Tag Archives: horse bling

Horse Bling for Valentine’s Day!






To bling or not to bling, that is the question.  Well, not really.  It doesn’t matter to me whether you blingify your horse.  But, if you do, or were thinking about it, or didn’t even know there was such a thing — here is my introduction to bling.  Besides, it’s Sunday and we should talk about festive things!

In my bling travels, I have found different categories.  First, there is the Brow Band Bling.  That you can find all over Ebay or search Google.  Basically, some clever people have devised a way to weave or sew beads or crystals into the headstalls of various types of leather or plastic.  This seems to be more prevalent in the Dressage world but you will see brow band bling for the Western world.  Here are a few examples of Dressage Bling Bands that I found in my quest.  I was quite impressed with the volume of options presented by browbandswithbling dot com.  I think if you wanted some elegant Sunday Bests for your horse, you could find it here in this category.

Following Brow Band Bling  is the overall Headstall Bling.   Headstall Bling is the natural extension of Browband Bling.  The Western world has embraced this big-time.  I’ve attached a few pics of some selects I’ve chosen.  The first is a good example of the next level of Headstall bling (you can find them with less going on…).  I chose this artist because she has gone above and beyond with adding PAINT.  A new concept.  The other example is the full blown horsey bling attire – the total package.  I chose this one because it is so much fun!  I could see myself buying this for my horse for Christmas — like he’d care (*more on that later).  At this particular website, there are many full attires to chose from.  I particularly liked the Ed Hardy model.  It cracked me up.  I didn’t know Jon Gosselin had a horse…   Anyway, here it is in all of its glory!

Next we take a step back into “horse jewelry with a purpose” — or so they say.  This would be the Rhythm Bead Category.  Have you heard of these?  They are supposed to help you understand your horse’s cadence because you can hear the beat of the beads rattling.  They fit around the horse’s neck and fall around the chest.  Here is a picture.  You can find these rhythm beads on the Internet and I am listing an outlet here.  You can get just about any color and any design.  They range from $15 to a lot more.

I see that there is now a Rhythm Bead expansion category of Mane and Tail bling You can get clip-on bling and add it to those areas.  That seems kinda fun.  After all, the TWH people have been doing that for years.  Here are links to where you can find those in all shapes and sizes.

Lastly, I’m going to bring up my personal favorite.  This category I’ll call Bridle Tags. You’ve probably seen them before with either a simple I HEART MY HORSE or perhaps a I HAVE THE RIGHT TO RIDE IN HERE when the tag is for entry purposes.   But, this particular Bridle Tag goes to eleven for me.  It is unusual, hip and you can personalize it.  (They have dog collar tags, too.)  So, I present to you the Sweet Bird Studio Horse Bling. You can have your horse’s name engraved on it.  Or, talk to the artist and design your own from her wealth of found objects.   I bet you could have her do just about anything if you browse the human stuff on her site.  Very cool and all unique.  I like her human work for myself!   But really, isn’t it all for us?…  ;)

*I once had a horse psychic come out to speak to Aladdin because he was being very mean to my donkey (that story later…).  During the conversation, Aladdin piped up that he wanted a flashy bridle.  He wanted one that would sparkle in the sun like he had seen in the arena where he was boarded at the time.  Now, you may think I’m nuts, but I did go out and get him a headstall with silver.  And, I swear he puffed up the first time I put it on him.  He used to pout when I would tack him up without it.  And, now that he is retired, I can honestly say he nuzzles it whenever he sees it.  So, color me crazy, but I think they know what they are wearing.




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Update on Deaf Horses and My New Horsey Bling!






MY HORSEY BLING

I wanted to show you the bling I ordered for my gelding.  It is a tag you put on the bridle.  I talked about it on a previous post regarding Horse Bling (2/14/10).  Anyway, it arrived and is better than the pictures!  Way Better!  I love it!  I am thinking of ordering a few more with different colored stones for each, if possible.  My only issue is that my other horses have really long names.  So, I guess I will come up with creative nick names.  Which, I’m happy to do since I really like it!  One of the most impressive details to me, that I didn’t understand from the previous photos, is that the piece is really substantial.  It is heavy and bigger than I thought it would be.  Total bang for your buck!  I’ve pictured it below with a quarter next to it so that you can compare.  Also, it is silver, not gold.  My professional photography studio here — isn’t.  Here you go!  And, if you want to order your own, click to go to the website.

DEAF HORSE UPDATES

Well, I kinda feel like I’m cheating because I’m going to cut and paste the words from two owners of deaf horses.  I felt that I should just go ahead and use their emails since I would basically be paraphrasing anyway and I might make a mistake.  So, here you go — two devoted owners of deaf horses tell us a little bit about what it is like to own, train and love a disabled pet.  First though, I wanted to link you to the DEAF HORSE Facebook page where there are several owners as well as a link to the Society web page which is under construction.

1)  SPLASH:

Splash was born May 15th, 2009. Her mother decided to give birth to her in a puddle of irrigation water in the bottom of our field. Why? We will never know!! We noticed that the foal was not very responsive, and had probably not nursed as of the time we discovered her. She was ten days premature and had been born in a puddle of cold water gosh knows what time of the night. We got her to her feet and after milking the mare and pouring some of the vital colostrum down Splash’s throat, she commenced to nursing and rarely quit right up to weaning time at six months of age. She is a voracious eater! Still is at almost a year old.

We discovered she was deaf several ways. One was that her ears hung out to the sides and did not “prick up” at loud sounds as did the ears of the other colt we had. Her color is another factor including the fact that she was premature. Splash-White syndrome is the cause of her deafness, and our vet believes hers is due to color and prematurity, rather than genetics, since there are no deaf horses in her background. Color and hearing are the last things to form on foals while still in the uterus. The final deciding factor was when my husband fired up the chainsaw and she wandered over to see what he was doing! All the other horses were leery, of course, and wanted nothing to do with the loud obnoxious machine! Our vet then fired off a few firecrackers just to satisfy his curiosity and it was decided..Splash is totally deaf.

Haltering has been an issue so far. She has learned four “signs” so far: hello, come here, stop, and move over. She is very eager to please, but she doesn’t seem to like new things touching her until she has explored them well. She will, however, follow me across any type of board or bridge without fear. Even across a running stream! I plan to separate her now that she is a yearling and begin the true “leading” process. Right now she follows hand signs only.

To interact with her I often place my throat against her neck and talk so she can feel the vibration of my voice. I tell her I love her and her reaction has become to paw with her front foot each time I do…weird. She loves me to talk to her and it seems to be something she asks for when I spend time with her. Touch is everything with her and she is very affectionate and doesn’t spook as easy as the other horses do either. Only when she is sleeping. Then, I always stomp my feet on the ground to let her know I am near so she doesn’t get startled when she sees me. She picks up the vibration from the ground and usually opens her eye to look at me.
Both of her eyes are sky blue and she will have to be tatooed (eyeliner, vet applied) after she turns a year old to avoid cancer around her eye. Training to begin soon since it’s warming up! Excited!

2) ADELINE

Adeline is a 10 year old APHA (red roan) overo mare. She is not an albino as some think, as she does have some pigment. She was born with all that white & pink skin & blue eyes, but has SOME black pigment under white coat, and a few red roan specs on her ears. I’m actually quite surprised she wasn’t euthanized immediately thinking she had OLWS. (Overo Lethal White Syndrome).

I met Adeline as a 2+ year old, she came from a breeder who’d picked her up after she was passed around to several homes already in her young life. She was truly a sweet, quiet, honest and intelligent horse, but I think maybe not everyone knew she was deaf and therefore, didn’t know why she didn’t understand them.
At this breeders, she was bred to another paint at a young age and ended up absorbing the foal. I was planning to buy the foal, but the breeder decided she wanted to sell Adeline. I knew I had to have her. She would follow me around with her nose in the small of my back when I was there, I knew she loved me already too.
So, I bought a deaf, untrained mare. She is on one side Impressive bred (beautiful halter horse w/ some issues, and Impressive mares can be quite rank!) and the other side is Jet Deck (QH racing). So she is fast, pretty and deaf. ;) And now, Adeline – who was once spooky and not -so – confident, has turned into the best trail horse, and we practice our lower level dressage for conditioning and really – we just enjoy spending time together. I LOVE her.

So, there you have a few stories to mull about the next time you hear of a deaf horse.  IF you ever hear about a deaf horse… I sure hadn’t until one needed a home around here.  I had no clue about them.  Now, a few more of us do, thanks to these brave owners.




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