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Rider Insider: Equestrian Lifehacks


What unusual tricks have you discovered to make your life at the barn even better? Photo: Leslie Potter

 



Are you familiar with the term lifehack? The term is relatively new, having come along with the Internet age, but the concept is timeless. Lifehacks are unique, usually non-obvious methods or tricks to help make life a little better or make a task easier.



Some of these are mind tricks, like using smaller plates when you’re trying to lose weight. Supposedly seeing a full plate will trick your brain into thinking you’re getting more food and leave you feeling more satisfied when you’re finished. Others are innovative uses for items you already have, like using a water bottle to separate egg yolks. And others still are unexpected methods to handle everyday tasks, like folding those annoying fitted sheets into perfect, linen-closet ready rectangles.

The Internet abounds with lifehacks for improving productivity at the office, organizing your home or enjoying your food more (there are a lot of food-related lifehacks out there.) But when it comes to riding and horsekeeping, there’s plenty of room for innovative ideas.


Have you found a unique way to keep your tack clean in a dusty barn? Have you discovered a trick for cinching up a horse who pulls the blowfish routine every time you tack up? Did you find an innovative way to keep high-traffic areas in the paddock free of mud and puddles during rainy weather? We want to know about them! Click “Submit a Comment” below and share your unique, unusual trick for handling a common rider problem. Some of the editors’ favorite responses could be featured in a future issue of Horse Illustrated!

This month,
Noble Outfitters is sponsoring the Rider Insider column in Horse Illustrated with a prize of a Heartbreaker Tank for the selected featured response. If you’d like to be considered for a prize, make sure to include your contact info in the email field of the comment form (emails will not be publicly displayed.)

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View Comments

  • We've all had those days... it's cold, its windy, maybe its even snowing. You look outside and see your horse longingly staring at the riding arena, or waiting at the gate for you. You know he needs worked but you have absolutely no motivation to bundle up and head out into the weather. Whenever I feel like this, I sit down at the computer and head to youtube. It only takes watching one video of Olympic jumping, freestyle dressage, or a homemade video of 'We are Equestrians'. The riding skill, the motivating music, it all immediately hypes you up and gets you motivated to get out there in any weather and train with your beloved partner.

  • We've all had those days... it's cold, its windy, maybe its even snowing. You look outside and see your horse longingly staring at the riding arena, or waiting at the gate for you. You know he needs worked but you have absolutely no motivation to bundle up and head out into the weather. Whenever I feel like this, I sit down at the computer and head to youtube. It only takes watching one video of Olympic jumping, freestyle dressage, or a homemade video of 'We are Equestrians'. The riding skill, the motivating music, it all immediately hypes you up and gets you motivated to get out there in any weather and train with your beloved partner.

  • I need to know where my meds and supplies are at all times. So, I have a case with a handle, where I keep everything in one place. Inside, there is the vets number, wound med, rolls of bandage cotton, ace bandages, sprays, a sharp knife, scissors, and even a bag of treats, and small container of grain. Its a lot easier know, that "if or when" one of my horses gets hurt, everything I would need is in one place.

  • The first horse I started riding was a 15 year old who was bad tempered and just wanted to stay in her nice warm barn. I love horses so much that I wouldn't care if it had no ears or tail! So one day before I mounted I whispered in her ear and said " if your good ill give you a big carrot". She behaved wonderfully that day knowing what was in store for her. She was a little better after that.

  • I have many horses, all different sizes, so when I need to halter one of them, (specially, is a emergency or in a hurry, say when they get out), I never can grab the right halter.
    So, I now have then color codes, and also put the pegs, which the halters hang on, color coded. The color coding is just a small strip of colored clothes, or a color tape which I put on the snap or ring.

  • My horsie lifehack is you can use leftover hay bale twine to open new bales of hay! Put the excess under the in use twine, twist, and poof! Open hay, and you didn't need to find the scissors!

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