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The Top 5 Things You Need to Know About Buying Winter Blankets

Well everyone, it's coming up to that dreaded season we all love to hate in Canada:…

#Life Hacks - How to Attract More Customers to your Tack Store

It’s no secret we live in the information age.

In fact we are bombarded with “information” every day in the form of e-mails, messages, pop up ads on-line courses and pod casts even blogs.

I am sure much of the information contained in…

If you’ve taken a look at Pinterest lately, you’ve probably seen some gorgeously luxurious tack rooms. Your tack room stores some of your most valuable equipment, and there’s nothing better than a light, bright, and airy tack room. If you would like to create a luxurious tack room in your barn, then here…

If you’re lucky, you received some great new horse equipment for Christmas. Whether you got that new pair of boots that you needed, or your horse got a new blanket and halter, chances are that you now have some old equipment that you don’t really need. During this season of giving, that old equipment can be the perfect way to make a generous gift to a local rescue or…

Christmas shopping for a horse lover can be a challenge – what makes a practical gift, and what is unneeded? Our first post in this series had suggestions for great stocking stuffer ideas. Today we have ideas for gifts…

As more than a few people have commented on my tack box in past weeks, I post these here for a wider audience.

I got tired of arriving at a barn only to spend 10 to 15 minutes scrounging up brushes, hoof picks, &c., so I put those in a bag.

Then I bought my own saddle, with the changeable gullet, so I wouldn't have to ride those school saddles that feel like two angle-irons welded to an old oil-drum. The changeable gullet meant I could fit any horse I was given in only a few…

HI Everyone, We are new to the Barnmice community and wanted to introduce ourselves! We just opened a store in beautiful Sharon,Ontraio just north of Toronto. This is a family business with my mum, Helen, being the owner and my Sister,Sarah and myself(Christine) who will be working in the store.  Sarah and myself both have a retail background and we are all riders so this has been a very exciting project for all of us. We just had our grand opening this past weekend so we were excited to…

I have been using my Micklem bridle for roughly 2 weeks now, and we just finished up a jumper show today.  Other riders and trainers did notice the bridle and asked me about it, did it make a difference?  I am still in the 'testing' phase but did admit that my TB is going much better in the Micklem.  A few people did mention that they know my horse has been a bit of a head tosser before the fences and after at previous shows so they were interested in seeing us go today since several of them…

Here is my 2nd Blog and continues where my happy mouth blog left off.  My Micklem bridle arrived today.  I had 1 1/2 hours from the time I got home to open the box, put it together, size it on my gelding and then trailer off for my Jumper lesson.  I read about other people having trouble putting the bridle together so I read up on how to and was ready.  At first the Bit straps threw me off so I popped the CD that comes with the bridle in to the pc and did a quick review.  Once I heard that…

This is my first attempt at a blog post so hope this is not too silly! It is 90 something degress outside, full sun so cannot ride until later thus I decided to blog.  My topic: happy mouth bits since I have found a tack item that I really like.  I started using the happy mouth loose ring snaffle on my OTTB.  He was right off the track.  I started with my double jointed D-ring snaffle. He did not seem to like it, seemed confused ( he is a horse that wants to please, like most TBs) but I knew…

There are a vast variety of horse saddles depending on the type of riding one wishes to do. The four main types of saddles are the English, Western, Military, and Asian. Of course these are very broad categories. The English saddles can be further categorized into saddles for Polo Riding, Show Jumping etc. There are a variety of other styles such as Sidesaddle, however they are less commonly used.

The English saddle is very small and horizontal, it has built in padding but…

I am currently looking to buy my horse a breastplate; one with elastic so that she can have freedom of movement over large fences. Here's the thing: I am on a budget (cannot spend more than $160.00) and I am leaning towards a 5-point breastplate or a regular elastic breastplate. What do you ridders out there prefer? As far as brands go, I've been told that Kieffer is a good brand, but I would have to wait 4-6 weeks to get it…

Today was a beautiful day. I tried to work all my horses but only got a few done. Its all good though.

I did ground work with Fergie, (Painted Beauty), (my newest baby a 3 yo paint. The filly from my late paint mare, B (My Bayou Beauty). I got her completely green. So I am starting from scratch.)

I lunged Fergie in the arena with a western…

So the other day I inoccently wandered into a local tack store and ended coming out with a new sheepskin half pad, a set of jointed irons, new leather riding boots, and a new bit for Summer.

Its funny how no horse person can ever go into a tack shop without spending $200 and up! Mabye its the new leather smell, or all the shiny objects..lol Its like we go into the store just needing a rubber martingale stopper and then suddenly we remember we need a new show bridle, a new show…