Horsey stuff around the house

What horsey stuff have you repurposed for household use? I just got a delicious used wool half-pad from eBay, but because La Mare disapproved, it’s now a seat warmer in the study. The kitties nap on old fleece saddle pads, and one has declined to vacate a fleece cooler that came home for laundering. I’m using Absorbine on my hurty joints.

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I’ve got a bottle of Thermaflex in the bathroom cabinet for this purpose. I used to steal my horse’s Surpass until diclofenac gel became available over the counter. I have a little knee bursitis I’m babying and that stuff is my favorite.

Used to keep prize coolers on the bed and couch, until my dog made one of her rare mistakes about which textiles are her toys. Fortunately the one she ate was fleece, not a good wool one.

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My Home Horse with my ancient PDN Wide Front saddle graces my living room.

I LOVE looking at that saddle!

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It was a great saddle. I miss the pancake era in saddlery.

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The cats have a very nice Rambo polypad as a bed under the dining room table. I didn’t plan this to be the case, but they commandeered it.

I prefer Sore no More for my achey bits. I choose to ignore the label that says “for animal use only.”

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We’re animals too! That’s the excuse I use as I slather it on.

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I injured my leg badly, and was supposed to wear a compression stocking on it for about six months. The stocking aggravated my cellulitis, so I switched to using vetwrap from the ball of my foot to my knee. This meant my husband had to wrap it for me every morning, before I got out of bed. I priced the human version, thought it was too high, and just stole vetwrap out of my horse supplies for the first, experimental wrap. It worked great, so that’s what I used for all those months. Plus I could have fun with the various colors.

Rebecca

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I have collected several “Navaho” style western saddle blankets, both the square and double length. The long ones are across the loveseat backs for the cats and as rug runners in the upstairs hallway. Cats really love wool under their paws! The squares are at the doorways to the backroom, stopping dirt. They are really good dirt and water collectors. Sometimes turns into a dog rug if the big dog steals it to lay on back there. You can’t buy such nice rugs new for that money!

I get them at tack sales, usually quite cheap at $5-10. I check for wear, no broken strings, and they are usually filthy. Most are real wool, patterns may be “out of style” so folks want them gone. I wash them at the laundromat, big machine gets them pretty clean and bright again, hang to dry. None have turned to felt yet! Too heavy when wet and not enough room to spin about in my home top-loading washer. I usually put 3-4 of the 30x30 or 36x36 squares in one big load with good results.

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Oh, I use my horse’s therapy stuff instead of buying anything for myself. Lately I’ve been wearing the :mask: concurrent device around, and sometimes I bring the Equilibrium back pad home and lay on it when I’m sore.

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As front porch decor, bits and such we’ve found in souks and marchés throughout our travels. Snaffle bit curtain tie-backs.

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Ohh! Your hanging bits reminded me that I also have hanging bits and plates! Mine are inside, hung on the laminated beams across the living room ceiling. Short ceilings, 8ft, allow bits and decorative horse and carriage plates to be visible for anyone looking at them. There are a couple pairs of western, fancy Garcia spurs and a pair of Cavalry spurs up there too.

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I used older , thicker western saddle pads as dog beds.

After gracing the back of a chair for almost 20yrs, I had late DH’s close contact saddle made into a purse & wallet:

On a tip from a COTHer, I used Calyse in NH.
I also sent her 2 old bridles.
She used the saddle plate* on the purse, my TB’s browband as the handle & his laced reins as the crossbody strap. His favorite bit is part of that strap, but OMG! it’s heavy!
DH’s nameplate from the saddle is on the wallet.

*For you Old-timers, saddle was a 20th Century SI JAYNE model, bought from local BNT John DeBeir (he rode in the MacClays at 15yo).

:thinking: I have a “vintage” (1990-something) wool Navajo I should bring in from the barn - where it sits on a footlocker, gathering bird poop - to use somewhere.

I’ve used ichthammol & liniment on myself.
When orthopod prescribed diclofenac, I told him we’d been using it on horses for decades :laughing:
Sadly, for me, voltaren - gel or pill - did little for my knees :expressionless:

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I have been known to take an Equioxx tablet from time to time when we are out of human NSAID’s.

And I used my horse thermometer for myself during the pandemic before a new people thermometer arrived from Amazon.

And before I had a tack room for myself, each of the 8 chairs around the table in our dining room had a saddle hanging on its back. The end chairs with arms were pretty stable, but the side chairs would tip over backwards if I tried hanging a bridle there too.

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