8 Easy Do-It-Yourself Horse Hacks
Life hacking refers to any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life. It is anything that solves an everyday problem in an inspired, ingenious manner.
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Crush Pills & Make Paste for your Horse
When you need to crush pills and make a paste for you horse, try this instead of mixing a paste in a cup and then trying to spoon it into a syringe. Put all of the pills into your dosing syringe, then suction some water into the syringe.
Looking for equine supplements, shoes, gear or feed? We've got it all online here.
Shake and wait for your pills to dissolve in the syringe. No mess to clean, and all of the medication is ready to go!
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Monitor your Horse Trailer Temperature
Get an inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometer to keep tabs on the temperature inside your trailer (without pulling over every 10 minutes). Put the outdoor portion in the trailer and keep the reader inside the cab of the truck. Great for peace of mind while traveling, especially during extreme weather
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Cut and Use an Old Crew Sock
Use a pair of socks with the toes cut open as lower leg protection for your horse. This can help keep bandages in place, keep the bugs away, or keep legs white before a show.
Check out our selection of horse healthcare products.
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Jugs in your Horse's Water Trough
Freeze gallon jugs of water to help keep your trough cool in the summer. Alternatively, you can use hot water to help prevent freezing in the winter. Horses seem to love playing with them too.
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Trick Horses with Apple Sauce & Used Dewormer Tubes
Don't throw out those used syringes. Give them a thorough washing and fill with apple sauce as a treat for your horse. Soon, they'll be eager and open their mouth willingly. No more battles with the dewormer!
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Diapers and Horses
Have a stash of diapers on hand at the barn! Size fives work well for most horses. Diapers can be great bandages for wounds, they serve as wraps for hoof poultice or packing, and can be wet and frozen for icing weird horse leg areas, like fetlocks and knees.
Do you know how to keep ticks off your horse?
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Loofa Gloves for Cleaning Tack
Use a loofa glove for deep cleaning tack. This is great for nubby reins that accumulate a lot of goo and the rough side of billets. Be careful if your tack is super smooth, you may scratch it.
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Spray-On Detangler when Clipping your Horse
Use some detangler or shine product on your horse's clean body before clipping. This helps the clippers slide through the hair and prevents some of the hair from landing all over you
Want to learn more ways to care for your horse? Check out the Equine Edition of the N40 Emag!
Want to Go a little bit Deeper than Simple Horse Hacks?
We asked around for people to share their horse knowledge and stories with us to be featured in the Equine Edition of our Emag this month. The following stories are from those featured in the N40 Knowledge Bits section of the Emag, showing us how they care for their horse friends.
How do you Feed & Care for Retired Horses?
Kim Farman, North 40 Employee - Spokane, WA
Years of service 15
My horses are retired now; I've had two of them since they were six months old.
They are 29 and 31 now, so they are my geriatric horses." Kim says this on our conference call in mid-December, and Drew and I both were blown away you hear about horse owners like Kim, but talking to them in person that's few and far between.
"They are part of my family, my kids grew up with them, and now the kids are grown, so I get them up for easy trail rides around the land." As we had been writing about equine and horse health for a couple of weeks, Drew and I were interested in Kim's approach to equine health did she have them on a strict regiment, and had she run into any problems? "I feed grass hay and Safe Choice Original to my horses- worm about 4 times a year and give them a 4-way in the spring.
That's my regiment, and there has been nothing real tragic in my horses' lives other than a few years ago when I had to put down my 36-year-old mare my gelding had such a complete and total bond to her, he lost an extreme amount of weight due to depression- I got him back fed up on Safe Choice Original- and he is doing a lot better now."
After we closed this interview, Drew and I were both a little bit in awe of Kim's palpable dedication and love for her horses if you are in Spokane and have any questions, get in and talk to Kim!
Check out our selection of horse feed. Order online.
College Rodeo Horses and What to Feed Them
Andrew Leo, North 40 Employee: Havre, MT
Years of service 2
MSU Northern athlete out of Great Falls, competing in team roping as a header. Andrew is a junior there and has been competing in rodeo since he was 5 years old. He rides his mare, Sandie, during the season. He spoke with our Nutrena rep and opted to feed his horse Senior Safe Choice because of the high fat/protein content that this feed provides for his working horse.
He runs live cattle about two times a week with four ropings a month, so his mare needs a little more fuel in the furnace to cope with the added stress of being a competition grade athlete. While he has been off to a rough start this season, he is running with a healer out of Northern named Victor Phillips.
The two are in the arena and gearing up for the coming season, where placing will earn the university double points. We want to wish our N40 athletes good luck on the season, and we leave you with Andrew's own preferred, rodeo "cocktail" he uses during the season.
We've got the equipment you need for hoof protection in the arena here.
High Power Horses, Competition & Feed
Karnell Perry, Great Falls, MT
Karnell Perry is a National Reined Cow Horse competitor out of Great Falls, Montana. She has a no frills approach to her horse's nutrition.
"Good hay, and I mean very good hay, and a decent vitamin/trace mineral supplement will do for just about all horses- some younger and older horses, or use-case situations will dictate a little different approach to horse health, but mostly you can get great results from good hay and a vitamin/trace mineral supplement.
If I have a younger horse that I am having difficulty keeping weight on, I'll will supplement with rice bran for the extra calories needed to keep them competitive and their body condition adequate while going through growth spurts. With some of my older horses that are lacking energy in the show pen, I will supplement with pellets to give them the extra energy they need to show to their full potential."
She conditions horses and competes during show season with a month to six weeks off after October, during which time Karnell feeds grass hay. As for wormer, Karnell goes with Safe Guard and Zimecterin Gold. Good luck this year Karnell!!
Check Karnell out on Very Handy Remedy.
Caring for Rescue Horses: Giving them a Job
Jessica Pool, North 40 Employee - Spokane, WA
Years of service 4
A horse's health is not just about their diet; it's about the bigger picture, giving them a purpose.
Another professional athlete and all around Horse-itarian is Jessica out of Spokane. She competes on the AQHA Western Pleasure circuit and has been a volunteer at Forever Young Therapeutic Ranch and Rescue, where she helps rehab abused or maltreated horses.
Jessica is a firm believer in the adage that, "Horses need a job," and towards that end, she brings home horses off the kill lot and rehabilitates them to be adopted out to new, caring homes.
One horse in particular, Maverick, had injured his head on a cattle chute at the kill lot so bad that, "You could see inside his skull." Jessica brought him home, vetted and rehabilitated him with proper nutrition, and worked to train and give him a "job." Maverick is now healthy and employed at the Forever Young Ranch.