Great Value Winter Turnout Rugs from The Saddlery Shop

Winter is nearly here, for better or worse, but don't your horse get the winter blues and make sure they keep warm and safe with a winter turnout rug.

The Saddlery Shop are here to help with a great range of quality winter horse rugs and are taking delivery of new winter rugs all the time. Add on to that the fact that The Saddlery Shop offer turnout rugs at the lowest possible prices and it's really looking cosy for your horse after all.

The Saddlery Shop's current star pick comes from Masta, who in usual style have done it again with the brilliant Zing range of low priced and high quality winter turnout rugs.

A personal favourite, and a bargain to boot, is the Zing high neck turnout rug which is a bargain at only £58.99!

Grab a Bargain on a Wintec Isabell Saddle

The Saddlery Shop have just dropped prices again on the very popular Wintec saddle range. Wintec provide some of the best quality saddles in the business and The Saddelry Shop have a great selection of saddles from wintec in stock.

A few examples include is the Wintec Isabell Saddle in both flocked and cair panel styles. Both of these are beautiful and high quality dressage saddles designed in conjunction with world dressage champion Isabell Werth; these Wintec Isabell saddles can be snapped at some of the lowest prices on the internet from The Saddlery Shop!

Don't miss out on a bargain priced Wintec saddle while they are available!

New Sizes Coming for the EasyBoot Glove

The Saddlery Shop is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new sizes in the revolutionary EasyBoot Glove!

The EasyBoot Glove range of hoof boots will soon be available in size 3.5 and 4 which will allow larger hooved equines to use the latest in booting technology too!

As great avocates of barefoot hoorse riding we are pretty excitied about this as it opens barefoot riding up to even more riders.

Summer Horse Rugs Now on Sale!

The Saddlery Shop have a fantastic horse rug sale on now!

Why not pop by and see the fantastic range of horse rugs including fly protection rugs and sun protection rugs as well as lightweight turnout rugs and much, much more.

The saddlery Shop beleive in quality for your horse and the rug selection offere comes from top branded and trused equestrian names such as Masta, WeatherBeeta, Mark Todd, Saxon and many more.

Riding gloves

Gloves for horse riding are often an over looked piece of riding kit, but in my opinion quite a vital one!! The obvious riding clothing is the riding hat, jodhpurs and riding boots, but for often only a little extra cost, a pair of appropriate riding gloves ride and one you would rather forget.

Gloves that are made for riding differ slightly from conventional gloves, the basics being a good grip on the palm to allow the rider to keep hold of the reins. There is nothing more scary than losing control of a horse because the reins slipping through your bare hands! Good quality riding gloves like the Roeckle Ulla glove will be thin enough to give feel, but tough enough not to wear quickly even when using rubber grip reins. They will be reinforced between the little finger and ring finger (to help the glove resist wear where the reins are held) across the palm and sometimes around the edge of the palm by the thumb too. They need a stretchy comfortable back and good fastening to prevent rubbing and twisting whilst in use. Again, as with everything investment in a good quality pair of riding gloves will mean comfort and years of good service from your horse riding gloves.

Gloves enhance the grip, which is essential on reins made from plain leather. On reins that have good grip such as rubber grip reins or continental web reins, the gloves serve to protect the riders hands from the reins which can easily cause rubs and blisters due to their abrasive nature.

Lastly, riding gloves can also serve the simple purpose of keeping the riders hands warm, this is especially important with young children who quickly loose the feeling in icy little fingers which is very painful for them! Cold, numb fingers are also very difficult to use effectively, and efficient and safe riding is greatly hindered by frosty fingers (and not very pleasant either)!

More Horse Toys

There are a number of horse toys available for horses to play with in the stable and field, and some of these can be especially useful if your horse has to be confined for long periods for reasons of illness or injury, such as a tendon strain or laminitis.

The most ideal toy is the Snak-a-Ball, which is a hard plastic ball designed to be used with pony nuts of similar, and encourages the natural foraging behaviour of your horse. You may have even seen some slightly more unusual animals using them in zoos as they are very tough and very useful for other animals such as zebras, monkeys, anteaters and other more exotic species to use! The pony nuts are put in at one end and the stable toy has to be rolled and manipulated by the horse in order to get them to drop out of the other end. This is an ideal way to encourage trickle feeding and prevent bolting of the food which can lead to choking, which can be a problem especially with greedy ponies.

Other useful toys include the tongue twister, a sturdy plastic ball that swivels and is attached to a wall and can be filled with 2 little Likits (Likits are described in a previous post). When the horse tries to bite the treat, the ball swivells away and the horse has to work to get hold of the tasty reward. Stable toys for horses help to enrich the equine environment and ensure the horse remains mentally relaxed which also aids a quick recovery.

Keeping your Horse Entertained with Stable Toys

There are a number of stable toys for horses on the market, but as well as being fun for your horse to play with, they also provide some important enrichment to your horses environment. It is often unavoidable to have to confine our horses for a number of reasons such as stabling at night during the winter, but this is essentially a very unnatural and sometimes unnerving position for a prey animal such as a horse to be in, so it often helps to provide some form of entertainment for them to distract them and make them feel at ease.

The most popular stable toy is probably the Boredom Breaker, a simple but effective toy consisting of a smooth plastic ball suspended from a rope with a pair of plastic plates designed to take a "Likit", a hard, sweet tasting horse treat available in a number of flavours.

Little likits can be inserted either side of the ball itself which provides further amusement, as the horse wants to bite the treats but has to work hard to get even a few licks. This helps to pass the time, and most horses enjoy the challenge of trying to seize the tasty reward, but make sure you place the toy away from a wall or most horses are clever enough to quickly learn they can trap the toy against the wall and get a good bite of the treat!

These stable toys can also be useful for horses that weave or kick the door. In this case it is usually ideal to place the toy in the doorway so that the horse encounters it when he looks out of the door which will often then distract him from the intention to perform a vice.

Types of Metal Used in Horse Bits

Many hundreds of years ago, horse bits were made from metal alloys which often included nickel or copper. Over the years, stainless steel was discovered and bit production was moved over to this much cheaper and stronger material which seemed to offer the ideal solution.

Nickel is know not to be the ideal material to have in bits as it can be prone to snapping without warning, and causes allergies in some horses in the form of small pimples around the lips and mouth.

Copper however, although soft can be very useful when mixed with other metals to give a much more palatable taste.

Stainless steel is very strong and can be formed into almost any conceivable shape, but to a horse is essentially a very ‘dead’ metal. There is no taste to it and is very difficult to mark which indicates its hardness. This tends to have the effect of drying the horse’s mouth and often causes a tense or rigid jaw in response to the very inert metal in their mouths. If you were to put a stainless steel fork in your own mouth and suck on it for a few minutes, you will see how it is very difficult to keep the saliva flowing when there is no taste stimulus.

Copper and sweet iron are commonly seen in horse bit production today, and with the modern thinking, there is good reason to think that almost every horse would prefer to be bitted in a bit made from one of these metals that is able to oxidise and has a ‘taste’. It is also said that these metals when used in conjunction with each other produce a minute (and harmless!) electrical charge that also helps to stimulate saliva production in the horse mouth, which helps to prevent cracked or split lips and a sore or hard mouth.

Modern bits such as Sprenger and Myler utilise these metals in their bit designs, and with the anatomical design of the mouthpieces tend to offer the horse the most pleasant bitting experience possible.

Neck covers for horse rugs: When to use them

Neck rugs are a fairly recent addition to the modern ranges of horse rugs, and most horses will have neck covers for at least one turnout rug if not more. The better made neck rugs such as those by Weatherbeeta or masta will be cut generously to allow total freedom of movement for your horse, and also have features such as anti rub linings to prevent manes from being damaged and stiffening strips to prevent the neck cover from falling down in use.

Neck covers are suitable for almost every horse to wear and are particularly ideal for horses with fully clipped necks. A large proportion of a horse's heat can be lost through his neck on a cold day, and by having a rug with a neck cover on it such as the Weatherbeeta Tri-Star you will help to avoid a cold horse. Horse that have cold necks also tend to grow the hair back faster on their necks than the rest of their bodies which leads to more frequent clipping. The best neck covers zip onto the rug and are usually supplied with it, for example on the Orican turnout which keeps the warmth in, and the rain out. They feature a gap over the withers to help prevent pressure and are easily removed when not required.

Separate neck covers are available for some turnout rugs and stable rugs and they usually have a fairly universal fixing consisting of 3 points of attachment, one either side and one at the top and so are compatible with most rugs that have 3d shaped rings near the neck of the horse rug. It is always best from a fitting as well as an aesthetic point of view to choose a neck cover made for the rug you are using on your horse, as this will ensure the product will perform to its maximum for years to come.

How to check if a horse rug fits correctly

The fit of your horses stable or turnout rug is very important not only to his comfort, but to the longevity of the horse rug itself. A well fitting rug does not have to endure unnecessary strain on the material or stitching that can lead to leaking or early failure of the seams, and obviously from the horses point of view a badly fitting rug can be uncomfortable or even painful if left to rub for long periods.

Ideally, the rug will be lined with a smooth material such a breathable nylon which glides easily over the horses coat and helps to prevent the rug from being caught over the horses wither and causing strain. Many modern horse rugs from equine rug manufacturers such as Weatherbeeta , Masta and Mark Todd use this type of material in their turnout rugs to improve the perfomance of them which is why it always pays longterm to buy the best rug you can possibly afford, such as the very popular Weatherbeeta Taka , or Masta Check-Teck turnout .

When the rug is put on the horse, it should be placed slightly further forward than necessary and the front done up before being slid backwards into position. The surcingles should then be tightened to allow a hands width between belly and strap. There should easily be a comfortable hands width between the chest of the horse and the front of the rug, and the top of the rug should be sitting well in advance of the withers so there is no chance of it pulling back and behind.

When the horse is in motion or grazing, the rug should finish just at the top of the dock, and the rug should not look as if it is straining on the horse at any point, but moving over the top of his coat. Sometimes even with a correctly fitting rug (especially when in moult) horses can start to get bald patches on their chest or shoulders, and shoulder guards or anti-rub vests are very useful to use under the rug to help alleviate this problem.

How to measure your horse for a rug?

Modern horse rugs tend to be fairly similarly sized between makes, and excepting the very cheap imported rugs (which tend to compound the issue by being badly cut) most horse rugs are fairly easy to measure for.

Rugs are measured along the bottom seam, so to find the ideal size stable rug the easiest way is to use a piece of string or bailing twine to measure from the centre of the horses chest (roughly where you can feel the horse breastbone) horizontally around his shoulder, along his side and just past the last point of his rump. You can then measure this on a tape measure, ideally in inches to give you the size. Horse rugs are measured every 3”, and if your horse is between sizes, for example 6’2” it is usually best to go up to the next size which would be 6’3” in this example. Stable rugs without a neck are best bought at the measured size, as are cooler rugs, sweat rugs and fly rugs without necks.

Most Turnout rugs and any horse rug including stable rugs with integrated neck covers are best bought one size larger to allow greater freedom of movement for your horse. Although sizes tend to run true amongst the different popular makes of turnout and stable rugs, the cut is sometimes slightly different and can suit different shapes and sizes of equines.

Mark Todd turnout and stable rugs have highly adjustable fronts and large shoulder gussets, and are especially deep which makes them generally a good choice of rug for any large chested or hunter type horse. The Weatherbeeta rugs have a good range of fitting, and will fit most middleweight horses as well as finer types such as Arabs and Thoroughbreds. Masta rugs are a very adjustable and deep fitting rug, and fit middleweight to larger horses best, but can adjust down to fit finer horses nicely too if required.

Welcome to The Saddlery Shop’s first official blog!

Most of the blogging will be done myself, Lucy Nicholas - one of the directors of The Saddlery Shop and I hope to be able to cover a wide range of horsey subjects covering everything from booting barefoot horses and bitting to how to choose a winter rug. Look out in the horsey press too, as you can often see my ‘two pence’ worth in the equestrian press such as Horse and Rider or Horse and Hound.

With winter approaching, horse rugs seems to be a good place to start, and many horse owners with be dusting off their rugs and sorting out which turnout rugs are suitable for the inclement weather that no doubt is just around the corner! Horses, like humans, ideally need a wardrobe of horse rugs to cover every eventuality, and having the right rugs will help any horse owner to sleep more peacefully knowing their horse is snug and warm in a good rug. Our horse rug department has an extensive range of rugs from leading manufacturers such as Masta and Weatherbeeta and prices all below RRP. We stock 1000’s of horse rugs so you know you will get the rugs you need when your horse needs them most, as we dispatch them from our warehouse and are not reliant on our wholesalers stock like a lot of companies.

It is possible to cover all eventualities, without having quite as many clothes as the average horsey female (which most horsey partners will be very glad to know!) by using rugs to layer up and do more than one job. To ensure your horse has a rug for all seasons, the following is a suggested list:

• 1 Lightweight turnout (no fill or 100g max)
• 1 Mediumweight turnout (approx 200g-250g)
• 1 Heavyweight turnout with optional neck cover (approx 300g +)
• 1 Mediumweight stable rug
• 1 Heavyweight stable rug (with optional neck cover if draughty)
• 1 Fleece or similar cooler
• 1 Under rug

It is always advisable to have spare rugs in case one gets damaged or soaked through unexpectedly, so it is always wise to look out for a second hand bargain to keep for an emergency too if possible. This combination will allow you to cover all weather and temperatures with the use of layering if necessary, travelling and cooling your horse down and keeping him warm after exercise at any time of year.