Any of you horse people have some good money-saving tips? (read on please).?

1. mane and tail detangler- If your not going to be showing! I like to save the $$ stuff for the shows, but at home I use mineral oil or baby oil. This will attract dust hence the not for show use but leaves the mane and tail well conditioned and smells good!

2. Cheap fly spray/sunscreen- I buy a concentrate called PERMECTRIN II it's pretty cheap(under 10.00) and very strong so a bottle last a long time once you have mixed it. IT DOES HAVE OIL IN IT...but I have never had it burn, I do however mix it a little on the light side, it says to spray every so many days but I tend to spray at least once a day in the summer so I don't need to have it mixed as strong as they say because I don't need it to have 30 days of residual effect. I mix up two gal of spray at a time into a hand pump sprayer( very quite and gives a nice even fine mist) I use 3 OZ of concentrate, then I add 2 oz of LAZER SHEEN ( I find this not only keeps the coats looking nice but seems to help the fly spray work longer?? maybe helps bond it to the coat???), Then I add 8 oz of any off brand sunscreen( made for people) I buy the highest SPF I can find! I add one gal of my water and shake the crap out of it until its mixed then add the last gal and shake again. This covers all my bases flies gone and no faded coats,manes or tails! Once again I do not use when I am going to be showing it doesn't really attract dirt but it doesn't smell the best...I have added a few drops of fragrance oil to this mix( you pick the scent) and it does make it smell much nicer, but I just hate the way sunscreen smells..yuck! But this is much cheaper than buying that horse spray sunscreen!

3. Mane & Tail breakage problem? Or just want to grow a nice long one! Try this. Buy the cheapest hand lotion you can find with vitamin E and collagen in it. You can pump it right onto the base of the mane and tail and rub in for really rough manes & tails or bring it home and put about 1/4 of the bottle into a quart sized spray bottle add water to fill, shake the crap out of it and spray on, work into base down to skin. This also help if you have mane and tail itching or flaking. This can get kind of yucky as it does hold dust and dirt but it washes right out with your bath before a show.

4. Winter snowballs driving you nuts? ( under hooves) If your just going for a quick ride spray the bottom of the hoof( be sure to get the V of the frog well) with cheap cooking spray( grill type works best has more nonstick stuff in it) the snow will ball but only a little bit before it can't hold on to the slick spray and falls off( do not use this when its icy!!!!!!!!) trouble in the pasture with snowballing? After your ride put a thin layer of Vaseline on the bottom of the hoof( get the V of the frog well), you can also rub a little bit into the coronet band it keep it soft and growing well.

5. Winter cooler type blanket- Watch for cotton blankets at yard sales, or if you would rather have wool ( wool don't like me...very itchy lol) Shop someplace like cheaperthandirt or sportmansguide ( on the web) For cheap army blankets. Depending on the size of the horse and the blanket ( king size, yard sales ones even fit my draft) you can sew two blankets together if they are the smaller wool ones, but once you have them sewn take them to the farm, put it on your horse ( there will be wrinkles in the blanket it will not lay flat unless you really overhaul it) But put it on the horse then in the front mark where you want to put a few holes to tie it shut, think shoelace pattern. You can either just punch the holes and run a bit of extra bale twine in them to tie it with, or if you wanna go a little more fancy..lol go to a craft store and buy the metal grommets like on a tarp and place them where you want your holes( this will keep the blanket from fraying over time) While your at the craft store if you want to pick up some elastic band for a belly band to hold the blanket on the horse( this is good if you'll be walking outside to cool out the wind likes to grab blankets) I buy the 2 1/2 wide stuff, get enough to go around your largest horse, and buy some velcro now go home and sew the velcro onto the elastic band at the ends. If you'll be using this set up on more then one horse place elastic at the right place on the band for each horse! If you wanted to you can sew the band to the blanket, but I use mine with a few diff. blankets and diff. horses so I like mine loose. You can also do this trick with about any fabric to make coolers,rain sheets,etc. This also makes a great Halloween costume, dress yourself up as a hobo and put this on your horse and trust me you'll look like a pair of bums living in central park! It looks bad but it works great and lasts 10x longer than any cooler I have ever owned.

6. Cheap mouse trap! Take a 5 gal. bucket tape a chunk of wood to the rim so that its like a ramp ( give the mouse something to walk up to get into the bucket!) Place something good in the

I get fly spray mixture that you can mix with water. Its cheaper and works just the same as name brand fly spray. It also last longer.

A quick, cheap and easy feed in fly controller: buy a gallon of Great Value (or other cheapo brand) brown apple cider vinegar. Mix a teaspoon in the feed each day for a week. Then double the dosage up to a Tablespoon. Its quick and easy.

I buy regular car washing sponges that are soft because they are usually cheaper than the actual horse sponges. They come in more sizes too that are great for the horse's face.

Hope this Helps!

I know the same feeling. I might have to move my hsow horse to another barn because we are getting ripped off and right now we aren't made of money.

One money saving tip that I have read on yahoo is don't eat out. That is what my family is starting to do to try and reduce costs. Another one is use the dishwasher as little as possible. My dad uses so much that our water bill is sky high. Don't buy stuff just for the sake of buying it. When my horse needed front polols that were black, I got them on sale(his legs are tiny so I got pony ones tehe)

I hope this made sense. Im right in the middle of doing school right now and I am sneeking in this answer before my mom finds out....

At our stables, we've started mixing 1/2 water to 1/2 Skin-So-Soft oil (and in a spray bottle) as a fly repellent, replacing Show Sheen, a detangler and for ourselves to ward off mosquitoes.

listerine and water for linament!