Oh, yeah! I don’t know how I forgot that with all the cow talk. It’s phenomenal for really tough/severe cases. I love how the syringe can get into tiny places.
5 Likes
I didnt read all the cow posts because im sure they would upset me.
Anyway, here are non horse items i use:
Baby shampoo. I figure if its gentle enough for baby eyes its gentle enough for horse skin. Gets them plenty clean without ingredients to dry them out.
Microfiber towels - for everything
Garnier Nutrisse leave in conditioner. Never understood conditioners that you wash out.
Attachment for our shop vac to vacuum dusty horses in winter. Saves me loads of time.
My absolute fav item is the Wet brand hair brush with cones. Stumbled on it one day at Target and this thing may as well be gold! My horses have gorgeous hair so i dont mess with it much which of course leads to dry, dusty and tangled. Unless they are showing i leave them alone. I brush my TBs tail weekly for lessons so he looks good lol anyway, i use a bit of detangler and this brush and its very seldom that any hair breaks! The magic is in the cone shape rather than regular bristles. I love this brush!
4 Likes
I use Suave hair products on my horses.
Always have Desitin around
Walgreens Triple Antibiotic tubes
Walgreens Cortisone cream tubes
Zyrtec (generic version) for summer itchies or bug reactions
Car wash mittens
Roux White Minx for the tail
small coffee grinder for meds
3 Likes
I use the Shimmer Lights purple shampoo (or the generic version, depending on what is cheaper) from Sally’s for my grey and for my bay’s white socks. It’s cheap and works well. I also use a generic yellow-out conditioner- I used to be able to get Bantu, which was great, but it’s a bit harder to find. So, now I just grab whatever I can find that is cheap for my grey’s tail.
5 Likes
Are they beef cattle or dairy cattle or both?
Hi, braider here, please don’t do this without talking to your braider first! The dematting rake has the tendency to break off hairs right over top of the crest line, which is quite difficult to braid, especially if the rake is used with enthusiasm, especially if used on a cresty animal like a thick-maned pony.
I do use it to keep my own horse’s Shetland-esque mane under control, but a) he’s retired and b) if I lose my mind next weekend and braid his mane for a Halloween costume, I have only myself to blame. 
I’ll add dryer sheets- for staticky beasts in the winter. Swipe over their body or touch to your hand before you touch their muzzles.
6 Likes
A 25 year veteran of AQHA shows used Suave shampoo and conditioner on the horses because it was inexpensive. They have so many sponsors now I doubt she uses it anymore but “back in the day” the various Super Horses of theirs were bathed in it. 
6 Likes
I’m my own braider and it works for me! I always flip the mane over and rake the underside to avoid such issues but even if I don’t it really thins beautifully 
2 Likes
I use cornstarch when my ever so delicate princess OTTB mare gets rainrot on her back at the slightest drop of moisture, its also really handy when I need to speed up drying her sweat out after a ride and need to reblanket her. Sure she looks a bit dusty, but who cares?
Desitin for pink nose sunblock. Hemroid cream for proud flesh. I second old fashion cloth diapers for tack cleaning - nothing polishes boots better than that. Men’s hair wax for tidying up stray hairs in braids, Strawberry sauve conditioner on her tail, Head and shoulders medicated shampoo on her tail (we have tail skin issues though, always have) and when she gets cannon keratosis. Baby diapers for abscesses.
Those dishwashing wands that have the soap in the handle are great for scrubbing fetlocks, particularly on naughty ponies who don’t want a bath at 5am. Had a IR pony we leased who had a VERY greasy coat and we used Dawn dish soap before shows - because a greasy white/light grey pony who loves to roll, plus a 5 year old who can only help so much is a NIGHTMARE. White vinegar for turning the ends of yellow tails white.
I second using the shop vac as a horse vacuum. Stole my SO’s massage gun for the horse. Also stole his hair clippers when the horse clippers busted.
My horse LOVES red gatorade powder mix added to her water as a special treat. She is also a very picky eater but will do anything for pepermint, so I buy the pre-crushed peppermint in the baking aisle to sprinkle on her food when we are having a toddler like food tantrum. Our horses also love fig newtons.
I was pretty broke in my 20s so I had to learn to be crafty and thrifty! I am sure I will think of more I have forgotten.
6 Likes
Can you please show me some links? I have been dying to find something like this and what I see on the horse show market is way out of my budget!
2 Likes
For me, the best polisher of boots (and even my shoes) is an old pair of panty hose. After the polish has been worked in and brushed, holding the hose at either end and then stropping it back and forth creates an almost patent leather like shine. Or it will if the underlying leather is smooth.
10 Likes
I use baby powder for this- more expensive but I like the aloe. Scrub legs with chlorhexidine, towel dry, fluff hair backwards, liberally poof with baby powder, and eventually brush it off when dry. Also, horse smells nice.
4 Likes
Funny, I have a mini bottle of baby powder in my show box for white sock touch ups. Great minds!
4 Likes
Large water jug (Aqua-tainer Aqua Pak) to decant oil into (because ALL oil containers are uniformly terrible) and a batter dispenser for measuring. Life changing, I swear. I’ve been feeding large amounts of oil for over 20 years and this is by far the absolute best system I’ve come up with to prevent pouring accidents and keep everything tidy. Keep the batter dispenser in a shallow container with paper towel at the bottom and you don’t even get an oily ring on the counter.
2 Likes
I bought a set of inexpensive leak-proof gallon jug pumps from Wal-Mart, and they are indeed totally drip-free. I think their original purpose is as food service catsup dispensers and the like, so the amount dispensed in one pump is relatively small.
At first, I thought that would be annoying, but it’s actually a small price to pay for absolutely nothing oily on the counter. I simply did a test (repeated a few times for accuracy) to determine the number of pumps that make an ounce of the oil I’ve been feeding. And I’m finding it easy to taper down the dose as necessary.
Doesn’t attract flies, either.
7 Likes
I had a pump I bought at an automotive shop for a while, but it was unreliable in terms of amount dispensed even though I took great care setting it up. When it started to leak, I weighed the annoyance of having to pump X times per serving and chucked it for the giant jug and batter dispenser. I WISH the pump had worked better for longer. Oh well.
I use Nu-Salt and mint Tums in my endurance electrolyte protocol often
Car wash sponges seem to hold up much longer
I use mueller athletic tape all the time for about a billion different things-
1 Like
Desitin (soothing, antifungal, and sunblock), neosporin, Zyrtec, Benadryl, bath poufs for a good scrubby bath (D forgot hers last show and the tack shop wanted $12 for a sponge, oy).
Microfiber car cloths and white cotton washcloths from Costco.
Does duct tape count? LOL
I picked up Rubber Mask Grease Paint (RMG) for touching up the funky bald or pink spots on a horse at a horse show. RMG is a staple of special effects make-up. You can mix colors and it doesn’t come off until you take it off.
The were-wolf wheel has all of the colors you need to match almost any color horse.
Pledge, or whatever the dollar store equivalent, is great for everything - boots, tack, cart. Someone probably has sprayed a horse with it too.
I had a 3 oz bottle with a paint brush in the top that I used for Koppertox. It kept the mess down a little bit.
I use old panty hose to put tails up. Sometimes I put the hair in the leg before I braid, sometimes just braid it in. I was thinking about knee-hi’s for the doing the super-thick pony mane.
1 Like
I don’t know how much of a unique thing this is, but I get those five gallon buckets from the big hardware stores with the snap on lids and use them for water buckets in my trailer. So much easier than the big water jugs with the handle and spout, and as long as you have them fairly secure they aren’t going to leak or tip over. Plus, when they are empty and dry they stack nicely in my +1, which suits my organizing soul.
4 Likes
