This is a review that is well over due but due to the events that I explained in my last update post here, I've not been in the mental state to be writing reviews. 

Not long into this year I was approached my Spillers to trail out the Conditioning Fibre and write up a review on it after them seeing my previous post on the Speedy Mash Fibre.  

During the time they contacted me Legacy's had lost any shape she had in her bum due to the first set of temperature drops this year, so because of that I thought it would be a great time to try this out. 

I'm a firm believer of the horses diet being closet to it would within the wild meaning mainly fibre. I try to keep concentrates to a minimum with Legacy & Cloudy's food. The Conditioning Fibre is great for this as it's a complete feed meaning when fed at it's recommended amount this is all you need to give your horse. The Fibre is filled with natural fibres to bulk out the food to keep them eating and to prevent them from rushing their food. It has good protein sources and rapeseed oil added to help build up the condition without excitability, this is a great selling point for this product as their are so many people that want to add condition without compromising their horse's behaviour which may happen when feeding traditional cereal based conditioning feeds. The energy from this comes from the fibres and oils which make them slow releasing, compared to the cereal based feeds which uses the cereals for quicker releasing energy.  

 Amongst the rest of the natural ingredients their is also grass nuts added in for a bit of something different.  

The stats on the feed are:

Digestible Energy - 11MJ/kg

Oil - 10%

Protein - 12%

Fibre - 21% - High in fibre

Starch - 7% - Low in starch

Legacy's recommended amount is 3-4kg a day, this was spread out between 2 meals, morning and night. In each meal she had 2-3 Stubbs scoops per meal. Each Stubbs scoop holds 0.6kg of the fibre, meaning she had between 1.2kg and 1.8kg a meal. This is keeping it under the 2kg per meal feeding recommendation. For Legacy's meals she would have the fibre and a small scoop of sugar beet to add some moisture into the meal for her. This feed can be fed dry or damp but Legacy prefers her food dampened hence why I add the sugar beet with her feed. 

Here are some before and after pictures of using the feed for aprox a month and a half. For a 500kg horse a bag would aprox last about 2 weeks. I used 3 bags of the feed with her. Although in the after pictures of her side on she looks like she's lost a bit of weight compared to putting on but the way she puts weight on is that originally it will go onto her belly then over time it will disperse over to her bum to where she needs it. 

Overall I really enjoyed using this food with Legacy, it was simple and there was no worry about her not getting enough of everything she needs. It cut the feed making time in half and she would just have scoops of this and beet, then mix. She definitely enjoyed this as she's never been the quickest of eaters but when having this meal she ate all her food quicker than Cloudy. Out of the 3 bags used on Legacy I was given 2 for free and I purchased the 3rd one as I realised I wasn't giving her the correct amount per day so I bought another one and fed the last of the first bag through to the 3rd at the correct amount. As she got up to the weight I wanted her to be at she's no longer on this feed but if I ever felt that she needed to put weight on again I would definitely consider this for her with how well it worked. 

If you've got a horse that needs to put on weight or just some added shine and condition I really recommend this as there's nothing in there which could excite your horse and the starch is low which is also an added bonus.

*Although the bags of feed were provided for free all the opinions within this review are my own and Spillers had no influence over my views.

Winter Motivation

I'm definitely a fair weather rider so I find it hard to find the motivation to ride when the colder & wetter autumn/winter days hit. I don't mind the mucking out as I'm inside out of the rain and I warm up quite quick doing that. Especially starting off with about 4 layers on including a thermal base layer. 

This is the 4th winter I've had Legacy and she's been in every winter I've had her, but as she's on a livery yard they have always put her out in the morning and brought her in at night and given her food. After mucking out in the past winters I've always struggled to find the motivation to ride or even bring Legacy in for a groom as I liked her to spend as much time out in the field as possible, rather than cutting it short for a groom. This motivation wasn't even there on the days of the week I would muck out before work.

So this winter hoping it will give me a little more motivation to do more work with Legacy throughout the winter me and my mum have decided to put the horses out and bring them in ourselves. 

I will be the one up early to put them out, depending on what shift I'm doing in work I'll either be up at 6:45am or 6:15am to do them. The earlier time I'll just be putting them out and my mum will muck out and bring in after work. The later time I'll be putting them out and mucking out when my mum will bring in after work. 

I'm really hoping that having to put them out will give me that little extra get up and go in the mornings. If all goes to plan I'm also hoping that I could get a quick lunge in there for Legacy too so she keeps up with the workload, rather than being worked once a week if we're lucky on weather.  

How do any of you keep up motivation to keep your horses exercised throughout the winter?

Legacy's Autumn/Winter Wardrobe

This blog post is to show you all Legacy's autumn/winter rug collection, and explaining what type of weather she wears what it.

I'm currently undecided on to sell these from 100g upwards and just get her one 100g detach a neck rug which allows liners. Has anyone done this before? Let me know.

Lightweights (No Fills)

For her lightweight with no neck she has the Shires Tempest Limited Edition Sheep Print Rug Standard Neck. This is a great rug for when the weathers starting to turn and the rain starts coming in. As Legacy's right across from the sea and has no shelter it's great to keep the wind off of her.

Her Lightweight Combo is the Weatherbeeta Classic Combo. This is great for when the weather gets really wet and windy but it's still too warm for a 100g rug.

Lightweights (100g Fill)

I'm not entirely sure which rug Legacy's 100g std neck is but I know It's an Amigo one, I bought this second hand for Cloudy but it fit Legacy much better. The closest to it I could find is the Amigo Hero 6 100g or the Amigo Bravo 12 100g. Whichever one it is, it's a great rug and there are also loops on the inner neck which I'm assuming is for rug liners.

Her combo lightweight that she has, is a Dr Green Lightweight turnout with a fleece lining. This rug isn't available online so I've found the closest available to it which is the Horze Avalanche Turnout sheet. These are great rugs because the fleece creates warmth for the horse but it's not too much.

Medium Weight (200-220g)

The standard neck Medium Weight Legacy has is the Derby House Pro turnout. I find this weight of rug a good next step from the 100g with a neck, as it's not a 'full' medium weight and it has no neck. This keeps her warm but also makes the next step of a 220g combo a good enough step to last her most of winter.

She doesn't have a 220g combo at the moment as I sold it due to it not being 100% waterproof anymore, but the one she did have was the Weatherbeeta Genero. Due to selling this one, this is why I'm either looking for a new medium weight which is last or a multi use rug with liners.

Heavyweight (300-360g)

Her first heavyweight rug is the Shires Tempest 300g Combo, by the time of year that she needs this the weather is cold enough to need a neck on her rug all the time. I really like this rug and I've written a review on it here. 

The heaviest rug she has is the Weatherbeeta Genero 360g Combo. The winters here have been quite mild and she hasn't needed this the past 2 years, so it's been away in storage. 

Horslyx Respiratory Lick Review

This review is a Cloudy based one. The reason I chose the respiratory lick is because Cloudy has been known to suffer with choke and will cough throughout the winter when in the stable depending on how dusty it is. So the reason behind choosing this is because it's designed to provide a unique approach to supporting the respiratory system. The ingredients such as menthol, eucalyptus and aniseed supports the airways and helps keep them clear of mucus which helps the horse breathe more easily. The minerals such as Vitamins C & E, selenium, chelated copper and zinc in the balancer package help maintain immunity which then helps support and aid a healthy lung function. 

The high oil content helps for healthy skin and coat while the Biotin, zinc and methionine helps with healthy hooves. 
The 2 main reasons to why I chose this one for Cloudy are:

• If your horse is prone to coughing or any respiratory compromise, Respiratory Horslyx Balancer can support the body’s natural defense mechanism.
• For horses that are stabled for long periods of time, Respiratory Horslyx Balancer can help maintain healthy breathing and lessen the chance of ill-health affecting performance levels.

After the first night of giving Cloudy the lick this is how I found his stable the next morning. Safe to say he'd had some fun fighting with the lick to get it out. Please excuse the mass amount of poo in this picture, this was on a bad night haha. After retrieving and trying to clean the lick the best I could, I paired up the licked with it's container again for him. The next night he'd managed to get it out of the pot again and hide it in a pile of hay, thankfully the third night he had it, it stayed in the pot. 
After all the fighting with it to get at it I'm sure he loved the lick. I was also told that he had brown patches on his nose from where he was getting in there to get at the lick.  

Now although Cloudy loves these licks, Legacy isn't that keen on them. I bought her one after the Nettex one's she used to have stopped being sold in my place of work so I thought I'd try her out with the original one. She has licks in her stable to try keep her occupied while she's in there for a long period of time. This is mainly because she gets stressy and starts to box walk and crib bites. When I first put down the Original tub she went over for a little smell, but wasn't majorly bothered with it. I thought she'd take a few days to try it out, but it ended up just staying in her stable gathering dust. In the end I had to throw it as it had gone to bad to give to Cloudy.  

These licks are great if you have a horse that's not needing any food and is on a good forage diet. These can supply all the vitamins & minerals needed for a balanced diet for them. They are weather-proof which is great for being used in the field as well as the stable. 
They come in 3 different sizes
- 650g which lasts 3-4 days
- 5Kg which lasts 20-25 days
& 15Kg which lasts 60-75 days 
The length of time they last depends on the size of your horse and how much they use it for. 
They also come in 4 different flavours Original, Respiratory, Garlic & Mint.

The average prices for them are:
 650g one is £3.50 - £4.50
5kg one is £14.00 - £16.00
& 15kg one is £28.99 - £34.00

The original is the cheapest one and then the flavoured or specialised ones are more expensive. 
You can also get a stable holder for the 5kg tub, and a ground holder for the 15kg tub.

Here are 2 sites I've found which sell a range of the Horslyx.
Naylors Equestrian & Countrywide Farmers

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Yard Before Work

Due to me working odd shifts in work, I only muck out the horses on my days off of Monday & Tuesday and when I don't start work until 10:45. I work odd times on the weekends and then on the other days opposite to the 'late' shift is the 'early' shift to where I start work at 8 and don't finish until 4:30. With the horses not going out until 8:30 and coming in 4/4:30ish by the time I get there after work they'd be in. Now these 2 horses seem to be the worst 2 to muck out when they're in there, always knocking the wheelbarrow over, standing in the way and making more mess. I'm lucky enough to be fussy not to have to work with this when my mum can muck them out on the days I can't, it's always handy because if either of us need a day off from doing them there's always the other person there. 

This is a quick image of what I wear when I do my yard work. The bottom half of the outfit rarely changes apart from the odd change of footwear.
The trousers I wear are Regatta waterproofs. They are similar to these Regatta Stormbreaker ones I found on ebay for only £8.69 with free P&P. For this price I'm definitely adding these to my ebay watch list for when I need another pair. Although these are lightweight and thin they are durable and last a while. The current pair I'm wearing have lasted me for 2 years. So for the price you pay they do last a long while. These trousers are great because I wrap up warm for work in the winter so those clothes keep me warm while mucking out and then throughout the summer they are light enough to not make me hot. 

On my feet I'm currently wearing my Harry Hall Yale Country Boots, these are some of the most comfortable boots I've ever worn. They are not longer for sale but I recommend if you can get your hands on a pair they're great. 

On my top half I wear a hat on my head no matter how I've done my hair ready for work. Any wooly hat does the job of keeping my ears warm and keeping the smell of dirty horse bed out of my hair, which helps keep me presentable for work. 
I then have a variation of jackets & coats to which I wear on top of my uniform. Due to how warm I can get at times when mucking out I only wear my thermals and work t-shirt under my coat. The current jacket that I'm wearing for this weather is my Dublin Trinity Blouson Jacket, then in the winter I wear my Equine Answers Regatta coat. Throughout the summer I typically just wear a hoodie to cover my uniform or depending on how hot it is I'll wear a different t-shirt and then will get changed when I get into work. 

On my hands I then wear kids gardening gloves as these keep the smells off my hands. The gloves I use are these kids gardening gloves from Wilko. They are also great as the haylage we can can sometimes get thistles in it, they are quite awful when they stick into your hands when you grab into the bale. They are great throughout the winter as they keep your hands dry and keep the chill off of your hands. 




The other alternative to wearing all of these before work is a pair of overalls. I have a pair of these from back when I was in college but I don't really wear them for yard work as they're a bit big for me, and I found throughout the winter I was needing to wear waterproof trousers and a coat to stay dry. 

Legacy's Take on Bedding

In the 3 winters I've had Legacy I have tried a variation of types of bedding. Most of them have worked well in the beginning and then have just majorly fallen down hill as I thought that plan and type of bedding was working. During the time she's been at the current livery yard she's been in 4 different stables. In these stables her stress levels have been different in each one, this has contributed to how messy each stable has been. Pretty much each variation has included shavings at some point and it even went to the point of trying out different types of shavings. 

All of the stables she's been in have had rubber matting in, so this has been a major help when it comes to putting down a bed for her. When I first had her she was on shavings, in a average stable size she would just poo where she was standing when eating her hay, the only problem with this would be that when she would walk around the stable, the poo would be walked into the shavings. 

Apart from this the main dilemma I've always had with her beddings is that she's very wet, this at times could be to the point there would be a slight puddle in the middle of the shavings if there wasn't a thick enough layer down. 

The bedding variations she's had are:

- Shavings with thick banks and thin bed layer

- Plenty of shavings all around, thick banks and bed layer

- Shavings banks with Megazorb in the middle

- Shavings banks with shavings and wood pellets mixed in

- Wood Pellet banks and bed

- Straw banks and shavings bed

- Shavings banks with straw bed
- We've also tried deep littering her on shavings

Before trying her out on what she's on now she was going through a bale of shavings a day if you were mucking her out properly she was that wet, so I knew I had to find a better alternative for her. She now has Straw all over for banks and bed with a sprinkle of shavings underneath in the middle. This seems to be working well for the time being, and she will probably be on this until she goes out for the summer which I'm hoping will be within the next few weeks if the weather sorts itself out. The shavings layer beneath the straw is enough to soak up the wee from the bedding to make it not so soggy or have wee running through the stable. 

She also seems to be very much less stressed while she's in this stable, she is now next door to Cloudy who she is very close with as their never separated now, being in both summer & winter fields together. He has really seemed to calm her down and it's really helped cut down on her separation anxiety. She still has a few stubborn moments trying to get her into the stable on her own, but with a little persuasion she's much more better and willing to be on her own. 

Here is a quick before & after picture of Legacy's stable. 

Shires Tempest 300g Combo Review

I know it's a bit late on in the year but I just had to write my review on this rug now, it couldn't wait until next winter. Although I bet there are some clipped or even unclipped horses out there now still in medium-heavy or heavy weight rugs the weather has been so awful in this country recently. And with another set of bad weather supposed to be on it's way soon before we get the nice weather I thought I'd throw this in there now. This is a great rug to have if a heavyweight is too warm and a medium weight is too cold. 

This is the Shires Tempest Original 300g Combo Rug. 

Some of the key features for this rug are:

- 600D ripstop

- Breathable ShireTex Outer

- 300G Quilted Polyfill

- Tapered Seams

- Blanket Set Breast Fastenings

- Velcro Closure on Neck

- Adjustable Cross Surcingles & Fillet String

& A Tail Flap.

To the left is a picture of Legacy when she first got the rug, before she went out and rolled in it to cover it in mud. 
The rug fits her body shape really well, she's had no rubs on her shoulders, withers or her mane. I know that some people really struggle to find combo rugs that don't rub away any part of the mane. 
I've always been really lucky with Legacy and all of her combo rugs have fit really well and I've been able to avoid this. 
This rug has a nice sized neck that doesn't leave too much behind the ears exposed, another great part about this neck is that it stays in place and doesn't slip down towards the body. There is a velcro neck closure on the neck where it folds back on itself through rings for security. 
The tail flap on this rug may only be small in comparison to others but it's attached in a way it gives great protection from the weather elements. It always stays down and never flaps back up onto the body of the horse.




Although this rug is only 600D, it's managed to survive 2 winters without any rips or leaks. Legacy is good when it comes to not making holes in rugs and looks after them but there is bit's of barbed wire around the field because of the sheep so there is always that possibility when the horses are playing or trying to get to grass. 
Legacy has worn this rug in some bad weather this winter including some of the recent storms and it has held up really well. Not once has the rain been too much and the rug has started to leak or get damp. 

Overall I would really recommend this rug and I would definitely consider buying a Shires rug when I'm in need of one next. 

Gardening gloves or Yard Gloves?

Out of all the gloves I've tried for my yard duties, gardening gloves have definitely been the best I've tried so far. Okay so I haven't tried any that are £10+ in the equestrian range but when I found some for £1.25 from Wilko that do the job for me I couldn't justify trying any more out really. The ones I've found are these kids ones. That's another struggle I had when trying to find a great pair of yard gloves was that my fingers are so small I have to wear kids gloves. This includes riding & everyday gloves too and to be honest these gloves are still a little too long in the fingers for me. I find that I get the end stuck in the little clip to keep the hosepipe head turned on when filling up water buckets. These gloves have a tough bottom half of polyester, this means they are waterproof as long as I don't end up fighting with the hosepipe and it gets the orange bit wet, this has actually happened a few times. 

These are great for when you get the off thistle in the haylage, as there's nothing worse than having a thistle thorn spiked into your finger or under the nail when you reach in for haylage. 

These types of gloves are more frequently found as work gloves in adult sized gloves. You can also get some which are hi-viz which would be great for riding out hacking if you were to use them as riding gloves as well. These would also double up as that due to the grip they provide.

I'm Back! Where I've been.. Quick Update.

Hey guys! Long time no write. 

It's been about 7/8 months since I last updated, but to be honest not much has happened in that time. I think that's why I haven't had the urge to get back blogging until now. I haven't been riding much over that time. I was busy with work throughout the summer then I was finding it was too hot for Legacy when I did have the time to ride on my days off. Then on the other scale of the weather when it wasn't too hot we had the horrible winds and rain where I live. I'm a fair weather rider at the best of times too, although I'm working on that after realising how much time out of proper work Legacy has had. 

I haven't had any confidence to ride Legacy out on the road as at the beginning of last summer she took off cantering on the road with me for no seeable reason, I stayed on but it still affected my confidence on the road with her, she was nappy on the road as it was so adding that on didn't help. Where she is kept for livery the roads get quite busy over the summer and the speed limit is 60. The tourists and most of the locals don't seem to care if there is horses on the roads, they'll come past speeding or beeping their horns if they can't get past. So because of this I can't hack out over the summer resulting in me totally losing my confidence on the road with her. 

This is something I'm working on though, I'm back to having lessons every 2 weeks with her. At the moment we're learning for her to respect me and listen to my legs while out on the roads as when she has her napping moments she's either not going anywhere or prancing a little in the middle of the road, the more I try to push her over out of the way of cars the more she plays up. So this is our main goal for now so I can regain my confidence on her out there. 

One of the other main reasons to why I didn't get to ride much throughout the summer was on one of the windy days we were putting a rug on her in the field, we only did this as she's very good standing there to put a rug on no matter what the weather. Unfortunately on this day the wind caught hold of the rug when we'd only managed to get it half on and it flew over her head. Due to this she spooked and took off around the field, falling over the rug as it came around her front legs. She was very lucky to come out of it without any major injuries, just a couple of grazes and burn marks from the velcro on the rug. What happened that night is something I never want to see again, it was horrifying. 

We're very lucky that she's not scared of putting rugs on in a breeze or rugs at all now. Quite the tough one Legacy is. 

The winter weather hasn't been the best on my 2 days off a week so I haven't had much luck riding there either, but as I mentioned I'm working on riding when the weathers not the best to try and combat the lack of riding for next winter.  

That's just a quick update to where I've been and what's been happening and as you can read, there's not much been on going on. I'm back at blogging now and I'm planning to update and post more frequently now.

I have also updated the pages Legacys feed and I have changed the link of my for sale page to my Preloved page now. 

Feeding for time of year & Behavior

This time of year can be tricky when it comes to feeding, as your horses will either be coming out of winter well or needing to be fed up. In recent years and this one for sure there isn't grass always readily available to put these horses onto to gain the needed weight, so that's where people start or continue feeding conditioning feed. That can be fine depending on the horses temperament, how much they are worked, if they are on any grass and how much condition they need.

The fresh spring grass that is coming through is full of sugar, there is less sugar in the grass at night but it's still there (tip if you have a laminitic prone horse that has to come in for some time, put them out at night). If you have a horse that can be easily fizzed up through sugar & starch you will be best putting them on a low starch feed. This can be a fibre based feed with mainly chaff, fibre cubes, or a complete fibre feed. Complete fibre feeds are good as they are typically aimed at laminitic horses meaning they will have low or hardly any sugar, but there are also condition fibre feeds out there such as Dengie Healthy tummy or Spillers conditioning fibre. These 2 I've heard have great results on ex racehorses & the Healthy tummy on ulcer prone horses. I've used both of these for Legacy but as a 'chaff' rather than a complete feed as with the size of her she would be going through the bags too fast.
Cubes are also lower in starch than mixes although they are created with the same high ingredients as the mixes. Cubes also cost less to make which means they cost less to buy off the shelf which is always a handy added bonus. When a feed has high starch the blood sugar levels are always changing which can cause the horse to become fizzy at times but when they are on a high fibre low starch feed the blood sugar levels are maintained, meaning you will have a happy horse.

Some horses can be really sensitive when it comes to feeding sugars & starch while others can have it all and still be laid back (these are rare to come across). 

Here are some ingredients in feeds which your horse may be/or react to:

- Molasses (Pure sugar)

- Barley

- Oats

- Beet (through either Sugar Beet or Speedi Beet) 

Allen & Pages Calm & Condition is good as it's molasses & Barley free but some horses can react to the barley replacer that they use. This is something to keep in mind if you ever use this product. If you are feeding a few of the above list and have a fizzy horse my best suggestion is to try and cut some of them out so you can pin point which one is causing any trouble for you.

Not all horses express their excess energy through being fizzy they can become bargy and boulchy to handle. This is where it's important to sort out their feed as they can learn this behavior if not corrected and if left before changing feed they may carry on like this after the feed has been changed. 

I had a scenario with Legacy the first winter I had her, she was in need of a little extra fat on her so she was on a good amount of conditioning mix and she was behaving as normal as she had since I'd had her and she'd been living out August- December. I then moved yards and be became stabled and had ad lib hay in the field & 2 haynets in the stable at night to get her filled up, along with her usual amount of feed but now in 2 meals instead of one ( can anyone see where this is going? haha) anyway the weight started to come on her and when I was riding her in the school she would like to blot off, and at this point she had not been re-mouthed and hated turned corners in any speed above walk. I just through she needed more schooling and it was the racer part of her that wanted to go in an open space in a straight line, I mean she would go from bolting off in a fast canter to dead stop in seconds she hated the corners so much. In the end it got to the day before new years eve last year and she took off, I tried to stop her and she was having none of it, she was up vertically in the air then down to buck and I think this repeated about 3 times before I flew off in the rear. This was my first fall off her and my first fall ever so atleast it was an eventful one. I had to go to A&E with a bad headache as I could still feel the rim of my hat on my head hours later, and I was completely fine and didn't even end up with a bruise. But I learnt the hard way about feeding too much starch  and feeding mixes to a sensitive horse. She's completely fine with sugars but I have to watch the starch. 

Have you had any experiences like this? Did you find this blog post handy? If you'd like more like this let me know.

Chart taken from the Allen & Page website. 

Horseware Ireland Turnout Guide App

It's now got to that time of year where the horses that are kept in for the winter have been turned out, and the worrying that your horse has the right rug on or if you should take the rug off has started, well it definitely has for me.
Last month I found the Horseware Ireland Turnout Guide App it's available for Android and Apple products.

This app is great because you can add in a picture of your horse, then add in their name, choose your location on the map, say the age of your horse, the breed of your horse, say how good they are with condition out of 3 options, if they are clipped or not and if it's a pony. 

After entering all of this your horse will be added, you can add more than one in. 

You then click on you horse and it tells you the weather for your area for the next 5 days and nights. The weather for it isn't 100% correct as its currently about 13C outside and full of sunshine but Legacy still has a lightweight on as there is a chilly wind where she is and she now has her full summer coat and after checking her over she wasn't warm enough for my liking without a coat. As I said this app might not be 100% correct but it gives you a good idea for what to put on your horse when you have no clue what the weather is going to do.

Some more great things about this app is that after you've uploaded a picture of your horse you can try different Rhino, Amigo & Rambo rugs on the picture to see how they fit. You can also tap on the rugs and see the different weights available in certain styles and the app will show you where you can buy them from.

Do you use this app? What do you think about it?

I thought this app was great and it needed to be shared.

 iTunes Link - Android Link - App Website

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?