While you have no problem sharing your household items with your nearest and dearest four-legged love, we have a feeling the non-horsey individuals you share your home with would be less than impressed if they found out their more useful possessions have been covered with lashings of horse slobber and muck.
Here are nine household essentials that you’ve probably taken to the yard on the sly at some point in time…
1. The kitchen scissors
An absolute necessity when trying to open plastic food packaging, but also an absolute necessity when trying to finish off your horse’s summer show trimming schedule in time for his first county competition outing. And when we say trim, we mean hind leg cat hairs as well…
2. Towels
It’s horse owning 101 that after a wash you must dry your horse thoroughly with a nice fluffy towel. Problem is you haven’t had time to buy him his own yet. So your partner’s new beach towel that they were saving for the forthcoming summer holiday will have to do. Towels also come in handy for tack cleaning; the perfect foundation to stop all that grubby, greasy water from spoiling the carpet.
3. Hair brush
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Your daughter will likely be none the wiser if you borrow her tangle teaser for a couple of days to brush through your horse’s tail.
4. Washing up sponge
For when you just don’t have a tack cleaning sponge or cloth to hand. A quick rinse and we’re sure it will be fine to wash the pots and pans with…
5. Eyebrow pencil/eye liner
Typical, your horse obtains a small nick on the side of his leg just before his big qualifier. Lucky for you, your room-mate has developed a liking for colouring her eyebrows a shade of dark auburn that handily matches your liver chestnut’s near hind leg. Winning.
6. Vaseline
Petroleum jelly is just the stuff to keep human lips soft and shiny, but it’s also great for keeping a horse’s face moisturised if any chapped skin should arise. Just don’t mention that your application routine involved more than one “pot-to-mouth” smear.
7. Colander
Nothing beats it when you need to scoop broken ice out of a water trough during the winter. Innovation at its finest.
8. Shampoo/hairspray
Sorry I used your pricey salon brand products to wash my horse’s mane and secure his plaits in place, but needs must.
9. Pillow cases
One cannot simply take a coloured or a grey to a show without dedicating all efforts to keeping him clean the night before. With this in mind, I used those silk pillowcases your mother bought us for our anniversary as a tail bag.
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Former H&H showing editor and deputy features editor
Born and raised in the Lake District, Alex has grown up on the showing scene. She has qualified and competed ponies at the Royal International, Horse of the Year Show and Olympia and has first-hand knowledge of the current issues in the showing world as well as the horses, ponies and riders who compete in the sport. Alex joined H&H in January 2018 as showing editor, cementing its place as the leading equestrian publication for both showing reports and current showing news in the UK. She moved on in October 2024 to pursue other opportunities, but continues to write for us on a freelance basis.
