Rachael's Corner: Bling up Your Bridle!

I have always been a total girl and absolutely love to add a little bit of sparkle to anything I can wherever possible. One way that we can do that without making our clothing and tack look cheap is a simple but beautiful diamante brow band to turn heads and draw attention to your horse.  At Tictac Equestrian we stock a large range of stunning diamante brow bands with new styles from different brands being added every day!

One of my favourite brow bands is one by John Whitaker which consists of 3 diamante rope chains, one blue one clear and one read, all twisted together and looks absolutely amazing! This brow band along with several more will be in stock over the next few weeks. My horse’s show colours are red, white and blue so when I saw this in the catalogue I loved it straight away and I can’t wait for them to come in! J We also stock brow bands from brands like Hy and Rhinegold; all of which are absolutely stunning! They come in all different shapes, thicknesses and colours to suit your horses head and colouring.

If you have any questions for any of our team, we would love to hear from you! Contact us through our Facebook or Twitter page J

Keep Yourself Motivated To Ride

In The Tictac Equestrian office today we have been chatting about how difficult it can be to keep you motivated to get in the saddle. Over the winter months, finding the motivation can be even more difficult with the miserable cold weather and dark nights. Our Tictac Equestrian team would like to share some of our tips to keeping yourself motivated to get in the saddle J

I often sit and think about when I was younger and had my first pony on loan and how many hours I spent each day mucking out, grooming, riding and trekking up and down fields bringing horse after horse in just to spend a little more time around them; praying that one day my mum and dad would come around and finally buy me my own.  As the years have gone on and I finally fulfilled my dream of owning not only one but three horses, my motivation to ride seems to have faded which I can’t quite understand. I seem to forget sometimes how much I wanted to be in the position I am in just now when I was younger. If I had thought when I was ten that I would be sitting with a beautiful little horse at the age of twenty after owning my pony Megan and Angel  I would have been over the moon. Riding my horse seems to clear my mind and help me relax after a stressful day, yet I just can’t seem to make myself after mucking out!

We have found a few things that help our team to keep motivated to ride and would like to share some of them with you J I find that planning and outing whether it be a hack on the beach, a clinic, clear rounds or a show; an outing to aim for gives me the motivation to ride as it gives me something to work towards. Riding every day in the arena can become very boring and monotonous for both you and your horse! It is so easy to fall back into the “I can’t be bothered” mind set so self-discipline is essential. On a cold day we would all rather sit in the tack room drinking coffee and chatting but coming into the summer months, there is so much going on to look forward to and work towards. Riding is also a great way to keep you and your horse fit and healthy.

If you have any advice for our team and customers, we would love to hear from you! Do you have any tips that keep you motivated to ride? Contact us through our Facebook or Twitter J

Bitting Dilemmas!

At Tictac Equestrian, we are all strong believers in starting a horse’s ridden career in very basic tack. “Over-bitting” can cause more problems than necessary when starting to train a young horse, often masking problems and making them worse! Choosing a suitable bit for your horse can be a mind wracking task and our Tictac Equestrian team would like to try and help you J

I myself, believe that when a horse has any issues such as being too strong or forward, leaning on the bit, locking their jaw, putting their tongue over the bit or any other issues; this may be caused by some training or schooling issue. Throwing a stronger or more severe bit in your horse’s mouth is definitely not the answer! This can make your horse’s problem even worse and cause them a lot of discomfort. My new horse Honey is very hot headed and nervous, she has a very sensitive mouth and I found it very difficult to find a bit that she would accept and happily chew away on. I found the answer with a Nathe Pelham. I think these bits are absolutely amazing and would recommend anybody who has a horse with a sensitive mouth to try one. They are made of soft and flexible rubber which Honey absolutely loves! She is so much more relaxed and accepting than when I ride her in a simple linked metal snaffle. The Pelham is definitely not as severe as a pelham with a steel mouthpiece as the soft rubber is so flexible and forgiving and it gives me just the right amount of pressure and control for my hot headed little thoroughbred. The Nathe bits come in a large variety of styles and sizes and I would encourage everybody to have a look.

Do you have any issues with choosing a suitable bit for your horse? If so, we advise that you seek advice from your regular instructor or a reputable instructor that you trust. Often a second opinion from a trusted person can mean the world and we are sure your horse will thank you for it J Check out our full range of bits on our bit section on our Tictac Equestrian website. If you have any questions for our team or any advice you would like to share with our customers, we would love to hear from you! Contact us through our Facebook or Twitter. 

Shavings Versus Straw!

In the Tictac Equestrian office today, we have been chatting about what bedding we use for our horses and which ones we prefer. We can’t seem to agree with each other on which is best to use and we would like to know your opinions!Both shavings and straw have their advantages and disadvantages. 

Shavings:

• are very absorbent  
• effectively reduce nasty odours
• *can be very expensive 

Straw:

• is very cheap
• is easy to come by (which means you can give your horse a nice big bed for a fraction of the price of a big shaving bed) 
• is very warm for over the cold winter month. )
• *isn’t very absorbent (if you have a dirty horse then I definitely wouldn’t advise using it as it can become a little bit smelly! J)

I have used both straw and shavings over the years and I definitely prefer shavings for their absorbency but I also love a big cosy straw bed in the winter to keep the horses nice and warm! My thoroughbred mare Angel that was sadly put to sleep in October last year was very wet and dirty in her box. I used straw over the winter months as it would have cost me far too much money when she was stabled almost every day to give her a big shavings bed. In the summer however, I would happily give her a shavings bed on top of her rubber stable matting as the smell of wet straw in the summer months can become a little bit nasty! My other horse Honey is very clean and so now,  she gets a massive shavings bed all year round! Lauren however swears by straw. She says that she finds it easier and quicker to muck out, it is cheap for her FIVE horses! I don’t think giving five horses shavings beds would be very cheap at all! J

Which bedding do you prefer, shavings or straw? Or do you use another type of bedding like wood pellets or cardboard? At TictacEquestrian we have tried and tested them all and we would all love to hear your opinions and any advice you may have for our team and customers J Contact us through Facebook or Twitter.

Tasty and Affordable Homemade Horse Treats!

In the Tictac Equestrian office today, we have been looking at some interesting recipes to make your horse some yummy treats; easily and with minimal cost!  One of the easiest ones that we found is called fruit surprise. Yum!J There is no baking required and we are sure that your horses will love it!

You will need:

• 2 cups of feed (either mix or pony cubes)
• 1 banana - chopped
• 1 apple - diced
• 6 strawberries - sliced
• 4 baby carrots - sliced
• 1 cup of molasses
• 4 mints - crushed

Mix all of the ingredients together then serve to your horse. We are sure that they will love it :)

There are lots of homemade horse treat recipes online to save you money and also give your horse something a little different from the norm. Most of them you can make with things that you just have in your house. A lot of them sound good enough to eat yourself J If you prefer to choose the easier option and buy your horse some treats; at Tictac Equestrian we stock lots of treats, licks and stable toys to spoil your horse or pony from brands like Likit, Gold Label, Equiglo, Spillers, Uncle Jimmy’s, Pettifers and Stubbs.

Do you have any recipes you would like to share with our team and our customers? We would all love to hear from you! Contact is through our Facebook or Twitter. 

Rachael's Corner: Sarcoids in Horses

In the Tictac Equestrian office today we have been discussing the horrible equine ailment of “sarcoids”.  My horse Honey is currently suffering from sarcoids on her chest and underneath her girth area – one of which stopped me from riding for a while.  Jenny, the boss, also had a horse with a sarcoid, sadly due to the speed of its growth – it was a particularly terrible type, eventually her horse had to be put to sleep L she was heartbroken.

Often people in the equine community know surprisingly little about this disease and a lot of false information is often passed about. For years sarcoids have been belittled and under estimated by the term "wart." Believe it or not, sarcoids are actually a form of equine skin cancer. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in horses, sarcoids being the most common of these.

It is thought that if a horse has a sarcoid, it can decrease their value by 90% (therefore, if a horse was worth £10,000, it would be considered to only be worth £1000 due to this condition)… quite a scary fact!  Research is still being carried out across the world to find further treatment for this horrible disease.

It is common for sarcoids to re occur even if removing previous lesions have been successful. There are many treatments available through your vet; including steroid creams, surgical removing, arsenic cream or freezing with liquid nitrogen. If you prefer the more natural / herbal treatments, Botanica has proven extremely successful at healing sarcoids, wounds and mudrash – whilst preventing scars in horses.

If you have any suspicion that your horse may have a sarcoid, please do contact your vet. The earlier they are treated, the higher the likeliness of successful treatment! GOOD LUCK! and please let us know how you get on – we would love to hear your stories and see your before and after photos. Contact us through our Facebook or Twitter page.

Tictac Equestrian Want To Sponsor You!

Have you heard about our exciting sponsorship competition yet? Over the past few weeks, our Tictac team have been working hard to bring our customers an exciting new competition; giving one lucky person the opportunity to win a year sponsorship by Tictac Equestrian, along with lots of fabulous horsey goodies!

We are giving you the chance to win a Mark Todd blouson jacket, a Mark Todd saddle cloth and a hoodie, all embroidered with our lovely Tictac Equestrian logo and also 20% off of all of your orders from www.tictacequestrian.com for a full year! 

We have had an amazing response so far with over one hundred entries. All of our team love to read about all of your successes and look at your lovel pictures. To enter, we would like you to like and share our Facebook page then post a small paragraph on our page, along with a picture of your horse or pony, stating why you think you deserve to win this amazing prize and sign up to our Tictac newsletter on our website (easy peasy!) After a short time, our Tictac team will select the top twenty people that we believe to be the most deserving to be put forward for this prize. Our quarter finalists will then be sent a short list of bio questions that we would like you to complete and submit, along with a few more pictures of you and your horse. We will then post the interview questions for all twenty finalists onto our Tictac Equestrian blog and from then we will select our top four contestants.  We will then make profiles up for our final four contestants on our website as products and our customers will decide from there by adding the person they believe is the most deserving to win to the shopping basket. We don’t want it to be a popularity contest – we want it to be fair and for the prize to go to a hard-working, dedicated person J

Our team wish you the best of luck and look forward to reading your stories. If you have any questions about our competition, please don’t hesitate in contacting us, either through our Facebook or Twitter page or call our office.