Peek In My Trunk: Summer Edition
Summer is finally here! Every season I like to take inventory of the items in my tack trunk to determine which products I need more of and which products I won’t be buying again. My barn friends and I like to talk about products that work for our horses (and us). This way, if one person has a product that the other doesn’t, we can talk about the pros and cons without all of us having to buy it. Sometimes we even share products to let others try them on their horses. Unfortunately, I can’t virtually share my products, so I thought the next best thing would be to round up my favorites and write about them!
The Piper SmartCore Long Sleeve Crew Neck Sun Shirt is my favorite product of all time! To say this is my personal pick of the summer would be a huge understatement. While I put on loads of sunscreen, I always find a way to get sunburnt in the summertime. This shirt has been a total lifesaver with its built-in UPF 50. Even though this top is long sleeve, the fabric is moisture-wicking and keeps you cool in hot weather. It also has mesh panels that run underneath the length of the underarms to help keep you cool. Fun tip: You can even wear it outside of the barn; I wear mine to the beach and to any outdoor activity in the summertime.
I adore the SmartPak Comfort Fly Mask w/ SmartCore Technology and so do my horses! My 11-year-old Quarter Horse mare Lucy despises flies and bugs with a passion. She gets herself so worked up when flies land on her that she’ll work herself up into a full body sweat. This fly mask does a great job at keeping flies away from her eyes and ears! I also love that it’s form fitting, so it doesn’t give her any rubs. The SmartCore Technology helps wick moisture away from her face, but Lucy is a heavy sweater, so I still find some sweat on her (but not any more than I would with any other fly mask).
I do a lot of clipping in the summertime and find myself needing to take extra good care of my clipper blades. When I’m done clipping, I make sure to brush the hair out of my blades really well, and then I store them in the Andis Blade Care Plus container. This way, my blades won’t rust from the humid summer air, and I know they’ll stay clean. When I’m ready to use them, I can just take them out, dab them off on a paper towel, and get to clipping.
With summer comes flies, tail swishing, and lots of tangles! I love Healthy HairCare Hair Moisturizer for keeping Lucy’s mane and tail detangled. I like that it’s concentrated, so one bottle makes an entire gallon of spray. As we all know, summer environments can be damaging to a horse’s coat. Periodically after grooming, I spray her entire body down with it, because it contains both vitamin E and sunscreen to promote a healthy coat and prevent sunburn!
The LeMieux Hippo Scrubber is a must to keep in your wash stall (or trunk)! It’s a great bathing tool, and I like that it’s a two-in-one product. I see this product as soapy curry comb, but I also like that you can take it apart and just use the sponge. This is great for getting tough manure stains out of your horse’s coat, and when I’m done bathing, I like to rinse out the sponge and use it to wipe down my horse’s face. These are just a few of my favorite products for the summer season!