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| Leather or nylon? Which is better? There are many variables to look at when choosing equipment these days.
Bridles, halters, and now even saddles come in full or partial mixes of leather and nylon. I'll go over some of the basics here.
Nylon tends to be very strong. A good quality nylon halter, will usually be doubled over and stitched at the edges, kind of like gluing two 2 x 4's together to make a 4 x 4 - it is actually stronger than just using a thicker product. So a nylon halter is less likely to break if the horse should pull back.
However, you have to consider other things! Like the fact that a horse when pulling back can actually damage himself very badly, and that a halter breaking may save his life.
For this reason, you'll see nylon halters with a leather crownpiece, referred to as a breakaway halter. Should the horse get tangled in his halter, or pull back heavily when tied, the crownpiece should break (there is another way I know of creating a breakaway halter which I'll explain next week). It means your horse will be loose, but he likely won't have a broken neck.
Another consideration is that nylon lasts much better than leather with less care. Nylon won't mold the way leather will in the damper times of the year, nor will it dry out and crack the way leather can if uncared for.
For people who haven't the time to clean their tack after every ride, or who have damp, unheated tack rooms (like most of us!) a nylon bridle may be a simple solution.
For showing your horse, leather is a *must*. In smaller schooling shows, you can often get away with using nylon gear, but when you start showing in the bigger shows, especially breed shows, you need to invest in leather bridles and halters.
Which brings us to price - leather, good quality domestic leather, is quite a bit pricier than nylon. Next week? That breakaway halter idea - please email me this week at kristi@hiway16.com with your comments or questions. |
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| Last week, I said that if you have a three-sided shelter in your paddock or field, your horse will likely need no other help to keep warm in the winter apart from good clean feed and plenty of fresh water.
I'd like to expand on that a little this week. For starters, if a horse is down in weight or condition, you may need to take extra care as he'll be more easily chilled and will be trying to gain weight as well as keep warm.
A horse needs roughage, usually fed in the form of hay in the winter, both for nourishment and for warmth. The digestive process that works on the hay inside the horse's stomach and intestine creates the heat which warms the horse. If the horse is not receiving enough hay in his diet, he may not have enough warmth.
Cases like this would include horses left to paw in the snow for dead grass and also horses with poor teeth that can't effectively chew the hay they do eat.
One rule of thumb is to never feed more concentrate (grain) than roughage. When the temperature drops, up the hay portion of your horse's diet and lower the grain slightly to keep the protein intake level.
Another consideration to keeping warm is that a horse should have free access to water. Eating snow is considered a *no-no* by most veterinarians as the body heat required to melt the snow inside the horse strips the horse 's body heat... just like how you cool down when you eat an ice cream on a hot day.
Slightly warmed water is best, as studies have shown that horses tend to drink more when the water is warmer. For this reason, stock tanks and stock waterers can come in handy, or on a smaller scale, a heated bucket. These encourage your horse to drink more, which can prevent impaction colic from not enough water in the gut, and will of course help to prevent your horse from getting too cold from eating snow.
In general, a horse that has free access to a three-sided shed, slightly warmed water, and good quality, clean hay in two or three feedings a day, should come through the winter in fine shape.
Don't forget your deworming and vaccination schedules though! Next week, we'll continue talking about the deworming and vaccination schedules.
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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| Last week we talked about leading, stopping and backing our horse 'in hand', or on the ground in a halter and lead.
This week we'll talk about other things we can do with our horse to teach him to be more responsive from the ground.
I like to teach my horses to move their hindquarters away from pressure. This aids you whenever you need to move a horse over in a stall, or when tied alongside a fence.
I position my hand in about the same spot my heel would be if I was riding the horse - using a similar cue helps him to understand when I do get on and ride. Push gently with the heel of your hand and I usually cluck as well, which in my training signals 'move'.
If he doesn't move, I may need to make the cue more uncomfortable for the horse, say by pushing with my thumb instead of the flat of my hand, maybe wiggling it a bit into his side. Usually this is enough to move a horse away from you - make sure you immediately release the pressure, stop clucking if you were doing so, and tell him he's good.
Try again a few more times, with instant release and praise, until he starts to understand this is a cue. Then switch sides - you'll need to go through the same procedure as horses learn separately from one side to the other.
Don't do this for hours at a time, from the horse's point of view having someone repeatedly poke you in the ribs would get annoying pretty quickly, but you can do this every time you handle your horse.
Turn him around when you go through the gate and turn back to close it, move him over when you groom him and go to change sides, and so on, just so he gets a chance to get used to the cue.
Next week we'll cover the turn on the haunches on the ground - it can come in handy for basic horse handling (safety) and for showmanship classes among other things. |
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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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