Tuesday, January 10, 2012

How To Engage Your Horse's Back

I see a painful amount of people talk about "headset". Headset is just that - setting the head. TRUE headset comes from connection and impulsion from the hind end forward, and this is a great video on how to begin to achieve that.




Friday, January 6, 2012

Stacy Westfall on the Ellen Degeneres Show 3/14/08 part 2/2

Some more projects for 2012.

In an earlier post, I mentioned the fact that I had to rebuild my arena from the ground up. As it turns out, there are actually quite a few projects popping up, and it's still only the first week of the new year. I guess I'll make a list here, and hopefully some of my readers can offer some advice on each one. Questions are in bold.


  • The arena is being regraded, extended to 100x200, then filled with sand. For an all around arena (dressage, jumping, reining, barrels) how deep do you prefer your sand footing?
  • We are building a cabinet/counter with sinks in the wash rack. 
  • Matting the wash stall floor (currently it is just textured concrete. What is your choice for wash stall footing?
  • Getting automatic water put in all of the stalls. I was considering Nelson waterers. Are there any other brands that you recommend? 
I'm sure that I will have more to add later. I came down with something yesterday and I still feel horrible. I ate a donut for breakfast and within 20 minutes my throat had gotten sore and I was stuffy. Last night it turned into flu-like symptoms, so I'm pretty confused about that. I have more to post about in a bit.

Happy Horsing!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Rescue Tape...to the rescue (yet again)!

Another winter, another broken pipe. When you have a barn full of pipes and spigots, a break at some point is inevitable.

This afternoon I went out to check the horses and came upon a flooded barn aisle and water spraying from a pipe. I felt a bit lost as it was too late in the day for a plumber, but there is also no way to shut off the flow to that particular pipe as the break was BELOW the shut-off valve.

My mind went immediately to Rescue Tape! Now if you have never heard of it, you are missing out (i know, I know, I sound like an infomercial - but I swear by this stuff). I had used it to fix a leaky pipe under a sink in my house, and figured it was worth a try. So I cut off the pipe and put a cap over it (It was too wet to cement it on) and wrapped an entire roll of Rescue Tape around it. That stopped the high-pressure spew, and will hold us over until we can get the plumber out to fix it tomorrow.



If you'd like to check it out for yourself, you can read about it here or check out your local hardware store to see if they carry it.

And take it from me - DON'T forget to leave your faucets dripping at night this winter!