Legacy loves her treats, and when NAF brought out their new Hedgy treats I just had to get her some to try. They are made with natural ingredients which include read hedgerow herbs, so she's not only getting a treat but it's healthy for her. 

The herb ingredients in the treats are as follows;
Common Nettle,
Hawthorn Berries,
Dandelion Leaves
Rose hip Shells

These are all herbs which horses could find in the field which proves it's natural and healthy. If you're horse doesn't have any of these in their field these treats are a great way to add home variety into their diet. 

Back when Legacy cut her head open and I wasn't able to bring her head down to get a good look into the cut, I fetched these and she was happily bringing her head down to eat these. 
These treats have even resulted myself having a black eye from my mums horse, I was using them to keep him still while trying a new rug on him and I moved into the stable rather than over the door and he flew his head up to look where the treats have gone, and his head flew up into my face, splitting the edge of my eye open and then having a black eye for a few days. 

The lesson I learnt from that day is to never under estimate the power of some tasty treats. 

Here are a few links to where you can check out the treats;

VioVet, Hyperdrug, Houghton Country, Millbry Hill

How To Save Money Washing Rugs!

Legacy is a very wet mare in her stable, actually she loves to poo everywhere too. It's a regular occurrence where she has to have all of her bed out and she's only left with banks, thankfully she has rubber matting so I don't have to give her thick beds. Although I would love to, I have learnt my lesson when it comes to buying all the bedding. Due to her being very wet, and her loving to have a lay down her stable rugs don't last long before they're needing a wash. I could leave her in the same rugs but the smell just gets too bad, and then she has poo patches all over.

If I sent her rugs off to the cleaners every time they needed to go, which is about every 2 weeks I be spending about the same in rug washing as I am in bedding.
So last winter me & my mum came up with an idea and wash the rugs our self's in the garden with a hosepipe. This idea has saved us loads of money, and it gives us a quick turnaround in the rugs.

We lay the rug out on the floor then wet it down with the hose pipe. After that we use Johnson's Baby Shampoo as the soap on the rug. I chose this as it's great for sensitive skin and the horses have never had any reactions with this. Plus it's great as you can always either stock up when it's on a deal at your local supermarket or it's never more than £3 to buy, which is cheaper than any horse shampoo or rug wash shampoo.            
To give the rug a good scrub we use an old kitchen brush, these are soft enough to not damage the rugs but will give them a good clean and lift off any poo and help remove the wee from the rug.
After I've rinsed then brushed the rug until I've felt I've done my best to get all the shampoo out, you can either turn it over and repeat on the inside of the rug (it typically goes through so no need to do the inside) or just rinse the inside to make sure you've got all of the soap out.

After that I've pile the rug up into a ball, and step on it gently to squeeze the water out, kind of like a grape squeezer. 

After you're happy with the amount of water you have managed to squeeze out it's ready to be hung out to dry.

To start off I hand the rug out across 3 plastic summer chairs until it's much lighter and the water has stopped dripping out. Depending on the shape of the rug it might be easier if you pinch areas and keep them together with a few pegs. This helps lift the rug off the floor to drip better if it's a deep rug.

After the water has stopped dripping out and it's about half way dry I pop it up onto the washing line to finish drying.

How do you save money over winter with washing rugs?

My Rug Buying Obsession.

My name is Pheobe and I have a rug buying obsession. I hate to admit it buy it's something I just can't stop buying and if I manage to not buy I spend a lot of time searching and finding the best deals. Although I love to build Legacy's rug collection, I always make sure I buy them in the sales. Save money where I can ;) 

Her current collection of turnouts include;

Weatherbeeta Genero No Fill Standard Neck.

Gallop 100g Standard Neck.

Derby House 200g Standard Neck.

Weatherbeeta Genero 220g Combo Neck.

Shires Tempest 300g Combo Neck.

360g Genero Combo Neck.

Now that's her main collection with her having a 360g Detachable neck rug as a spare.

When the weights of the rugs get heavier I like to make sure she has a spare or more than one around that weight just in case anything happens. She's very good at keeping her rugs in good condition minus the mud and most of her rugs are 1200D, but I like to be on the safe side to prevent her having to stay in her stable if anything ever happened to her rug. 

She also has many of stable rugs;

2x 100g Standard Neck.

220g Standard Neck.

2x 300g Standard Neck.

360g Standard Neck. 

All her stable rugs are Weatherbeeta apart from her 300g's which are Gallop & Harrison Howard.

After that she also has a standard neck fleece, a scrim cooler, fly rug, ride on fleece exercise rug and a hi-viz net ride on sheet.

At the moment I am searching for a new 100g standard neck for her, eyeing up the new Weatherbeeta Genero 100g rug, A waterproof fly rug, looking at the premier equine one, a waterproof ride on exercise rug to encourage myself to ride in the rain and another medium weight/220g/200g standard neck stable, and I'm possibly looking at a cooler sheet depending on how warm of a spring/summer we get this year.

The searching for these rugs is keeping me satisfied for now, although the 300g combo and 200g standard neck are both brand new within the last 2 weeks. The changing seasons keep making me look. Soon I'll either have to ban myself from the equine sites, unsubscribe myself from the email updates or loose my card before I end up in rug buyers anonymous. 

If anyone wants I'll keep you all updated on my shopping sprees and I can write any reviews on my rugs if people are interested. 

Light Evenings Can Only Mean One Thing

It's now creeped to that time of year where I can start to ride after work. The evenings now don't get dark until 6 O'Clock. When I do the early shift in work I finish for 4, this gives me 20-30mins to get to the yard and Legacy will be in her stable ready for the night. This is also great for me as I don't have a stressy Legacy to tack up, like she can be when she's on her own.

This time of evening is great to ride on the yard as everyone has been and done their daily riding by this point, which means the school will be free for me.

As Legacy has recently had 2 months off work I'm only doing short schooling sessions with her until she gains some fitness back up, saying that she wasn't full of fitness before. Now's the time to start building her up, for some summer activities hopefully. So the sort time allowed with the darkness is great for me at the moment.

Have you managed to get some late evening riding in now that the evenings are getting lighter and longer?