Contest Time!

Now that Lucy is back in work-ish, my priorities are to keep her feeling good, and not leave room for any reinjury. This means a careful warm-up each time I take her out to work on the lunge line, and a careful cool-down. I am also using liniment to treat her muscles with, to ensure she does not feel sore.

of course when a big honkin' bomber fly lands on her butt and makes her
 take off like a rocket and pull stunts like this, I can't help but sigh...

My usual go-to product for anything muscle-related is SoreNoMore, but I recently heard about Abraxas Equine (website), a small business specializing in all-natural herb-based horse care products. You can sign up for a free sample on their website, and I love trying out new products. They sent me some of their Hydra-Luxe Liniment, and also some of their Supra Daily Shampoo to try on Lucy. The shampoo is awesome because it is a low-sudsing formula, so it rinses out really easily. A lot of us equate bubbles with cleansing, but honestly, whenever I give Lucy a bath I spend more time getting all of the suds out of her than anything else, and it's frustrating! I don't want to leave any in there, because that would cause skin issues, and I do wish the shampoo rinsed out easier.

The Supra shampoo does just that: cleanses thoroughly and rinses out easily. It is very concentrated, and they recommend putting some in a bucket, adding water, and bathing the horse with the soapy water instead of putting soap directly on the sponge.

As for the liniment, it is Arnica-based and safe to use as a normal liniment, brace, or under wraps. It is the consistency of water, and spreads easily. A little bit seems to go a long way. I have a huge bruise on my wrist and hand that is very sore. I put some of the liniment on there and while it didn't have the immediate effect I usually get when using a liniment, it really soaked in and helped the discomfort, lasting for quite a long time. Today, the area is much less sore. The Hydra-Luxe formula doesn't use any alcohol or menthol to create that cooling effect, but instead focuses on long-term soothing and deep healing. You can read more about the formula on their website here.

Today I tested the shampoo and the liniment out on Lucy. After I lunged her, I cooled her out and then put her in the wash rack.

looking kind of clean, but really very dirty

I followed the directions of the shampoo and put some in a bucket, along with water. I sponged the soapy water onto Lucy and washed her normally. I thought the suds were quite bubbly.

after soap

I rinsed her off and I could immediately tell a difference between this soap and Gallop Shampoo, which is what I normally use. This rinsed right out of her coat and tail, and didn't leave any residue. When I used the sweat scraper to dry her off, the water ran out of her coat clear, without any additional soap that I missed.

I put her out in a grass paddock and let her dry in the sun. I didn't brush her at all and this is how she looked:

When I put her away to eat dinner, I applied the liniment down her spine and to her knees, suspensories, and hocks. She was busy eating dinner and didn't seem bothered by any of it. It smelled nice and felt light and slightly oily on my hands, but not gross. I hope it helps her muscles tonight.

Anyway, I am pretty impressed with this stuff, and no, I didn't get paid to say any of this! If you want to try out samples, check out their website, and if you'd like to win a bottle of liniment or a bottle of shampoo (I have one of each to give away), leave a comment here with your name, email, and which product you'd most like to try! Winners will be chosen randomly on Friday 7/5. Thanks to Abraxas Equine for sponsoring this giveaway!

Contest! Who needs elbow grease when you have Absorbine?

So here it is, the Spring Cleaning Contest!

win me!

I am a huge fan of Absorbine; in fact, yesterday at the barn I surveyed my grooming supplies, fly sprays, and liniments and without meaning to, I had amassed a whole lot of Absorbine products. I like their products because they work, aren't insanely expensive, and best of all I am supporting an American company.

One thing I hadn't used until recently was the Stain Remover and Whitener, which is kind of funny because my heart horse, a grey Connemara (Dreamer, for anyone who remembers the Freedom Farm fiasco of last January) had one mission in life: be any colour other than grey. I sure could have used this stuff when I was riding him! I can remember many early show mornings when I got to the barn after scrubbing him within an inch of his life the night before, and covering as much of his little pony body as I could before going home, only to get there at 5am and find him absolutely covered in stains. Oooooh I would get so mad!

ok, not really *that* mad...I mean, look at his little pony face. SO CUTE.

Outside, he was even worse. His paddock had a bunch of berry bushes in the back corner and he would routinely come in from turnout with purple splotches all over the place.

When I was horse shopping, I decided to limit my horse search to dark coloured horses, and Lucy entered the picture. Dark bay, some white on her legs but not a lot, and I was like, ok I can handle this! She stays pretty clean for the most part but occasionally will get some stains on her white socks. I tested the Stain Remover and Whitener out on her yesterday and it worked so well to get those pesky stains out, without having to give her a full bath.

So I have five 20oz bottles of Absorbine Stain Remover and Whitener to give away, courtesy of Absorbine, and to enter, simply comment on this blog post and tell me a story about when a horse chose a really inopportune time to get dirty, like before a show or when a potential buyer was coming to look at him. If you don't have a good story like that, tell me why you'd love to try the Stain Remover and Whitener. The five winners will be chosen randomly on Thursday 4/4 at 5pm EST.

Good luck!

pretty girl

Somedays, I have to deal with hormonal rage Lucy. Other days, like today, I am blessed with a sweet and loving mare.

an hour of grooming, and I missed this one spot.

such a beautiful girl

She happened to look very sound, too, but I have decided at this point to wait until I see the lyme test results before putting her back into work. If she has a raging case of lyme, asking her to go around in circles probably won't make her a happy camper.

The weather was so beautiful today that I took Cairo to the beach. She had so much fun.

someone had written "LOVE" with seashells

cash makes the horse world go round

Back from the brink of insanity/poverty thanks to my new job, I am now able to afford some extra bonuses for Lucy the Princess. The chiropractor is coming out tomorrow to give her an adjustment and also check the fit of both saddles (Lauren's and mine), and I have gone and signed myself up for a rather pricey lesson with Niall Quirke. I think we learned so much from the Eric Smiley clinic, and it completely changed the way I ride (for the better!) and I hope to gain as much knowledge from this lesson with Niall.

We've been going on lots of hacks, doing some ring work, and finishing every ride with a nice hop over one of the smaller XC jumps. She has been going so well, and she seems very content.

out exploring, bug free

Today we had a really nice, really long trail ride with Maddy and Pretty (an Arabian mare). We walked through the trails to a nice park that we visit sometimes. This particular park has some softball/baseball fields and today they were having a game. No problem for Lucy, but Pretty went into insta-Arab mode, tail flagged, eyes bugged out of her head, ears on high alert. We didn't have any problems until we were past the softball field, because three little girls apparently really wanted to pet the ponies, but instead of asking us, they stalked us through one of the fields, trailing about 50' behind us. It was like a game of red light/green light because when I'd turn around and look at them, they'd be walking, but when I would return to looking forward, they started running toward us. Understandably, Pretty could not handle that nonsense. I turned around quickly and caught them running toward the horses, and I ended up taking Lucy over to them and giving them a gentle lecture on safety around horses (i.e. DON'T RUN UP FROM BEHIND THEM!) and then let them all pet Lucy's shoulder.

After the three girls went back to their parents and left us alone, Pretty relaxed considerably and the rest of the ride went smoothly. When we got back to the barn, I pulled Lucy's mane. It was right on the edge of out-of-control but I pulled it really short, so I hopefully will not have to pull it for another few months.

almost done, giving my hands and her neck a break!

In other horse-related news, Kenny's dad got us these awesome aftermarket mirrors for the truck that are specially designed for trailering. They come standard on most of the bigger trucks but Kenny's Silverado 1500 had regular mirrors on it that made seeing around the trailer very difficult. The new mirrors are much bigger in size, have a fish-eye mirror on the bottom, and telescope outward to allow the driver to see as much as possible even while towing a trailer.

Cairo likes them, too.

Now we just need a trailer...ahhh.

Lucy the beauty queen

I ran some errands the other day at WalMart. For Cairo I bought a new squeaky toy that she removed the stuffing from with surgical precision in less than 15 minutes. For Lucy I bought a hair dryer and an extension cord.

It's getting cold enough here that if she's hot and sweaty, I can't hose her off and I certainly can't leave her damp in her stall. She cools out much faster than she dries, even wearing an absorbent cooler.

Enter the hair dryer:

My friend Cinnamon rode Lu last night because I was teaching Dreamer and C a lesson and I am not very good at riding and teaching at the same time. Cinnamon had a great ride and even popped over a few jumps on Lucy.

Lucy was really hot and really sweaty after the ride because it was abnormally warm last night (in the mid 60's at 6pm) and Lu has her winter coat. The temperature started to drop as soon as the ride was finished, though, and I was nervous putting Lucy away even a bit damp.

I brought out the hair dryer and Cinnamon got to work:

Lucy says, "I'm not totally sure about this...but I will check it out."

And then Lucy started really enjoying it. Cinnamon even put the hair dryer
on Lucy's face and her bangs blew around and Lucy closed her eyes and breathed
in a deep sigh. She was loving it. She cracks me up. See, it's nice to be pampered :)

The horse was dry and cozy in no time flat, and she went in her stall to have her dinner.

A review of Gallop shampoo: C+ x 13

Let me explain: The Gallop Shampoo for Bays that I tried for Lucy, hoping to counteract some of the sunbleaching, gets 13 C+'s, one for each dollar I spent on it. I can't say I see any difference in her colour, BUT her coat does look very shiny and it is very soft, so all is not lost. However, she also looks that shiny and feels that soft with the Cowboy Magic Rosewater shampoo that I usually use, and that's $8 a bottle.

Before:

 

After:

The photoshoot is at 6:30 tonight so I came home to shower and a makeup/hair artist is coming to work her magic, and then we are off to the barn! How fun :)