All the Creatures

I just got back from my local hardware/farm supply and horse tack store. The place is huge, bigger than our local Home Depot. I usually like to take a look around the horse section even if I am there for something other than animal related shopping. They normally have 30-40 top name brands of saddles at any one time. The saddle section use to be so packed with saddles that I would have needed a slimming pill just to squeeze down the aisle. I use to love to dream about owning one of those $4K western show saddles with all the silver, but I just wouldn’t use it that much for shows anymore. This visit was different….very different. The area where the saddles were normally kept had dog treat and small livestock feed and treats. They had moved what saddles they had to a far corner. I could only see 12 saddles total in the entire store.

At the checkout stand I asked what happened to all the saddles. I was told that they were making drastic cutbacks to selling saddles and they would not be getting many in anymore. The local demand for horse related equipment has plummeted. More people than every before are getting rid of their horses.

That news, of a still falling horse market does not sound as if retail stores have a good outlook for the holiday season ahead. I hope your area is doing better economically than mine.

All the Creatures

The one thing I have learned as a horse owner and trainer is that you can never start too early training young horses. Sure, almost everyone knows that you train a foal to wear a halter and lead them around. In fact most experienced breeders will have the foal use to having it’s feet picked up and have had their feet trimmed at 6 weeks old.

I have found another very useful training tool for foal and weanlings, the horse blanket.

Foal wearing Techno fleece blanket

By putting a blanket on a foal or weanling horse you would not only keep them warm and clean, you will also teach them not to spook at items rubbing against their bodies. The sight feel of fabric moving around them will help desensitize them for saddle training later on. Use the blanket as a training tool. I don’t want to hear you say “my young horses don’t need blankets”, but instead “blankets will help de-spook my horses, so I use them”

You don’t even have to leave the blanket on for more than a few hours a day it you don’t want to. In fact it would help with their training if they got use to having the blanket taking off and put on again everyday. I also like to take the blanket off over their heads so they get use to having something block their vision once and awhile. It also gets them use to having something brush around their ears and head, making them less head shy.

So will you be using a horse blanket as a training tool from now on?

All the Creatures

If you have not noticed, I would like to direct your attention to the tab at the top of the page. The one that says “the pet store” was just added a few days ago. I have been busy adding items to the store. Right now I have been featuring the large selection of doggy Halloween costumes. I will be adding a whole section on dog grooming supplies with everything from walk in tubs, shampoos to clippers. I have been noticing an increase of searches for reptile and bird items so I will be added them too. I’ll be also adding a section of ferret supplies. If you know of anything that you can’t find online and know the brand name or a description of the item just leave a comment and I’ll try and track it down.