I've recently just seen the new spring/summer 2018 horse & rider range from Waldhausen and there's so many things that I'd love to have for myself and Legacy. I have many itmes from their past collections and although they're not a budget brand, you defiantly are paying for the quality of the product. As they're a German based brand not all of their products are in fluent english.   

They've brought out one of my favourite colour combinations that I've seen by far. I've never been a pink person and have never bought pink for Legacy because of this but the dusky pink colour they have used with the silver grey I can't get enough of. Because of liking it all so much I've decided to do a wish list of items for Legacy and then a list for myself. 

Saddle Pad - Fly Veil - Fetlock Boots - Tendon Boots - Head collar

Erin Breeches - These looks great as I find it hard to find a pair of breeches which just have silicone on the knee and not a full seat, Due to having a gel seat saver I don't need the full seat. 

Vigo Quilted Mixed Fabric Jacket in Night Blue - I feel this would be a great jacket for the chillier days in spring and due to the colour you could get away with using it through to autumn too. The hood is a great added extra as you never know when it's going to rain over here. I think this would be a great jacket for down the yard but also a great fashion item for day to day as well.

Metropolitan Reflective Riding Gloves - I feel these would be great as they are lightweight, soft and breathable. These are great for the warmer weather in the summer. 

Valencia Fashion Fleece Jacket - I think this would be  a great lightweight sporty fleece lined figure cut jacket. This would be great for riding or around the yard when there's a slight chill in the air. 

Villach Mixed Fabric Fleece Jacket - This is like the Vigo Quilted Jacket but without the hood and more lightweight. This would stand between the Vigo jacket and the Valencia jacket. Like the Vigo jacket this would be great for either being around the yard or day to day wear.

Have you ever tried anything from this brand before? Like the look of the items? Check them out on the site and look out for your local stockist.

Spillers Conditioning Fibre Review

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.

Quick Update

This is just a quick update to why I've been so MIA recently. Unfortunately last week my granny died, before that she was in hospital for a while. Without going into to it too much I've been able to spend time with Legacy and loose thought's while being with her but I haven't been in any frame of mind to write or ride. Legacy is the type of horse to take advantage of you when you're not 100% concentrating, not wanting anything to happen I've not done much with her at all recently. 

I've decided that I'm going to start making more of an effort with getting Legacy working, my gran bought her for me (with a little addition from my mum) for my 21st birthday present. Due to this I want to make her proud of myself and Legacy and start doing things with her. I've also never had any intentions to sell Legacy but the fact that my gran is no longer with us means that it will never happen, and although I've already said this before but Legacy has a forever home with us. 

For the funeral my mum who's a been a florist in her past years created a horseshoe out of flowers from the 2 horses. 

I'm hoping to get back into doing work with Legacy & get back into blogging now!

We now have a Facebook page!

After some questions on the equestrian bloggers page I'm apart of on Facebook I decided to expand Adventures with an ex racer and create a Facebook page. I decided to create this page to keep everyone updated easier, as it will come up on their timelines. Also I know that not everyone follows me on twitter or Instagram so I think this will be great up put up some pictures, updates and thoughts.

You can find our new Facebook page here

And other social media links are:

Twitter - @xraceradventure

Instagram - @xraceradventure

Getting Back's Checked

Legacy and Cloudy had the back man out last week. This is something that was well over due for them both. I typically like to get them checked every 8-12 weeks. This is because they are both idiots in the field. Thankfully it's just Cloudy who's an idiot after I've put him out in the morning, Legacy just walks straight over to the haylage and will have the odd roll now.

The man who I have out to have a look at them has been doing them since I first got to the yard I'm on now, this is the 4th year using him and I've never had any problems after having him out and he's only ever been great with the 2 horses. He checks them all over, all down the spine, checking the poll, hips, legs, feet.

Legacy was first up and she had a sore tail bone and a dropped left hip. This is the first time that she's ever had a sore tail bone but it's a regular thing for her to have a dropped left hip. This must be something she does while being an idiot in the field. This typically never effects her when being ridden or she never really shows any pain from this. She can be lazy with her hind legs so maybe this could be contributing to this. The main time you do know when she's got something wrong with her hip is when you try to pick her back feet up. She will very much let you know that it's painful and I know it's bad but due to this I tend to leave the picking out her feet hind feet when I can, thankfully she doesn't have hind shoes on. Due to her hip she had to have a few days off work for the pain to go.

Cloudy was pretty good with his check over as he only had his poll out. Typically he will have his left hip dropped like Legacy and his arthritis with be showing in his foot, but this time he wasn't too bad. Super flex must be going a great job for him during the winter. Due to him only having his poll out he was fine to be ridden after but my mum wanted to give him a day off for him to get back to normal again. He was defiantly feeling better when he went out after as he was running rings around the field stopping for the odd buck, rear or roll. He even went over to Legacy who just went over to the haylage to try and get her involved but she didn't both and then he carried on.

Although there wasn't much wrong with either of them and there were no major issues in terms of pain riding before hand I'm going to make sure I don't let them both go 6 months without being checked again. The 2 times I've been thrown off of Cloudy have been due to back pain which could've been avoided if they were checked more often and that's even when they were done every 8-12 weeks. 

Do you get your horses backs checks? How often do you do it?

Aims for 2018

One of my aims for last year was to get Legacy doing the online dressage competitions in the ROR & beginners classes, unfortunately this was not something we managed to reach by autumn time when the ROR classes finished. This is now something I have rolled over to this year and my new aim is to get her ready over the rest of winter and start adding her to the classes some spring in the march - may months depending on how we're getting on. 

With this being our main aim for the year the other aim I'm wanting to do which can make the online dressage seem simple compared is to get Legacy's canter sorted this year, I'm going to be looking up loads of schooling exercises for when I'm riding and for us to do on the ground to get her balanced and holding herself in canter. Over the last couple of years it's been her trot that we've been establishing getting her being able to work into a rhythm. Outlines aren't something I'm majorly fussed about at this point with her, I'd rater her come down into an outline when she's happy rather than add on loads of gadgets and force her into one. There have been signs of her lowering her head and coming into somewhat of an outline once we've established a nice rhythm in a 20m circle trot, so I'm happy with this for now. As I said the main aim is now to get her canter balanced on both reins and have her working happily. 

Legacy's been having a nice rest over Christmas and the New Year as I'm finding it hard to get any motivation to ride in this cold weather, Not being able to feel my toes is not my idea of a fun or relaxing ride. Unfortunately the lack of motivation to ride has resulted in the lack of motivation to blog, hence why I've been MIA for a few weeks but both horses are getting their backs done Tuesday to have a fresh check over on everything. I'm really hoping with that and now writing this blog post I will get my riding and blogging mojo's back.

But we're on the up as the night's are getting longer and the morning's are getting lighter earlier. It won't be long before I'm putting the horses out to the sunrise at 7:30am soon.

Legacy's Bedroom

For anyone who's been reading my blog a while will know that I've struggled with bedding for Legacy in the past. She's a very wet and messy mare, and since having her I've always said that people need to write how horses are in the stable when advertising them. The only time she's been somewhat clean in the stable was in her second stable which was about the length of 2 stables but narrower. She had her hay nets by the top by the door then her bed was down the bottom. She was quite clean in this stable as she poo's where she is standing eating so all her poo was going on the concrete and would make it easier to clean up, the worst that would happen back then would be that she'd poo in her water but that's nothing compared to how she's been in other stables since then.

Last winter she was in the typical 12 x 12 stable, and I've done a blog post on this before when I wrote about her first going onto straw but she was so wet on just shavings she was having a new bale of shavings put down everyday. It was costing a fortune and we weren't able to keep up with it, even when we managed to find bales at £5 a bale it was still adding up each month. If I let 2 months roll by like that I could've bought a pallet of shavings for that amount. She'd been on wood pellets and they worked for a little then she got bad on them too, even with pellets mixed in with shavings.

One day I decided to try out straw and although that doesn't have any absorbency, I had to try something. To begin with I sprinkled some shavings under the straw to absorb some of the wet up and that started to work. That's how I kept her for the rest of last winter.

Onto this winter, her stable from last winter was unavailable due to the last set of storms destroying the roof. Both her and Cloudy had to move stables, luckily they are still able to be next to each other and keep each other happy. Both stables are much bigger than their 12 x 12 stables from last year so they are able to be much cleaner.

Legacy's stable is much wider and longer than her previous stable, she now has her bed which is a 3 horizontal rubber matting's wide and long. So due to the size of the stable is now able to have a much bigger and better bed. She's able to have a bed this big as where she stands to eat her hay-net is just where the bed ends. This means that when she poo's where she's standing to eat most of the poo is either just going on the edges of the bed or onto the rubber matting, meaning there's much less to clean up the next morning. She will still go to her bed to have a wee and the odd poos, but the maximum amount of poo's on her bed will be about 3. This means that I'm able to somewhat deep litter her to keep the bedding costs down. What I've found works great for her now is to put down half a bale of shavings then a large amount of straw on top to keep the bed fluffy and warm. The first 3-4 days after putting down a new bed I can just take out the poo's, this is great as it now takes a maximum for 5-10 minutes to muck her out. I like to try and keep the bed down until I'm off work on the Monday, then take everything out and redo her bed fresh again. By Friday or Saturday she's created a little wet patch and I scoop and this out and even out her bed. By Saturday or Sunday she's created a lot more mess and instead of giving her a new bed then I will just make her bed a little smaller or thinner. I can get away with this as she's got rubber matting. 

Hopefully she'll stay this clean for the rest of winter for me. What bedding do you use on your very wet horse?