Posts Tagged ‘sponsor
Grazing Muzzle to Keep Ponies Happy
Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by Greenguard USA and does contain some affiliate links. All opinions are my own and I only share products I think you and your horses will love.
If your ponies are anything like our ponies, then you probably struggle with keeping them at the ideal weight and protecting them from laminitis during the summer months when the grass is extra lush. Thanks to our new friends over at Greenguard USA our boys were able to test out one of the newest muzzles for horses on the market, the Greenguard Grazing Muzzle.
The Greenguard’s patented basket style muzzle comes with breakable (for safety) buckles which you can attach to your own halter. It’s also recommended to tape them in place with duct tape once you have them adjusted properly to keep it from sliding around. Stable flies, gnats, mosquitoes, ticks, lice, etc. are extremely annoying to the animal and harm their bodies in different ways too so using the Best Fly Spray For Horses can provide complete protection.
Blitz (on the left) tested out the horse size (he’s 14.1 hands tall) and Boomerang (on the right) tested out the cob size (he’s 13.3 hands tall). We found that with these muzzles it’s better to have them roomier, and Boomerang probably would have been a bit more comfortable in a horse size as well (also to prevent rubbing). We did eventually add some sheepskin padding to Boomer’s halter and the back of the muzzle to prevent rubs, which helped. It’s nearly impossible to prevent any and all rubs when your horse has to wear a muzzle – it’s just the nature of the beast! We’ve also found that rotating muzzle styles every few weeks helps to keep the rubs at bay.
As you can see in this shot of Blitz, the Greenguard muzzle fits loosely around your horses’ nose giving them more room to chew and makes breathing much easier (and cooler too!).
Other muzzles we have tried the ponies wear through the bottom pretty quickly.
The Greenguard muzzle is a much stronger/sturdier plastic which appears like it would likely last a lot longer than some of the traditional styles you might be used to seeing. I also noticed that overnight the traditional style muzzles tended to collect much more dirt and debris than the Greenguard ones, which seems like it would be a lot more comfortable to your horse.
All our horses have automatic (Nelson) waterers in their pastures, and during the summer we always make sure to give them a trough to drink from as well.
Once we found Boomerang (wearing a more standard style muzzle) caught on the automatic waterer, so it’s always a good idea to give your horse a trough if they are wearing a muzzle. The Greenguard muzzles don’t really fit inside the openings of the automatic waterers, so it’s especially important to make sure your horse has access to water.
We compared the Greenguard muzzle to one of the more traditional styles of muzzle to see how much grass our ponies were getting. As you can see the muzzle on the left allows the grass to pop up through one hole in the center, while the Greenguard muzzle on the right has a less amount of grass pop up in several different openings. We felt the Greenguard muzzle made the ponies move their mouths around more to get the grass which kept them busier, and intern happier about the fact that they had to wear a muzzle at all!
Even with the boy’s silly antics we haven’t noticed them trying to escape wearing the Greenguard muzzles at all. We haven’t tried it on our resident escapee pony, Minnow, who has gotten out of every single muzzle ever (even with our added “pony proof” gear). He seems to do better with a muzzle that has higher sides and we didn’t want to risk him slipping this one and having a problem.
The Greenguard Grazing Muzzle can be purchased on Amazon and comes in mini, cob, and horse sizes. (P.S. buddy Ammo the Dachshund couldn’t help himself and photobombed every single video I tried to shoot of the boys grazing, but he’s awfully cute isn’t he!)
Thanks for Greenguard for letting us test out their great muzzle on our boys!
Sponsor Welcome: Saddle Up
We’re very excited to welcome our new sponsor, Saddle Up! You might remember that we were first introduced to Saddle Up when my mom and I purchased treeless saddles from them over the summer.
The owner of Saddle Up, Paulita Neff, was amazing to work with. She answered my MANY e-mails with questions about the saddles and what would work best for Boomerang and I. In the end I came away with the Freeform Classic BTF Treeless Saddle, which fits Boomerang amazingly well.
Having been someone who really didn’t know anything about treeless saddles before this experience I am now convinced this is the only type of saddle that I will ever own again. Not only can I use it on any horse I have from here on out, but I have never had a more comfortable ride. They aren’t just for endurance riders either! I’ve been using mine in mounted games, cross country, versatility competitions, and even jumping in it.
We are thrilled to have Saddle Up as one of our sponsors, and we hope you’ll check out their website and facebook page to learn more about treeless saddles.
Painting Pony to attend PA Horse World Expo
We’ve had this in the works for a while now, but we’re excited to officially announce that we will be attending the PA Horse World Expo in Harrisburg, PA from Thursday, February 23 through Sunday, February 26, 2012.
Last year Boomerang and I attended the expo to compete in the Craig Cameron Extreme Cowboy Race, in which we finished 6th in the finals! This year we aren’t competing in the Cowboy Race though, instead we will be in the main hall at booth # 607 & 608! And if that wasn’t exciting enough, Minnow will be there too, corralled at our booth and on hand to meet his fans and paint!
We will be bringing many of the ponies original works of art with us as well as Minnow’s special little sidekick Ammo the Dachshund. We’re excited to meet so many new friends and be at the spectacular Horse World Expo. As we approach the event we will have more details for you, but you can also check out expo times and other information HERE. We hope to see you in 2012!
We are currently accepting Sponsors for the PA Horse World Expo. If you are interested in purchasing a banner spot for the duration of the expo please contact us. We will also have deals for advertising on our website too.
Sponsor – Travel n Corrals
We’re very excited to introduce our new sponsor, Travel n Corrals! I had spent months researching portable corral systems so that the boys would have a safe and secure place to perform inside of when we travel to venues without an arena. When I finally stumbled upon Travel n Corrals I knew I had found the perfect solution.
Each individual panel weighs only 15 pounds – I constructed the corral for the first time all by myself, and I was even able to carry two panels at once (I’m a beast huh?). It only took me about 5 minutes to set up! Each panel is connected every 7’ with a full length 4’ steel pipe rod that a horse cannot pull out vs. short pins or Velcro that the horse can work at removing. It has a special cap at the end that makes it nearly impossible for a horse to grip it with their teeth.
Minnow tests out the new corral system
Our corral is the 18′ x 18′ size, but you can easily add more panels in the future, or connect two corrals together for an even larger area for your horse.
One of the great aspects to these corrals is that they come with a life time guarantee, so IF you ever have an issue, or have something break – you can get it replaced.
Minnow giving the new corral the once-over.
Another great thing about these corrals for us is that it is highly visible through the panels – meaning no one’s view will be obstructed when Minnow is painting his masterpiece. The corral will also open up many more venues for us to perform at. Setting up in a parking lot or a grassy field will be no issue now that we have a safe and secure place for Minnow to be.
While we will mostly be using our corral for performances, it is also fantastic for traveling to horse shows and events. Set it up next to your trailer on show day and your horse isn’t stuck standing on the trailer between classes/events. We also plan to use ours at mounted games competitions – where keeping your horse overnight often requires a stall rental. Now we’ll be able to forgo the stall fees & the horses will have more room to move about. Would also be great for overnight trail rides!
The other really cool thing about these panels is that you can mount them to your trailer for transportation.
With options for mounting on the outside of a trailer, in the tackroom or even in one of the stall bays – it makes traveling with them even easier. We don’t have any of the mounting hardware yet – as we are hoping to upgrade to a newer trailer soon.
Travel n Corrals’ 13’x13′ corrals sells for $525 + $99 S&H – which is the best price out there for portable corrals at this size (believe me I looked!) And the more you buy, the better the price gets.
Visit Travel n Corrals ( www.travelncorrals.com ) where you can watch a great video explaining more about these corrals.
And now I leave you with some utterly adorable shots of Minnow – have I mentioned I love this pony?
Photos by Kyley DiLuigi. All rights reserved. www.paintingpony.com
Our pedestal in the above picture is from our sponsors, Toys for Horses.
