Tack Care And Conditioning

photo credit: johnson1952…

Have you wondered the best way for tack care and conditioning? Or the best way to clean your tack? I’m sure you’ve seen it, saddles covered in mold, bridles left in disuse. Those moldy leather pieces can be brought back to life with some TLC and tack care and conditioning.

Tack care and Conditioning

Tack care and conditioning is about prevention. Prevent the leather from drying out is the best cure. The best cure to prevent your tack from losing its value is to take care of it. This means daily care. Daily care involves:

1. Rinse the bit immediately after removing the bridle – I do this by dunking it in the horse’s water bucket! Make sure you use YOUR
   horses water bucket! After dunking it is important to DRY the leather. If not the wet leather may be subject to rot. While I dunk and wipe, others have success with a wipe of a clean towel. This removes saliva, and if your horse has been grazing with the bit in its mouth – green slime!
   

   Tack Care And Conditioning

2. Wipe the sweat, rain and wetness from your reins, and bridle with a towel dampened with diluted dish soap. the dampened towel will help gentley remove sweat and dirt. The roughnes from the towel will remove the sweat and dirt buildup. The mild detergent from the soap will help remove unwanted dirt and oil and help prevent dirt buildup. Use a quality conditioner to replentish the oil back into your leather.
3. After riding, wipe your saddle with a liquid conditioner/cleaner. While still on the horse I take advantage of having the saddle on eye level and spray a few spritze with an easy to use spray on conditioner/cleaner.

Prevent Mold and Mildew

Things that cause your tack to get moldy/mildewy:

• Damp conditions such as rain, humidity, horse sweat, people sweat, damp saddle pads, damp saddle covers photo credit: geishaboy500

• Disuse. If you are not planning to use your tack and equipment any time soon then clean it and slather a layer of leather conditioner on it to prevent the leather from getting mildewy.

• Lack of daily care. A simple wipedown is all that your saddle and bridle needs to keep it from being the victim of mold.

Identify Moldy Leather

Moldy leather has a greenish tinge and has a powdery nature. If you suspect your leather to have mold on it, take it outdoors or into a well ventilated area to avoid breathing in the mold spores. If you find your saddle or bridle has mold on it then use a mixture of 1 part rubbing alcohol and 1 part water. Dampen a soft cloth and wipe down the leather with this mold killer solution.

After cleaning with alcohol check the integrity of the leather and stitching. Mold not only rots the leather but can also damage stitching and clasps.

Mold and mildew grow on the saddles due to the moist conditions present in the stable and tack room. Tack rooms with climate controlled de-humidifiers would help reduce the mold and mildew build up but a wipe down and daily care can also prevent it.

Using Pilates to Improve Your Position

Using Pilates to Improve Your Riding

You can use Pilates to improve your riding position. I’ve been riding since I was 12 years old and that was a long time ago! For first ten years or so, I danced at the same time. The dance teachers would beg me to give up horse back riding because it was interfering with my dancing. And the horse back riding teachers would plead with me to give up dancing because it was wrecking my riding. Eventually, I gave up dancing.

There was a period when I didn’t ride for about ten years as I didn’t have the time or the money. But I did return to my first love – horses and riding. Then I became a massage therapist and then a Pilates instructor. What a great marriage Pilates and riding is! That is how I know you can use Pilates to Improve Your riding position.

I danced, so I already had some body awareness or proprioception. One of the great things about Pilates is that it helped me to develop even more body awareness. Body awareness is knowing where various body parts are in space and what they’re doing. But this only comes about because the core is strong and stable. Once the core is strong and stable, my other body parts can be under my control.

What is Palites?

So what is Pilates, and how can you use Pilates to improve your riding position? According to Wikipedia, “Pilates is a body

Using Pilates to Improve Your Position

conditioning routine that helps to not only build flexibility, but also strength, endurance, and coordination in the legs, abdominals, arms and back.”

Strengthening Your Core for Riding

ilates is all about the “core”. In fact, lots of exercise professionals talk about the “core”. But what is the “core”? Generally speaking the core of the body is all the muscles of the torso without the head, the arms, or the legs. It does, however, include the butt muscles (gluteals). Some would even include the thigh muscles. But the important muscles of the core are deep inside where you can’t touch them and most people don’t know their names or even that they exist. The most important one being the transversus abdominis (TA) muscle. This muscle wraps around your midsection like a girdle. The reason that it’s important is that it must activate BEFORE you can move your legs in any direction to be effective and efficient in your movement. It’s the muscle that stabilizes your spine, ribcage, and pelvis so that your limbs have a solid base to move from.

Using Pilates To IMprove Your Position

Going back to how to use Pilates to improve your riding position – I can’t really answer the question very well because the dancing, the riding, and Pilates are all so integrated with each other and the deepening of the skills happened gradually over time. The only outside, objective evidence I have that Pilates has helped me as a rider is that my instructor is rather diabolical in what she has me do on the longe line. I accused her of making me do things that she didn’t make other people do. She readily agreed that she did do that. But she did it because she knew I could do it while others couldn’t. And I can do those things because of Pilates.

Here are some of the things she had me do:

• Legs out of the stirrups and arms out to the side.

• Twist facing my instructor AND open my legs out to the side in a split.

• At the trot!

Or these (at the trot of course!):

• With my arms straight out in front of me, I had to bring my knees up.

• With my arms out to the side, I had to bring my knees up.

• With my arms over my head, I tried to bring my knees up. I laughed because I couldn’t do that one! But I sure had to go find out why and work on it.

If you’re brave enough, you could ask your instructor to do that to you and see how successful you can be at those exercises.

And the reason I couldn’t bring my knees up with my arms over my head? Once I raised my arms that high, I had let go or opened up my core too far to be able to lift my knees.

How did Pilates help me do these things? Because my core is fairly strong and stable, I could stay centered in the saddle and use my torso, arms, and legs independently of my seat. And isn’t that what we’re all trying to perfect – an independent seat?

About the Author – Laurie Higgins

Saddle Fit is Important for your Horse's Comfort

photo credit: johnson1952…

Getting your saddle fit correctly is important. A poorly fitted saddle may reslut in a sore back and pain for your  horse. Ensuring that you select the right saddle for your horse is vital. It not only affects the position in which the rider will sit, and therefore can be beneficial in preventing back ache or muscle pain, but it also affects the horse. No responsible horse owner would want their steed to be in discomfort and pain and so choosing the best saddle is very important.

Costum Saddle Fit

Fitting Your Saddle Properly is Important

There are companies available who will measure your horse and recommend the saddles that they think are most appropriate but as with most things this service costs money. This service ensures yo prevent any distress to your horse when you rid
photo credit: geishaboy500e it.

Positioning the Saddle

Once the correct saddle has been purchased it is important to remember that positioning the saddle on the horse’s back is also vital in ensuring your horse is comfortable when ridden. There are three main muscles in the horse’s back which can be affected by the use of a badly positioned saddle. It is important to familiarize yourself with these and their locations before attempting to position the saddle on your horse. This will give you an idea of where the saddle needs to sit in order to be most comfortable for the horse.

In addition to the muscles which can be affected by the saddle you must remember that the saddle is positioned on the horse’s back and so this can have an effect on the spine and its vertebrae. Remembering this should remind you of how important this lesson is and that you cannot afford to take risks with your horse if you want it to lead a long and painless life.

Firstly, place the saddle on the horse’s back, forward of the wither. Once you have done this, slide it back along the back of the horse until it cannot comfortably go any further. This will vary dependent on the shape of the individual horse but the lowest point of the saddle should correspond to the lowest point of the horse’s back. If the saddle is in the correct position, the saddle tree will not be pressing on the scapula (the shoulder of the horse) but will rest in the natural grooves behind them. The most common mistake is to position the saddle too far forward and this then causes the saddle to press on the muscles in the scapula causing pain, impeding movement and creating the possibility of saddle sores.

Once you have learned how to position the saddle you will find it comes naturally after a time. It is worth taking the time to do it properly though if you wish to remain the owner of a healthy, happy horse.

What is your trick to know if the saddle is fitted correctly? Let us know. We’d like to share. Just type it in the comment box below and send it to us!

…See you later Laura

Horse Insurance -  Know Your Policy

Check Your Horse Insurance Policy

Thinking about getting horse insurance? Learn the difference between horse mortality insurance and major medical coverage horse insurance. It could save you some money.

There are two main streams of insurance areas: mortality which pays out if your horse dies and medical insurance for veterinary care.

Mortality Horse Insurance

The rule of thumb for mortality horse insurance is if you can easily replace the horse, then mortality insurance is not necessary. No matter if the horse is $3,000 or a $300,000 fancy show horse, if you can comfortably replace your investment then it is worth the risk to remain uninsured.

As an investment it may be wise to consider the cost of premiums versus the cost of the horse. If for example, you have purchased a horse valued at $100,000, the premium is 3% of the value of the horse per year. This adds up to $3,000 per year. If you continue to pay the premium for 6 years that is $18,000 spent on insurance.However if the horse dies after year 6, the payout will be $100,000 when you have invested $18,000 on insurance.

Read the horse insurance policy carefully and make sure that there is a provision to cover euthanasia should a tragedy occur that the horse cannot be saved. Also most mortality horse insurance policies include theft, should someone steal your horse.

Major Medical Coverage

The only way to get medical coverage is by having a mortality horse insurance policy on your insurance. The major medical coverage is an addition on the mortality coverage. Any amount can be insured for the mortality portion so that the medical coverage can be obtained.

It is recommended to get major medical horse insurance. To see if it is cost efficient, consider stacking up the major vet bills against the cost of the insurance policy. Things like colic, pneumonia, suturing a wound could all potentially be covered. It is important to carefully review the policy to understand what is covered.

One area to study is diagnostics. Some policies outline diagnostic techniques as being 100% covered if they result in a treatment covered by the horse insurance policy. Others identify as paying out 50% if it results in a covered treatment and some will pay nothing. Check the policy regarding the horse’s age.

Some horse insureance policies do not insure elderly horses. If major medical is wanted a minimal mortality coverage may have to be obtained in order to get the major medical coverage. As the horse gets older, be prepared to have higher premiums.

Other areas to consider are the professional care and hospitalisation care after a treatment. Some policies consider 20 days to be covered and some go as long as 90 days.

Before Signing the Check

Before signing on the line for your horse insurance policy, check with a seasoned and well trusted agent and veterinarian to find which policy suits you best.

What kind of insurance policy do you have on your horse. If you don’t have a horse, what type of horse insurance would your get?

Let us know…. We’d love to hear from you.

Read more at Suite101: Insuring the Horse – Is It Worth It?: Horse Insurance, Know Your Policy http://horses.suite101.com/article.cfm/insuring_the_horse_is_it_worth_it#ixzz0eV21Wfns