More Horse Tips, Please!

Many thanks to Arlene at Grey Horse Matters for giving me ANOTHER award! Callie at MidWest Horse designed this one to thank everyone for the good “horse tips” that we share with each other. I will mention a few things I’ve learned over the years and then pass the award on to some other horse lovers whom I look to for advice.

1. To clean my saddle from mildew and mold, I use a cloth dipped in white vinegar first and then I rub in Oakwood Leather Conditioner. It works on even the most furry and green nasty stuff like magic.

2. When I had to give Siete two big doses a day for a month (aaggh!) of bitter antibiotics last fall when she had Lyme Disease, I mixed the medicine with vanilla yogurt, molasses and some salt- to cut the bitterness. Then, I put it in a big syringe and dipped the tip of the syringe in some sugar. She went from hating the meds to waiting for me, and comes right over if she sees me holding a syringe now. I rub a little sugar on the tip of the deworming paste syringe too.

3. I love fly predators! I get them from Spalding Laboratories, ordering and paying for a full season of shipments in the Spring so I get some free as a bonus. Once a month, I sprinkle them on little piles of manure to “seed” them in the horses’ stalls, the corrals, the edges of the pasture and around Poop Mountain. I have almost NO flies. Now, if I could only find something that eats gnats and black flies.

If anyone else has any good tips, please share them with us, either on your blogs or in the comments you leave. I’m going to pass this award along to Linda at the 7MSN Ranch and to Billie at Camera Obscura because I know they’re both so clever that they will be able to enlighten us about something helpful.