope halters, breastplates, and all our light-up riding gear (LED Breastplates, LED tail lights, magnet running lights to clip onto the breastplates, etc). Directly ahead, in the trash cans, are our feed, extra horse treats, alfalfa pellets, and extra bags of feed. You can see Raven and Glory’s feed buckets on top of the middle can in this shot. We keep the feed in here because we have a small space heater in the tack room and the feed that we use has molasses in it, so if it freezes we will be trying to break it up with a chisel!
Now, some people who are familiar with tack rooms might be thinking “why is there a huge tool box in the corner of your tack storage?!” Well, the short answer is that the barn we’re currently at was empty for a few years, and so the tack room and stalls started being used for storage. There are some things still being stored in the barn that we’re not able to move and that we just have to live with. The huge tool box is one of those things. It’s impossible to move it out of there right now, so it gets to stay. We have some silicone mats on top of the toolbox to protect it, and we store our Bluetooth speaker, charging cables for our phones, more extra treats (presents from my parents, because they must spoil their “grandhorse”), and an electric kettle for making warm mash for the horses or hot drinks for ourselves.
Here’s a better shot of the wall with the harness and night-riding things on it. We keep the harness on a holder meant for a garden hose. It holds the breastcollar and the harness saddle perfectly, and we put the other harness parts on a bridle hook to the side of it.
Over in the far corner of the tack room are our saddles and saddle pads. My saddle is on the top left rack (because I am tall and can reach that rack), extra saddle pads go on the top right. Kennedy’s saddles go on the lower racks. We also put our helmet bags here so that we can grab a saddle, saddle pad, and our helmet and take it all out to the crossties in one trip.
This wall is fairly empty because we moved most of the stuff that was here over to the other wall when we were planning on having our heat come from an outlet heater. So we had to move everything away from the outlet so there wouldn’t be a fire hazard. Then we decided to use the heater we have now, instead, and we’ve just kept this wall mostly clear. Our primary bridles for each horse do live on this wall, however, within arm’s reach of the saddles. Because we are about efficiency and I like being able to grab all my tack at once!
Eagle-eyed readers have probably noticed the curtains in the tack room by now. Yes, those curtains are made with “Horses of the World” fabric, and I sewed them myself! It only seemed fitting to have some of my horse art in the tack room, after all. The curtains are lined with a thermal fabric that blocks out the heat in the summer.
Continuing to turn around toward the right, you come to the tack closet side of the room. To the left is a whip holder with our various crops, lunge whips, dressage whips, and other such things on it. Below those are our pool noodle horses. What? You don’t have pool noodle horses in your tack room?
Last year, a friend of ours wanted to have a pony-themed birthday party, but all our horses aren’t at the same barn anymore. So instead we turned pool noodles, ribbon, googly eyes, and craft foam into “hobby horses” that we could ride during the party. Each one is actually modeled off of our real-life horses and we put a different facial expression on each to reflect that!
The tack closet has items like bathing supplies, extra helmets, quarter sheets, stable sheets, trailering items, road hack safety items (reflective quarter sheets, reflective vests, etc), and our plush unicorn horns in it. On the door is a shoe organizer from Walmart that holds the everyday grooming supplies that we don’t want to freeze in it, like our leave-in conditioner spray, vet liniment, antibacterial wipes, and stuff like that. We also have fly masks, fly bonnets, sport boots, Glory’s extra medicine, paper towels, leather cleaner, and headlamps for checking on the paddock in the dark in the organizer. This keeps our items in the warmth, but also easily accessible since we just have to come one step in the door and reach around the corner to grab whatever we need.
And that is our little tack room! I hope you enjoyed looking around with me. Do you have a cool tack room? Share some images with me!
(Chalkboard in the featured image is from this DeviantArt user: https://www.deviantart.com/boldfrontiers/art/Chalkboard-Frame-824354197 )
I didn’t realize until I became a horse owner just how many myths there are about horses. Many of those myths I thought were true until I actually gained experience riding and working with horses because I didn’t know any better! So here are my top three horse myths that I believed until I had a horse of my own.
I remember watching old movies where some rich, old, overweight man would say “The doctor prescribed horseback riding for exercise,” and I would think that made no sense. Surely sitting on the back of a horse and letting it run around couldn’t possibly be exercise for anyone but the horse! It didn’t make any sense to me at all when I was younger.
Then I started learning how to ride and I realized just how wrong I was. Horseback riding is a full-body sport that develops strength, provides cardio, improves balance and flexibility, and requires a lot of coordination to do well! Even riding at a walk requires a lot of balance, lest you slide right off and hit the ground. Posting a trot is a leg workout plus cardio for me as well, and oh boy do my thighs let me know if I’ve done a lot of trot on my ride the day before. Riding canter has improved my core and back strength as well, and I’m always out of breath and my heart rate is up after a good ride. So yes, horseback riding IS a workout and the horse does not do all the work!
On a related note, I also had no idea how much work I’d have to do and how long it would take to be able to walk/trot/canter. I was three years into my riding journey before I did my first canter!
Don’t get me wrong: horses are EXPENSIVE. Between feed, hay, farrier, vet, dentist, tack, blankets, grooming supplies, and everything else you need for a horse, they are definitely not a cheap animal to have. However, there are ways to make having a horse more affordable for a regular person, so they aren’t just for the extremely wealthy (as I used to think!).
One of the best ways to reduce your horse expenses- and your carbon footprint- is to buy some items second-hand. The internet has made this much easier, and I’m part of several Facebook groups where people can sell, buy, and trade tack and apparel they no longer need. If you choose to blanket, you can find all sorts of blankets being sold online, and second-hand saddles can be much more affordable than buying one new.
My first riding lessons were ones that I paid for by volunteering at the riding school. When Glory first became mine and I wanted to move her to a boarding facility, I worked out a deal with the owners so that I could exchange my board fee for stall mucking five days a week. I have exchanged custom horse portraits for tack or other items that I needed. These trades all made having my horse possible, even on a budget. There is a great blog and YouTube channel called The Budget Equestrian that has a ton of ideas for keeping a horse on a budget as well!
Something that we never skimp on, however, is hay. Our horses get the best quality hay we can find. We do save a little money per bale by going to pick up the hay ourselves though instead of having it delivered.
This myth is so prevalent that I’ve even heard it from people who don’t have horses or have never been around horses! Some people just think that horses sleep standing up all the time and they don’t lay down unless something is very wrong. This is very wrong, apparently!
Horses can sleep standing up, but they do also lay down to sleep. They lay down to sleep only when they’re very comfortable and feel safe, though. Glory likes to have an afternoon nap if she has something nice and soft to lay down on, preferably in the sun. I have also caught her and Raven napping in their stalls as well when they’re bedded nice and thick and they can get comfortable.
If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen my new series of horses I’ve been working on this year – Birthstone Horses. These are horses with coloring based on the birthstone associated with each month, and they also are bordered on two sides with sprigs of the monthly flower as well. I’ve been having so much fun working on this series so far. Actually, the original plan was to do one design a month throughout the entire year, but after I started working on the first one I was having so much fun that I just kept going.
As of the time I’m writing this, I have 4 Birthstone Horses designs complete and am halfway done the fifth one. I’d like to introduce you to the first four designs and tell you a bit about the eight designs that are coming up in the series as well.
The first stone of this series is the Garnet. Garnet has been a popular stone in jewelry for a long time and has even been found used as beads in a necklace from 3000 B.C. The name of this dark red stone comes from the Latin word “Garanatus”, meaning “seed-like.” The gem likely got this name because small ones look like the small seeds that would be found inside of Pomegranate. Bohemia, which is now a part of Czechoslovakia, was a prolific source of Garnet. Many Bohemian castles and churches were decorated in Garnet. The stone was also popular in Victorian jewelry. It is said that Garnet is a powerful stone for curing many ailments, especially blood ailments, because of its deep red color.
The January flower is the Carnation, which I chose to also color in the same reds as the horse of this January design. The Carnation has a history which dates back at least 2000 years. The January flower represents gratitude, beauty, pride, divine love, and feminine energy. Carnations have a dense, hardy core surrounded by feathery soft and delicate petals.
Amethyst once was a stone that could only be worn by royalty. Amethyst is included in royal collections all over the world, from Ancient Egypt to modern Britain. It was once more prized than ruby and sapphire. The name Amethyst comes from the ancient Greek word “amethustos”, meaning sober. It was believed that wearing one of these beautiful purple stones would prevent the wearer from becoming intoxicated. The stone has also been associated with controlling evil thoughts, increasing intelligence, and even keeping warriors safe on the battlefield!
The flower that is associated with February is the Violet. Violets were cultivated around 500 B.C. by the Greeks. Today, there are over 500 species of violet, including those known as “pansies”. Violets symbolize modesty, spiritual wisdom, faithfulness, and humility.
The third design in this series is the first one where the stone and the flower weren’t the same color, so I was nervous to get going on this one. However, once I started coloring I realized that this combination of light blue and brilliant yellow was just gorgeous!
In the 19th century, the more green varieties of Aquamarine were the most popular. But now the more blue stones are the most desired. The largest Aquamarine stone ever found was discovered in Brazil in 1910, and weighed 243 pounds. Greeks and Romans knew the stone as the Sailor’s Gem, and it would ensure safe passage across stormy seas. In 1377, the stone was widely regarded as a cure for poison, and it was said that even wearing the gem as a pendant or ring would work. It was said that Aquamarine could cure many ailments, including stomach upset.
The Aquamarine horse is bordered by March’s flower, the Daffodil. Daffodils are associated with new beginnings and the coming of spring, since they are one of the first flowers to bloom after winter’s frost. They are grown all over the world and have been the subject of poems and songs. In China, the Daffodil symbolizes good luck, prosperity, and good fortune.
Diamond gets its name from the Greek word “adamas”, meaning “invincible”. Diamonds come in a wide range of colors, including black, blue, red, pink, purple, and yellow. The color of a diamond is influenced by the impurities present in the stone. Diamonds are one of the hardest substances on earth, and wearing one is thought to give the wearer better relationships, inner strength, balance, clarity, and abundance. Some ancient peoples believed that diamonds were created by lightning, or that they were the tears of god. During the Middle Ages, diamonds were thought to have many healing powers, and to cure ailments of the brain and pituitary glands. It was believed that heating a diamond and taking it to bed with you would draw toxins from the body. Diamonds are the king of birthstones, and are the most widely sought after gems.
The Daisy is the flower of April. Daisy captures the essence of Spring’s happy-go-lucky energy. Daisies also symbolize purity and innocence. In Norse Mythology, the Daisy is Freya’s flower. Because of this, Daisies were often given to new mothers. The Daisy is a composite flower, meaning that they are actually two flowers in one. The inner section is a disc floret, and the outer section is a ray floret. Because of this, Daisy also symbolizes eternal love. The phrase “fresh as a Daisy” comes from the petals of the Daisy closing over the center during the night and then opening again in the morning.
I will be continuing to do more Birthstone horses until I have all twelve months complete. Here is the list of stones and flowers I’m planning, broken down by month.
May – Emerald and Lily of the Valley
June – Pearl and Rose
July – Ruby and Water Lily
August – Peridot and Gladiolus
September – Sapphire and Morning Glory
October – Opal and Calendula
November – Topaz and Chrysanthemum
December – Turquoise and Holly
If there is interest, I definitely want to create a set of notecards and possibly a 2021 calendar with these designs once they’re finished! T-shirts of the first four designs are available and prints will be listed for purchase from my online shops soon as well. They would’ve been up already but I ran out of the plastic bags I put matted prints in to protect them and I’m waiting for my new shipment to arrive.
