SB Barrel Racing

This year has been quite special for me. In my personal life, as well as at the barn or on show grounds, I feel like I moved forwards, like I accomplished a lot and like I grew and evolved more than ever. Through all that, I made wonderful discoveries, and I wanted to share them! Here are my equestrian finds of the year, in the hopes that they can be helpful to you as well. I will be sharing mostly products (with the holidays approaching, it might give you some gift ideas!), but also more general things.

MY EQUESTRIAN FINDS OF 2023

Fly Boots

Near the end of show season this year, my friend and I decided to buy some fly boots for our horses. We wanted to reduce the kicking from the flies on their legs. But the most common brands and models were pretty expensive! I ended up finding some really cheap ones on Amazon, they are 75$ for 8 boots so it was less than 40$ each set. You can find them here!

Equine Conference Day organised by Nadia Tremblay

This one is not something you can buy, but how I loved it! Last winter, I went to my friend’s place in Jonquière, Québec and we went to the equine conference day organised by equine veterinarian Nadia Tremblay in Alma. The whole day was just 20$ including lunch and we assisted to many different presentations from various equine businesses. Nadia and her team are really dedicated and passionate and I was hooked! If you live near there or are able to go to the 2024 edition, I strongly suggest you do.

Ice Vibes

I had already heard of Ice Vibes, but I never had the opportunity to use them before this year. I really liked them! I got to do a few treatments for my horse and it helped his windpuffs a bit. I’m lucky to have a friend that had the Ice Vibes kit, but I certainly will be buying some for myself one day! They are available online or in store in many places, such as Apple Saddlery or other local boutiques.

Rechargeable Shower Pump

I think this is my favorite find of the year! It saved us a couple times on the road. It’s basically a rechargeable pump with a shower head. You just need to put it in a bucket filled with water and you now have a garden hose coming in handy! We used it to shower the horses during the hot days (especially one time when my horse had a light case of heatstroke, we were able to cool him down quite quickly with it!), to wash my dog who enjoys rolling in the mud a little too much, even to wash our dishes or rinse off our equipment. Really convenient! If you’d like to get one for yourself, here is the link.

Massage Gun

A good old massage gun! We bought one one Facebook Marketplace and the horses LOVED it. We did little spa days for them with the Ice Vibes and the massage gun, we treated them with great care and they clearly returned the favor when competing. This purchase was 100% worth it. Here is a link to a similar one to the one we have. I don’t think you’ll regret trying it, for you as much as for your horses!

Saratoga Bandages and Vetrap

That’s something I learned from my experiences with racehorses at the Trois-Rivières racecourse. I got to go with a friend in the paddock to help her with her two horses and I saw lots of people using vetrap instead of the typical leg boots we see in barrel racing. For training, some of them used saratoga bandages for joint support. My horse has a tendancy to get windpuffs in his fetlocks, so I decided to give theses tricks a try. I started using vetrap under his front boots and saratoga bandages (kindly lent to me by a friend) on his hind legs for our runs for a good part of the summer. I found his fetlocks were much better than the past years! It’s important though to know how to use all of that not to cut circulation or cause harm. Vetrap can be found easily in stores or on Amazon here (you can save a lot when buying in bulk if you use a lot during show season!) and the saratoga bandages can be found in some stores or online, like here.

Flair Strips

I knew of Flair Strips but had never tried them before. This year, I decided to impulsively buy a pack! For my horse, I can’t tell if it really made a difference, but for a horse that is a bleeder of needs a bit of help, it can be helpful. I got them at the boutique NMW, but you can also get them on Amazon here.

Ranch Riding/Western Performance

Another thing I discovered that is not a product is the world of western performance, more specifically ranch riding. My friend who lives in Jonquière does ranch riding with her horse and I got to learn more about it when I went to the performance Westferia with her and her competition team last September. It’s so different to barrel racing, but it’s still very interesting! I’ll definitely be trying it out one day, but for now, I am staying faithful to my beloved barrels.

Hand-held Nebulizer

Discovery that I made on Fallon Taylor’s TikTok account! On Amazon, they sell small nebulizer for humans. She uses them on her horses on show grounds, since it’s smaller, she does one nostril at a time. My friend and I went « why not? » and decided to try it out. We didn’t use it that often because we had access to our friend’s Equi-Resp mask, but it’s a good alternative if you want to treat your horses for cheaper! Make sure you know what you’re doing though, don’t treat with anything just because. If you’re interested, here’s the link!

Red Light Torch

The new trend in horse treatments this year, I saw a lot of red light products on social media and wanted to give them a try. But I found them so expensive! I turned to Amazon once again and found pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the price (with similar light specs and everything). I decided to buy this one to try it, I am not disappointed, but at the same time, I’m not sure to what extent it makes a difference. I think it’s mostly good for injuries or wounds, so if I ever get the opportunity (or bad luck!) to use it for that, I’ll check back on here.

Univet Products

Another discovery I made this year, despite the fact I was already using Univet products before 2023, but there’s two products I started using this year for show season. Since the beginning of the season, I have been using Stoma-Coat and Ultra-Delay for my horse. I think that together, they really are the perfect mix to reduce the impact of competing on my horse’s physical health. Stoma-Coat helps balance the stomach’s pH and reduces symptoms associated with heartburn/ulcers while supporting gut health. Ultra-Delay is a paste that you give throughout the show weekend that helps reduce lactic acid accumulation in the muscles and helps with muscle strenght and stamina for performance horses. Both of them together really worked wonders for my horse! I would recommend that you do business with a representative of Univet to get advice on what your horse needs since every horse is different, but these two are my favorite Univet products. You can find more information on their products here!

That is all for my equestrian finds of 2023! I hope some of these can be useful to you for the next season. Despite there being many months of cold and snow left, I am already dreaming of next year’s events. Let me know if any of my finds got you hooked and if you decide to give them a try! Do you have any other interesting finds? Feel free to share in the comments.