One Chill Horse

Buying for someone who only ever wants buckets, brushes and grain can be very rough, but here are some fun ideas to check out!! 1. Personalized bracelet (or anything) with their horse's name on it https://www.statelinetack.com/item/padded-leather-id-bracelet/E020684/ 2. New halter and lead rope (everyone likes matching sets and personalized is also always fun!) Weaver and Kensington are both brand that have lots of great color options  SateLine Tack has some great personalized options Examples: https://www.amazon.com/Weaver-Leather-Original-Adjustable-Halter/dp/B004GDDI24/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=weaver+halter&qid=1574358560&sr=8-2 https://www.amazon.com/Kensington-Breakaway-Halter-Padded-X-Large/dp/B0072FJEM6/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=kensington+halter&qid=1574358669&sr=8-7 https://www.statelinetack.com/item/triple-e-personalized-breakaway-nylon-halter/E001142/ 3. Gift cards to favorite tack shops/feed shops/online sho...

Ok the title might be a little dramatic, but seriously I have crammed way more knowledge into my tiny brain over the last few weeks than I ever planned! Saddle pads are complicated business! And I was just focused on Western ones!! Sorry, English riders, I got zilch info for you this time. As is the general standard I try to write by, I am going to keep this simple. Here we go!! Saddle pads are obviously a crucial part of tack, for those that don't know the pad is what goes under the saddle. Seems just like a big squishy square you just throw up there, so shouldn't matter much what you use, right? Nope! Sorry :) Now as with all things horse, it's all about what works for you and if you are ok with just any old pad, then sure, grab and go. However, if you're curious as to how they are meant to function and what technical aspects make one better than another, then let's dig in! When choosing a pad you need to consider: 1. Length/Width 2. Thickness 3. Shape ...

Understanding the horse person can be very challenging. We do lots of weird things. 1. We hug our horses, for no apparent reason 2. We drive half an hour in the rain, sloshing in the mud to just stand next to our horse while they eat grain 3. We get up super early on our day off to spend 4 hours at the barn, to ride for 45 minutes 4. We will stay in the saddle long past the point of having any feeling in our toes 5. We will willing stain/rip/destroy any piece of clothing as long as it meant we got to spend time with our horse 6. We will gladly spend all our holiday money on grain and supplements 7. Our wishlists are full of tack we probably don't need, but we sure do want to try out 8. Our goals and resolutions are full of horse things like get the left lead learn to smoothly change directions on the lunge line figure out how to wear stirrups without tripping master the no stirrup post 9. We text our stable friends just to say we saw thei...

So there are simply some things in life we take for granted. For instance, how to make a horse stop and go - I took this as common knowledge - it's not. So here are the basics for those that need to know. Of course it gets more complicated than this, because um horses, duh! To go forward , make soft encouraging clucking noise and squeeze with your legs, if that doesn't work press with your heels, if that doesn't work, kick the horse in the sides. I know kicking sounds terribly horrible, but it's similar to when you are holding a toddler and they are swinging their legs at you - mostly it's just annoying, right? Same thing here, but you, the rider, are the toddler. To go left , move your hand holding the reins to the left. If your horse can do one handed commands then it's as simple as moving just the one hand, if you do two handed reining then you move just the left hand (both hands move in reality, but focus on the left one, the rest will follow). You sh...