Fly rugs at the ready for sweet itch awareness month

Through personally having a horse with sweet itch, I can understand the frustration and need for more awareness of the condition. It’s frustrating, painful and if not managed can be unbearable. Most summers I see a common trend of owners unaware of the condition, lumps of hair missing from the mane and tail and leaving it out in fields itching all day against a fence. Hopefully, the awareness month will get owners thinking about the problem and realising that the condition can be managed.

Throughout April, equine charities and a drug company are pulling together to launch a sweet-itch awareness month to highlight the condition. The charities include British Horse Society, Redwings Horse Sanctuary and Horse World Welfare which will be working on highlighting preventive measures and managing the condition.

With sweet-itch effecting 3-5% of horses in the UK from the start of spring and peaking in the summer months, the awareness month comes at the perfect time.

Management techniques range from horse supplements, to fly sprays and fly rugs. Ideally, when all these different techniques are put together it allows you to manage and give some relief to your horse or pony!

Here are some tips for the summer ahead:

Firstly, midges thrive around standing water and boggy land; they are at their peak at dusk and dawn so stabling or moving them to a different ground would be beneficial during these hours.

Secondly, use fly rugs or a specially designed sweet itch rug to cover the areas which are mostly bitten.

Thirdly, use supplements and plenty of fly spray. NAFF has made targeting products such as D-itch ointment which soothes the broken skin and a D-itch horse feed supplement to fight the skin irritation.

Horse Boarding - New Equine Extreme Sport

Take a horse, a stuntman and a mountain board mixed with a gallon of adrenalin and what do you get? Horse boarding!

The new extreme sport from Daniel Fowler-Prime who featured as a stunt man in films such as The Da Vinci Code, Kingdom of Heaven and Vanity fair invented the sport 5 years ago. Adrenalin seekers are towed behind a horse on a mountain board on an off road surface. It’s said the thrill's in the acceleration; 35 mph in 5 horse strides – that’s fast enough on a horse without being towed behind by a rope!

The 31 year old Daniel was born in Bude, Cornwall and initially experimented with other sports such as ‘horse surfing’ (and no, that’s not a horse on a surf board!). After being a keen surfer and skate border himself, Daniel invented the sport while visiting a friend’s farm in Devon, experimenting by towing boards behind cars and horses.

Mr Fowler-Prime said - 'I have always been a skate boarder, and later a surfer, and working in the field with horses it was just a matter of time before I put the two together.

'For me it beats being dragged by a car because horses can be unpredictable and they get excited when they know they'll get to run.

'Horses generally take to it very easily and normally it only takes a couple of hours to get them used to it.

'It's the first new equine sport for a long while and in our show we have added ramp jumps over four metre gaps. It takes horse riding to another level.

'It attracts both boarders and horse riders, mainly aged from early teens to adult.'

Daniel has now opened National Horse Boarding Training Centre in Seisdon, near Wolverhampton with the sport quickly growing and organizing the first events which will be held over the summer. The competition will consist of a team of one horse, one rider and one board rider and will race an opposing team over a 100m distance. The riders will communicate with the rider to control speed and be wearing protective clothing.

So, this summer are you looking for a new trick? Start training now and be ready for the summer events…if you’re brave enough!

Horse Hoof high fashion at Cheltenham!

Priced at £1,300 a pair, available in ankle or knee-high, designed to mimic a horse hoof; charity fun or fashion fraud?

These set of limited edition footwear will be gracing the four-day festival at Cheltenham this year. Designed with real horse hair and carbon fibre constructing the hoof, I wonder how this new take on ‘riding boots’ will be received within the world of equestrian fashionistas!


With the proceeds going to charity, the limited edition boots will be worn by models during the meet to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the festival.

Essex model, Louise Dainton said: "They are really comfortable and almost make you feel like you want to get on the track and gallop down the final furlong.  I'm not sure they are for everyone, but I definitely would like a pair of these hooves."

So, will you be sporting these pair of high-heeled boots at this years Cheltenham festival or will you be leaving them for the more ‘hoof hearted’?

Lets just hope these funky boots give all the visitors at this years Cheltenham festival something to smile about, and of course, raise some money for a good cause.

A solution to broken mobile phones, get a Tuffphone!

Have you ever had that sinking feeling seeing your beloved mobile phone slip out of your hands and fall to the floor; that split second moment where you bend down to pick it up, cringing as you turn over to see what the damage is?  Well this has happened to me on one too many occasions, too many a time have I been out riding or in the yard and seen my mobile crash to the floor, or even on one occasion straight into the water trough, rendering it completely useless.  Now don’t get me wrong I love my smart phone, sometimes it feels like it’s my sole contact to the outside world when I’m having one of those weeks where all I do is horses, work, horses, eat, bed (repeat daily), but it’s just not practical with the humdrum of daily rural life.  Touchscreens smeared with mud till they can’t even sense your fingers, straw sticking out the earpieces, water damaged screens and in the winter trying desperately to tap in a number in through my begloved hands only to realise the damn touchscreen won’t work with them on…ok so you get the picture.

So, it got the point last week that I decided to take it upon myself to find a solution to this constant issue of mine (and I’m sure one that’s shared by a lot of you out there), so I sat down and did a bit of research on the internet (well where else).  Amongst my findings was this site http://tuffphones.co.uk/ selling a product that I didn’t even realise existed – phones that can withstand being dropped from or trodden on by a horse, phones that are waterproof, phones that you can use with work gloves on, phones that can withstand the day to day rigours of country-cum-horse owning life, in a word, phones that are tough…hence Tuffphones!

Having looked through the site it suddenly hit me the uses such a phone could have and I have to say there was also a twinge of “why hadn’t I though of this.”  Cos it’s not just me that needs these phones, pretty much anyone that works outside could do with a Tuffphone in their life; farmers, sailors, builders, the military, the need is far greater than what is promoted by phone companies.  I think the problem is that most phones are getting smaller and smaller, smarter and smarter and more intuitive and the need for more rugged mobiles has taken a back seat, until now it seems.

So the point to my blog piece here is a simple one, if like me you are fed up with ruining your mobile with a constant exposure to the elements, if you feel like your phone needs to man up a bit and take a drop on the chin, then there are now phones out there that can do this, and tuffphones.co.uk seem to house the best ones on the market.

The Queen to hang up her riding boots

It's been said the Queen is to hang up her riding boots after reports of her chronic knee condition being too painful for her to continue to horse ride.  Despite needing a knee operation the Queens sense of duty is going strong and she has refused to cut back on her royal duties to give her the recommended 4 months to recuperate after the needed operation. In 2003, the Queen received keyhole surgery twice to remove cartilage from her knees and is now said to be suffering from Sciatica.  At 84 years of age she may be feeling the wear and tear of Royal life.

The condition means that the Queens famous early morning rides from within the Windsor grounds are perhaps coming to end.  A royal source said: ‘The Queen had a knee operation but has suffered ever since and the condition has got a lot worse. She is in so much pain that she has had to give up her beloved riding.’  It is understood that a lift will now be installed at a price of £1 million into the Queens home in Sandringham. 

It feels a sad day for such an iconic figure within the equine world to have to hang up her riding boots and equestrian clothing; we wish her all the best should these rumours about her health be true.

What do I want to wear this summer?

With summer only a couple of months around the corner it beggars the question 'what do I want to wear this coming season?'

Looking at some of the trends being set at the moment, Ellen Whitaker is setting a high standard with her iconic Caldene red show jacket, something which has taken off all over the circuit bringing a traditional edge back to the new ‘technical’ style of jumping jacket.

When it comes to riding hats Laura Kraut opitimises the continued favour for the stylish GPA helmets in the show jumping world, I have never seen her compete in anything but a GPA riding hat and she’s not the only one.  Three time Hickstead derby Winner, William Funnell, young rider Charlotte Platt, Olympic rider Tim Stockdale through to the majority of everyday show jump riders, they all favour the breathable styles that mean you can finally get a hat which lets your head breath in the warm summer months!

So how about boots?  Mine are certainly not in great condition after the toll of winter rain, mud and the squeeze of how many pairs of socks one can physically get on their feet in the winter months! It seems to be that De Niro riding boots at the moment are the obvious choice of boot for the majority of people that show jump. Every other person I seem to speak to are gloating about their new shiny De Niro’s and I have to admit they look fabulous in and out of the saddle, but then again that’s would I would expect from Italian design (from fashion world to horse world)! The ‘Swarovski Crystals’ seem to be on the ‘it’ list and moving on from last years patent top and toe, the new Ramses 8 boot couldn’t have any more sparkle on it without blinding someone – have a look and decide for yourself whether your brave enough for this one!