Robinsons Blog

It is well and truly show time, our horses and ponies are being preened and polished, and stress levels are at an all time high. You spend all day before the show cleaning tack, boots, stables, and horse. You try to cover every square inch of your horse so he stays clean overnight, especially if he’s grey, only to get to the yard in the morning to find a huge stable stain on his face or his coat all ruffled and refusing to lie flat. If by chance your horse has stayed clean you can be sure that the weather is now appalling, so all your hard work and effort is totally wasted as he will be filthy again as soon as he steps out of the horse box.

How do you get your horse clean for a show and then keep him that way?

My advice after competing with a grey pony and then a horse with four white stockings is start early, and be prepared to finish late! However long you estimate your preparations will take, they always end up at least double that amount of time!

Try to ride and then turn out your horse in the morning so he is worked and then had some relaxation time after. There’s nothing worse than fighting with an anxious horse thats been stabled all day, keep your riding relaxed and just go through the basics of making sure he responds to your aids and is obedient. Any other schooling will make you both tense especially as you are thinking of the show, you can’t make any massive improvements in your horse on the day before the show.

Whilst your horse is turned out do all your usual stable work, and have a bit of a general spring clean of any equipment you intend to take with you. Make sure you take a break and have something to eat yourself so you don’t get over tired and hungry. Remember that you have to keep yourself calm in order for your horse to behave in the same way.

Once you have everything ready, bring your horse in from the field and give him a good groom. This will remove any surface dirt from his coat and make bathing easier. Don’t forget to thoroughly pick his feet out, there’s no point having a spotless lame horse because of a stone in his foot.

If you’re intending to plait up and you’ve time, wash your horse’s mane a day earlier as this will avoid it being too slippy. Otherwise wash his mane before anything else as this will give it a little extra time to dry before you need to plait it. Try adding a little hair gel to your horse’s mane whilst still damp as it will help to keep it tidier. If you’re leaving your horse’s mane and tail natural add a little Cowboy Magic Detangler, it helps keep the most unruly hair tangle free and shiny.

Next wash your horse all over using a good quality horse shampoo, Gallop shampoos come in a range specially designed to enhance your horse’s natural colour. Always saturate your horse’s coat thoroughly before applying shampoo, this ensures the shampoo penetrates the surface of your horse’s coat and gets all the scurf and dirt out. Remove all traces of shampoo completely using plenty of water, there should never been any bubbles left in your horse’s coat after rinsing as this can irritate your horse’s skin and make him itchy. Remove as much water as possible using a sweat scraper; the hard plastic side is ideal for fleshy parts of your horse, whereas the softer rubber section can be used on legs and more sensitive parts. Once you’ve removed any excess water, spray your horse with coat gloss but be careful to avoid the saddle area if you will be riding as it may make your saddle slip. This initial coverage of show shine will help to keep your horse’s coat soft and smooth, it will also make grooming easier on the morning of the show as dirt won’t stick to your horse’s coat as easily.

If your horse has any white on his legs use a shampoo designed specifically for white horses, take care to follow the user instructions though as they can irritate your horse’s skin or cause staining of your hands if used incorrectly. Rinse thoroughly, then dry his legs using a towel, whilst the hair is still damp use a chalk block generously on all white parts of his leg. Immediately cover as much of your horse’s lower leg as possible. Stable boots are a quick and easy way to do this, alternatively you can use leg pads and stable bandages but you need to be sure that you apply them correctly, as incorrect use can cause injury. They can also leave unsightly creases on your horse’s legs which are almost impossible to get rid of before a show.

Finally, I would always advise to rug your horse before a show, not only to keep him clean but also because his coat will have lost some of its natural oils after bathing so he won’t be able to keep himself as warm as usual. Make sure your rug is clean and dry though otherwise any dirt will be transferred back onto your horse. I always keep a rug specially for show nights which I can easily wash after each use so I can be sure my horse stays as clean as possible.

Although these tips will help you to get your horse clean, there is no way of guaranteeing he will stay that way overnight! Horses seem to have an inbuilt desire to get stable stains only on their white parts and often only on the night before a show. Remember that you’re not alone in your struggle to get your horse clean and the way your horse behaves is much more important. Keep calm on the morning of a show, as a worked up rider will result in a badly behaved horse who will never win a class no matter how clean he is.

It’s been another interesting week surfing the web for horse-related items of interest.  You may have heard the term ‘Web 2.0‘ before, a term to describe not just the growing complexity of the technology available online, but the way it has become much more integrated into day-to-day life.  As this happens, we all benefit from the online resources that others have taken the time to create.

My thanks go to three people who have all done their bit for their fellow riders (and us) in recent weeks:

First, I’d like to nominate Dave Gibson for taking a picture of our Superstore and uploading it to Panoramio, which is then fed out as a layer into the Google Earth satellite photography mapping software.  These embedded ‘on-the-ground’ images within Google Earth are very useful, because even though the satellite imagery works very well as a sophisticated map, if you’re using it to find somewhere you’ve never been to, it’s so helpful to have a picture to use as a guide to help you know what you’re looking for.

In second place, I’d like to mention Alison Greenhalgh and her friends who started the Facebook group We LOVE Robinsons Country Leisure Superstore!  I hope she doesn’t mind that I joined the group and if you feel the same way as Alison and her friends, I encourage you to join it too!

My favourite example this week is an idea by RachelFerd from the Horse & Hound Forum for her Horse & Hound Online Collaboration, a Google Map which aims to show every type of horse-related resource on a single map.  Both graphical and practical, it has been developed enthusiastically by the fellow forumers on HHO, thanks to her thread on the subject.  You can imagine that once completed, you’d never need to be lost again!

It’s great to see the idea of collaboration really beginning to become part of our daily lives.  Who knows what ideas we’ll be taking advantage of in the near future?

Recently, I wrote a blog entry about the difficulty of knowing when to embrace the new ideas that have come from the growth of the web.

With so many people talking about ‘social networking sites’, I decided to spend a little time getting a little better acquainted with them.  Unfortunately, being the wrong side of 30, this was a revolution that had taken place outside of my normal world, so I had to take the plunge and create my own profile somewhere. 

After settling on facebook, I have to say I found the whole thing quite addictive and I can certainly see why the idea has caught on so strongly.  In no time at all, I seemed to find a number of friends on there, as well as people who I hadn’t heard from for years.  Overnight, it becomes possible to become re-connected to friends you’d almost forgotten you had.  You have to say, it’s a pretty powerful tool.

In the meantime, I’ve had all sorts of emails from companies who hold seminars on ‘Social Networking for Business’ and the like.  Inevitably, where there’s a social phenomenon, business is never far behind it and it raised once again a question we’d already debated here: should we create a Robinsons page? 

While this is supposed to be contrary to the non-commercial ethos of social netwoking sites, it’s not necessarily true to say that no companies should have a presence.  Of course, many companies of all sizes do have pages of one form or another.  As a customer myself, there are plenty of brands that I would be interested enough in to have a look at a page which represents them.

To my mind, it’s about how you do it, though.  If we were to just blunder in and start trying to just sell things on there, I don’t think it would work very well.  It has to offer something that makes you want to visit – and then visit again.  In the end, we decided upon ‘The Robinsons Online Riding Club’.  It’s a great way to allow interaction between visitors and it’s good for us to keep visitors up-to-date with what’s going on here.  If everybody gets something out of it, why shouldn’t it be a good idea?

So, follow the link, have a look and see what you think.  Of course, you’re very welcome to become a member, too.  After that, we’ll wait and see what happens next because your guess is as good as mine!

Following on from my previous blog about basic horse riding equipment, I have some more hints on extra gear that may prove helpful in your riding and help to reduce injury in the event of a fall. These aren’t essential items of riding gear but can help your comfort in the saddle. It’s always important to make sure your clothing and equipment fits correctly, otherwise they could prove inneffective or unsafe.

Half Chaps – what are they?

Half chaps or gaiters are basically a shaped piece of material, leather or suede, they fit around your lower leg and over your short boots. Wearing these can help to keep your lower leg more stable and help prevent it slipping against the saddle or horse’s side.

Half chaps usually have a reinforced, shaped panel designed to be worn on your inner calf. They often have an elasticated strip to allow a snug fit , this goes around the back of your leg and a full length zip fastens along your outer calf. Half chaps either made from suede or synthetic suede will help reduce the amount your legs slide against the saddle.

Gaiters are very similar in design to half chaps but tend to be made from leather and give a slightly more refined look. When worn with jodhpur boots they are similar in appearance to long riding boots.

Body Protectors – extra protection

It is well worth considering investing in a body protector, these will help to reduce injuries sustained from a fall, however no body protector can prevent serious injury in certain accidents. Although there are 3 levels of protection available I would always recommend that riders choose the highest standard – level 3. These give a level of protection that is considered appropriate for normal horse riding, competitions and for working with horses. Protectors to this level should:

1. Prevent minor bruising that would have produced stiffness and pain.
2. Reduce significant soft tissue injuries to the level of bruising.
3. Prevent a limited number of rib fractures.

You must always be very careful to check that a body protector fits correctly, the red parts of velcro always need to be completely covered, this ensures the fastenings are secure.

Gloves – not just for warmth

Gloves will help to protect your hands if a horse pulls against you. Rubber reins especially, in small hands can hurt the delicate skin around your fingers often resulting in painful rubs. Invest in some specially designed riding gloves which are reinforced where the rein sits in the hand. Lightweight gloves are available for summer, which allow your hands to stay cool but still protect them from the reins.

Training Reins – for even rein contact

It can be very difficult to make sure your reins are the same length whilst riding. Multi coloured training reins have different coloured sections of rubber along their length, these make it much easier, especially for small children to see where they are holding each rein.

Riding Jackets – more comfort in the saddle

Although it will hopefully soon be warm enough to ride without a coat, there are often times in summer when you need an extra layer. As soon as you try to ride in an everyday coat you will find that they can cause some major problems when you are on a horse. A normal loose cuff can slide over your hands making it difficult to have full control of the reins. Any coat or zip more than waist length will immediately cause excess bulk around the saddle area. Hoods are potentially dangerous especially on a nervous horse if they flap suddenly.

Specifically designed riding jackets allow for all of these issues. A two way zip will let you keep your jacket fastened just to the required height, Adjustable velcro or elastic cuffs keep your sleeves comfortably around the bottom of your wrist. Hoods if present at all can be secured away in your collar. Longer length riding jackets have vents in the lower portion letting you undo them whilst riding which allows your coat to fall comfortably over the saddle.

Safety Stirrups – extra safety

Whilst still learning to maintain their balance in the saddle, many novice riders struggle to keep their feet in a secure position in the stirrup. It’s often tempting to push your foot as far in as possible in an effort to keep it in the stirrup, you may well then feel that there’s one less thing to have to concentrate on. As soon as you do this though why does your Instructor start shouting at you to move them onto the ball of your foot again, is it just so you look pretty? The answer is simple, it is extremely dangerous. If you were to fall off with your foot in this position, you can easily trap your foot in the stirrup and then potentially be dragged along the floor by your horse. Although saddles do have safety features built in to release your stirrup these don’t always function immediately possibly resulting in serious injury. Take heed of what you’re told and constantly work to keep your stirrups in the correct position.

There are specially designed stirrups which can help to ensure your foot is released as quickly as possible in an emergency. Children can ride with peacock safety irons, these have one metal side of the stirrup replaced by an elastic and leather strap secured on a hook, this releases when pressure is applied from the foot in the event of a fall. This type of stirrup is not suitable for adults though as the stirrup iron itself is not quite as strong because of its design; the metal can bend under the weight of an adult rider overstretching the elastic and making it more difficult to release when necessary. Adults should instead choose a bent leg iron, this is an all metal stirrup iron with a bend in one of the legs, this ensures your foot doesn’t become trapped in a fall.

Both of these stirrups need to be fitted so the safety feature is on the outside of the foot.

Any stirrup should always have 1/4″ clearance on each side of the foot to ensure the correct fit.

Make sure you always check all your riding equipment on a regular basis to ensure there is no excessive wear or damage that could make it unsafe to use. Although safety equipment can help to reduce injury, qualified instruction is the most effective way to reduce accidents and falls. Riding in the correct position with thorough control of your horse at all times will avoid injury to yourself or your horse.