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| This week we'll touch on cleaning nylon and leather articles. Leather takes more care, but if properly cleaned and oiled, leather can outlast nylon.
To clean a nylon halter or bridle, I usually bring it in the house and use dish soap and a scrub brush. I use Sunlight but a biodegradable dish washing product should work equally well.
Whatever you use, make sure you rinse it well! I prefer not to throw them in the washing machine as the buckles make lots of noise but some people tie socks over the buckles and wash them that way anyway. As I said two weeks ago, cleaning nylon is pretty simple!
Leather, on the other hand, requires a bit more intensive care. Leather must be kept clean. When leather gets dirty, the dirt particles actually work their way in between the fibres of the leather, kind of like dirt getting ground into your top layer of skin. Without using soap and water, you can't remove this dirt, and if you oil the leather while dirty, all you accomplish is to drive the dirt particles further into the leather.
After talking with Andi Robinson, who specializes in leather work, our suggestion is to use a warm water and liquid Ivory solution on leather to clean it. Mix the soap well into the water before starting. You can use a soft scrub brush to get at the dirt, then rinse it really well.
Dry the item afterwards at room temperature, not in the direct sunlight or next to the wood stove - both serve to dry the leather too quickly, which can lead to cracking. But you aren't done yet!
If the leather is allowed to dry completely, the pores will close, preventing oil from penetrating and keeping it soft and supple. Andi says the leather should be almost dry but still damp - it will feel cold when you start oiling it. You can apply pure Neatsfoot oil, or better still, a good leather dressing, using mild heat which will keep the pores open during the application.
A hair dryer held a couple of feet from the surface while rubbing the dressing in allows for greater penetration. You can finish up by waxing your tack, with a finish made for leather. A full cleaning and oiling should only be done when really needed though; in between it is best advised to wipe items down after each use, especially if it was given a good finish.
Oiling shouldn't be done too heavily or too often, as it can saturate the leather which will ruin it. Some other things to remember are that old, dry, and brittle leather may need special care. Light colored leather will darken with oiling. If caring for your leather products yourself worries you, there are people who do it as a business with their years of knowledge and experience.
If you have tips or questions on equipment care, purchases, fit, or anything else to do with equestrian equipment, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com |
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Past articles are all available in the
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| Just in time for the holidays, I am bumping our usual column with a couple of recipes of horse treats! These are taken from the December 1999 Horse All magazine, which in turn credits the book 'The Ultimate Guide to Pampering You Horse', available from Horse Hollow Press, 1-800-4-1-HORSE.
The first was contributed by Horseman's Yankee Pedlar of North Oxford, MA, the second by Nicole Fritzler of Dryden, MI.
These horse brownies should make a great treat for your equine companion!
Kristin's Christmas Horse Brownies
Ingredients:
2 cups corn meal
3 cups sweet feed
1 cup bran
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1 cup molasses
1/3 cup water
3 carrots
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a cake pan and set aside. - In a large bowl, mix corn meal, two cups of the sweet feed, bran, flour and salt. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, molasses and water, then fold into dry mixture. Mix thoroughly. - Peel carrots into thin strips with a potato peeler.
What you can't peel, cut into small bits and add to the mixture. The mixture will be very heavy and somewhat dry. Press dough into cake pan. Sprinkle remaining cup of sweet feed on top and press lightly into dough. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for five minutes, and then cut into cubes. Let cool completely and serve!
On a cool winter day, treat your horsey pal to a bran mash - candy cane style!
Peppermint Stick Bran Mash
Ingredients:
1 cup crushed candy canes
3 to 5 cups of bran
1 tablespoon salt
1 carrot, diced
1 apple, diced
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups sweet feed
- Dissolve crushed candy in 2-3 cups of boiling water and let water cool to warm. Then, mix all ingredients together except sweet feed in a feed bucket. Add more warm water to make it soupy rather than crumbly. Cover with towel and let stand until cool. Right before serving, spread a thin layer of sweet feed over the top and sprinkle with a crushed candy cane to garnish.
If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com |
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| To teach a horse to trot on the lead, I like to first teach them to circle on the lead rope. Working with Cori Stephen of Vanderhoof last spring gave me a nice, quiet approach to working with my youngsters.
Start with your horse outfitted in a halter and long lead (10 feet is best). Consider wrapping your horses legs for protection - any time a horse is going in small circles he is putting more stress than usual on his legs, especially a young horse whose bones are not fully set and muscles are not fully grown.
You can use sports medicine boots, polo wraps or support wraps (word of caution, if you have not yet learned to wrap, you CAN cause more damage with the wraps than without) to support the horse's legs.
To start your horse circling, take a step back from him and face his body. You'll create a sort of triangle from your left hand pointing towards his head, and your right hand towards his hip with the excess leadrope in it.
Extend your left hand further to your left, encouraging him to step forward, and step towards his hip - keeping your eyes on his hip will help to push him ahead. Cluck to your horse, and using your right hand, swing the end of the lead at his hip.
Hopefully he'll start forward, in which case you can quit clucking and say 'good boy' or words to that effect. More than likely though, he'll stand there.
Then you need to do it again and again until it becomes annoying enough to make him move. The idea is not to hurt him to make him move, but to make it uncomfortable for him to stand still. More next week!
If you have tips or questions you'd like to share with other local equestrians, please mail them to kristi@hiway16.com |
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Western, English, Penning or Trail riding, all equine sports have a voice on Northern B.C. Horse.
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If you are new to Northern B.C. Horse, check out all the previous issues on the Archive page.
Kristi is building a great knowledge base about horses, with the emphasis on our area of the world.
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