Cleaning Tips: What to do about rust

Everyone’s trying to enjoy the last few days of nice weather with trail rides, horse shows, and clinics galore. On our way out of the tack room recently, one of us grabbed a spare lead rope for the trailer and was horrified to discover the snap had rusted shut. Gross.

Fortunately, there are a few natural remedies for rust on your tack. Of course, if you’re really clever, you can avoid the problem altogether by buying from our shop, where all our products come with no-rust guaranteed stainless steel hardware.

–Soak it in white vinegar and water for several hours or overnight before scrubbing. Using crumpled aluminum foil for the scrub will make this job easier.

–Go the margarita route! Sprinkle the affected area with salt and scrub with lime juice

–Make a paste of baking soda and water, and scrub the rusted area

–Use a potato–yes, a potato–cut it in half and slather the open end in dish soap. Let the dish soap end of the potato sit on the rusted area for a while, then rub it off. Repeat as necessary. The surface of the potato and the soap react with the rust to help break it down.

Now get cleaning!

Congratulations to Raffie!

Congratulations to Raffie, the winner of our latest tack giveaway! 

We love hearing from our fans and customers, and learning all about their horses. Raffie, aka Raffle Ticket, is a 12-year-old off-the-track Standardbred who lives with Sunshine Horses, a New York-based rescue for former trotters and pacers alike. Raffie won the giveaway thanks to Hannah, who works with Raffie and others at Sunshine to find their second careers and forever homes.

Although she’s a dressage rider herself, Hannah teaches the Standardbreds to go under tack and then dabbles in different disciplines to help them decide what they want to do in the next phase of their lives.

Raffle Ticket is still looking for his new person. Could that be you? Learn more about him here.

Raffie will be getting one of our split ear Western bridles, which lets a horse’s facial structure shine through. Our bridles are hand stitched for depth and constructed from super strength beta biothane, which is virtually maintenance-free. Our September tack giveaway is for a buckle nose halter. Enter here.

Hunting season is almost here…

Are you and your horse visible on the trail?

Tuesday Tips: Rainy afternoons at the barn…

We don’t know about you, but our area has gotten a lot of rain in the evenings (and on the weekends) in the past month or so, with more on the way.

We used to use these monsoons as an opportunity to clean our tack, but since we made the switch to beta biothane, tack cleaning doesn’t take much time anymore. There are, unfortunately, a number of other tasks inside that can use attention before the winter freeze sets in a few months from now. Check out this handy list:

• Send out your blankets for cleaning and repair (now, before your repair shop gets swamped with work in fall)
• Give fly masks a boots a good soak with a gentle soap (we use the generic dish soap from the grocery store) and rinse/air dry
• Add more shelves in the tack room–you know you’ll use them.
• Wipe down insides/outsides of tack trunks. Murphy’s Oil Soap is great for wooden trunks.
• Update your equine and human first aid kits. Pitch materials that are expired or ruined.
• Clean and disinfect brushes and towels. Brush therapy is a great cleaner, and white vinegar is a good natural disinfecting agent.
• Sweep away cobwebs in the tack room and around the inside of the barn
• Use a damp cloth to clean light bulbs–don’t ever spray with water.
• Rinse box fans and allow to dry thoroughly before remounting and using
• Check all straps for damage, especially reins and stirrup leathers (not likely a problem if you’ve picked up beta leathers)
• Put everything back in spots where you’ll find it later, and label containers as needed

There, doesn’t that look better? 🙂