show season will soon be here

[orin]

As the show season will be with us before we know it. Anyone got any tips or hints? What do you feed during show season, how and often do you exercise? And if you nexk wrap how long before you show do you put them on and how do you know if you need to wrap?

 

[Wings]

Mine's almost over! Thankfully, lol I could do with a rest!

Things I learnt this year:

Don't forget to bring a shovel, have one that lives in the float!

Bandage and bag tails, it's always the white tail that gets green poop in transit.

Battery operated trimmers are a lifesaver for last minute touch ups.

Keep water in the float, don't rely on a source at the venue.

Mark your show program carefully with horse names so everyone knows who has to be where and when.

Have something to hang show halters on, not just your halter bag. Much easier if each one with chain and lead is ready to be grabbed straight off a hook.

At home I started feeding oil, it reduced the grain needs for my horses and I got some fantastic coats on them

I don't neck sweat anyone now (although opinion is divided on wether or not my stallion should be

) but when I do they're on a strict shedule that begins long before show season and continues until they're out of the show team.

 

[supaspot]

Have something to hang show halters on, not just your halter bag. Much easier if each one with chain and lead is ready to be grabbed straight off a hook.

^^^^^^^^ great idea



what sort of oil are you feeding ? I add BOSS , do you think they need extra ?

I dont neck sweat any of mine , I think we should be breeding for good necks not sweating to get them , there are some over here that do it but the vast majority dont

 

[Farina]

Mine's almost over! Thankfully, lol I could do with a rest!

Things I learnt this year:

Don't forget to bring a shovel, have one that lives in the float!

Bandage and bag tails, it's always the white tail that gets green poop in transit.

Battery operated trimmers are a lifesaver for last minute touch ups.

Keep water in the float, don't rely on a source at the venue.

Mark your show program carefully with horse names so everyone knows who has to be where and when.

Have something to hang show halters on, not just your halter bag. Much easier if each one with chain and lead is ready to be grabbed straight off a hook.

At home I started feeding oil, it reduced the grain needs for my horses and I got some fantastic coats on them

I don't neck sweat anyone now (although opinion is divided on wether or not my stallion should be

) but when I do they're on a strict shedule that begins long before show season and continues until they're out of the show team.

Great input and info! I will keep them in mind! Thank you!

 

[minisch]

If you are serious and want to do the best that you can with what you have, a good feed program is a must. Alot of trainers can feed them into show shape. If you are showing at rated shows neck sweats are essential. Have fun !

 

[mydaddysjag]

The "generic" program I have found most trainers use for halter horses is this (I have used several trainers over the years):

-Either Purina Strategy or Purina Omolene 200. My adult horses generally end up somewhere around half of a 3quart scoop of strategy. My yearling mini/shetland colt is up to three pounds a day, and im about to increase him. Young horses eat more than seniors

-Limited hay, generally 1/4 or maybe even 1/2 a flake (tops). Most trainers have prefered an alfalfa mix. Usually they add some soaked shredded beetpulp to make up for the lack of hay in the diet. Free choice hay tends to give hay bellies, beetpulp does not.

-When stalled, use a fleece lined neck wrap.

-When worked, use a neoprene throat latch sweat, and some also need a whole neck neoprene sweat over that. I prefer to use a thick black garbage bag under my sweats, some trainers also use sweat gels.

-20 minutes in the round pen at an extended trot, 5 days a week, never two days off in a row. You need to start off slow and build up to the 20 minutes. You may need to increase of decrease the time depending on your horse, most do it in 2 minute intervals. To tuck a horse up, add some cantering.

-After working horses, tie in stalls while wearing sweats for 30minutes to an hour. This also helps teach patience.

-As far as supplements, some trainers wont use them. The trainers I have used that do use supplements usually use daily dewormer, and Nu-Image for skin and coat. If its a thin horse, or one that needs bloom, a lot of trainers use a supplement called Body Builder thats made by equiaide.

Theres no exact program that will work for every horse, but above is a very good baseline generic program that can generally be tweaked for most horses. Every trainer I have used has used pretty much this program on my halter horses, and pretty similar feed with my driving horses.

 

[fancyshadow]

One thing I will be doing soon is going through the show boxes and making sure I have the basics. I make sure the combs and such are all in usable order. Make sure I have at least two of most things like hoof black, gel, sprays, fly sprays, ect. Be sure to think what you will be doing from stall to show ring and exactly what you will need and then what you will need from showring back to stall. (extra tail wraps in case one gets misplaced). I also carry at least two extra barn halters and leads. Never know when one will get broken or somehow unusable.

Don't forget the tools--sander, clippers, vacume, water and feed buckets. Now is the time to make sure they are all workable and blades are sharpened. I keep a list on my computer to print before each show to do check-offs before we leave. The list includes three columns. Horse, Personal, kitchen/food. We stay in stalls at shows and usually eat what we bring. (we are tightwads--what can I say)

Angie

 

[fancyshadow]

As for the horses, we are performance training now. We have tails up to keep as neat as possible. They all get to go out to play daily and no formal exercise for now. We will start exercising and show feeding about feb 15--2 to 3 months before our first planned show. We will clip the first time about end of march to mid april to see how things are going and tweek our feeding and exercise program and get them in shape for first show. We don't really feed any suplements. We have a good feed that we have made at the local feed mill and we just add or subtract according to their needs. We do use farnum weight builder and/or equine junior occasionally when our feed needs a bit of a boost.