TIP JAR

Give us your "Tips" on anything related to horses, tack, trailer care/pulling, camping--you get the picture!

Okay--said my next tip would be cookies.
Anybody have a recipe that doesn't use sweet stuff like molasses??

BON BONS FOR YOUR EQUINE PAL:

Our horses just love these. I've given them as gifts to horsey friends and I've had nothing but good responses:

Preheat over to 300 degrees.

One 12 oz. bottle molasses
One 23 oz. jar applesauce
One cup rice bran cereal (or whatever you want to get rid of) and/or corn oil
6 cups old fashioned oats
3 cups whole wheat flour

Mix all ingredients together. More flour or oats can be added if dough is too wet or sticky to handle . Roll into small meatball sizes -(tip is to wet your hands when rolling)--kind of like a full tablespoon or two per treat. Place on ungreased cookie sheet (they won't melt down like a cookie, so you can place them kind of close). Bake in 300 degree oven for 1/2 hour or so--until firm---you don't want them to brown up and get hard. Cool and store in refrigerator.

You can use your imagination along with the basic ingredients---rolled oats, grated carrot, etc.

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HOMEMADE LEAVE-IN CONDITIONER:

In a spray bottle (or I do mine in a gallon jug at a time, then just add to the spray bottle)
Mix equal parts of:

• cheap conditioner/creme rinse
• white or cider vinegar
• water

The conditioner helps keep the hair smooth for easy brushing and thickens the strands of hair. The vinegar gives the shine---I can still remember my mother rinsing her hair with vinegar long before conditioners came about.

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Sharon Lesner gave us this tip while sitting around the campfire at our Spring Ride:


Cheap but Just as Effective Bug Spray:

1. 400 ml or 14 oz of Pine Cleaner ( the more Pine Oil, the better). Dollar General brand works great).
2. 250 ml or 8 oz white Vinegar
3. Generous squirt of Blue Dawn dish soap (also at Dollar General).
   

Fill rest of squirt bottle with water to make about 800 to 900 ml of solution.

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OK Everybody---

It is TICK season. I've had horse owners tell me they don't find ticks on their horses, or not many; however, you have to "get up and personal" with your pal to really find those disgusting creatures. Of course, you can look over the obvious places--head, ears, neck, etc.; BUT, to really find 'em---you have to reach back and feel with your hand in the crooks and crannies of the, ahem, back end area. Those ticks love tight places, so all back in along the leg crease (probably not the correct terminology), the private areas, and yes, even lift that tail and look down the crease and anywhere you can see.

Now--on one's personal self, or two-legged friend, the first instinct is to grimace and pull. However, one of the correct procedures to insure retrieving ALL of that creature is to: Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the ball, and swab it for about 15 seconds. The tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball.
Sounds great--unless you are on your horse riding without the soap and cotton ball---then go for the natural instinct!

Maybe my next subject should be cookies!

Here's to swabbing!
Moira

AND

Here's to Tipping!

Moira