After years and years and years……I’m stumped trying to think of a Christmas gift for my young adult boarders. Board discount, treat baskets, halter nameplates are some of the ones we’ve done. Need some new ideas.
I’d redo the board discount.
These days almost everyone can use a break.
Include a small edible treat if you want, but I’d be happy to be a bit ahead on expenses.
Board discount I’m sure would always be welcome.
One year our BM got nice personalized blanket tags for us for Christmas that had our horse’s names and the blanket weight on them, that was a gift for us and her and a big hit.
Who doesn’t love a beautiful picture of their horse, them with their horse etc? Drop it in a frame with a border and voila! It’s a gift that lasts forever (me sitting in my office at work with two 8x10 pics within eyeshot of two of my fur ponies) and treasured for a lifetime.
Get them a Posture Prep for their horses, and order a human one for your boarders too.
They, both the horse and your boarders, will give you many blessings for the pain relief the Posture Prep can bring.
This can be a surprisingly affordable gift. Last week I was at Savers, which is a thrift store. I picked up seven different 4x6 frames for $12. Then I went to CVS, and used their Kodiak Kiosk to print out photos. At $0.32 a print, it brought each gift to a little over $2.00 a person.
I admit that some of them were for myself. I have a little house project - I want to decorate one wall with family photos… of my cats.
Over my 30-plus years as a boarder the gifts that have stood the test of time for me are things with farm logos - shirts, caps, coffee mugs, jackets and such . I still use mugs from the 1980’s and am sad when one is broken. A pair or set is a nice touch so that the boarder can share coffee or tea with a friend in matching cups.
What a great idea! Can you share the wall of your kitties? We’d love to see it when you’re done. That reminds me I do have some great shots of our kittens and should frame and hang. Funny how we get all these photos on our phones and they stay there unless we print them out and get on wall. How about a canvas idea too!
Look what I caputured of our little Dora. She deserves to get on a wall to!
That is a frame-worthy picture of Dora - that exquisite Cat-Loafing in the sun pose!!
My wall is a WIP. What is holding me back is my pickiness for frames. I want to do vintage style frames for added ridiculousness - I mean, what normal person has a wall dedicated to cats? I’m leaning completely into the Cat Lady Spinster lifestyle here.
Here is the first one I mounted - more incoming:
Get those photos framed! They don’t do you much good wasting away in a phone album.
OMG what a shot! And what a cool frame! We want to see the whole wall! I’m thinking a new thread (sorry for the hijack!) of our walls devoted to our dear and beloved critters!
Just getting phone photos printed makes a great gift. We all have soooo many images in our phones. Last time I went to stay with my brother I noticed the prints I sent of a previous visit were all up on the fridge door.
Personally, if I was boarding a horse( s) a board discount would never get old…
If I were a junior boarder whose parent is footing the board bill, a discount would not likely mean much to me as a gift unless Mon or Dad let me spend the discount money on something I wanted
Well then, the Checkbook gets the discount, the horsekid gets the cookies
I have NEVER heard of someone doing this and I personally would LOVE IT.
I like this idea too. I have ordered from this Etsy shop with great results:
I forgot my horse is the model in this listing:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1167911433/navy-horse-blanket-name-tag-clip-on?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=horse+blanket+tags&ref=sr_gallery-1-5&bes=1&edd=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1
Me, too. Those are my favorite gifts and the things I keep on wearing/using over time.
This is a great option for blanket tags: https://equi-prism.com/blanket-tags/
I second the idea of farm logo mugs, etc. Try epromos.com
One year our farm owner got us all sample sizes of a nice mane/tail product that we may not have tried normally.
Or maybe (depending on budget) a Road ID or Ride Safe bracelet?
Thank you all for the great suggestions. We are going to give a combination of your ideas. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
At my barn:
Last year each horse got a wood-backed brush with its name carved in.
This year she hired a photographer to come out and do mini-photo shoots. I think we’ll each get one photo gratis, and can order more if we want.