Quick Pick Equine Poo Picking Tool Review; Speeding up your mucking out time!

Quick Pick Poo Picking Tool Review

With the lack of daylight hours over winter being a real problem with riders trying to cram in all their chores and keeping their horse ridden and fit with the few hours of sunlight we get a day (especially those that work full time and go to work in practical darkness and leave in darkness I don't get a lot of time in natural daylight to look after Erik!) why not use something that can save you time and effort?

The new, recently launched, Quick Pick mucker is the tool for you! 

First Impressions

I got sent a beautiful Red Quick Pick by Gary and his team and to say it's beautiful, for a mucker, is accurate because it's so well designed and very sleek; you can tell a lot of thought has gone in to the design.
One of the first things to strike me was just how different they look to a 'normal' mucker that have been around for years; obviously they still have the same overall shape but the little things that bug you about the old style muckers have been added or taken away.

Another wonderful thing to note is that the Quick Pick is fully recyclable so years down the line and your trusty Quick Pick finally gives out after years of use, you can put it in the recycling knowing that it can be broken down and will be used for something else. As someone who is very plastic conscious I love this this! 

Design

I love that those little things that aren't quite right or annoying with the old styling poo picking muckers have been thought of and removed or improved here. For example there is no more bending over at 90 degrees to scrape up the poo nuggets with a not very efficient rake. The Quick Pick has been designed so that you can stand with one leg either side of the muckers bucket, put your feet on strategically placed foot holds that keep the bucket in place, so that you can stand upright and with the normal length rake can scope the poop in to the mucker. 
Brilliant for back injuries or just not putting undue stress on the muscles and joints round the lumber area of the back. It's also good for your core as, as when you're scooping the poop you're pulling them in to the back and thus 'engaging' your core and giving it a work out which is even better for your riding. Who knew doing a chore could help your riding?! 

No stooping or bending to pick up!

Photo by Quick Pick

Securely place your feet either side and then scoop 

Little things like a clip on the handle (pictured above) so you can easily keep your rake and Quick Pick together so they don't get lost or separated from each other. Doesn't seem like a big problem but when it's dark and you're searching around in your store room at 6am for the rake because it wasn't kept together and now you can't find it would be a total pain in the bottom.

Use

Another part that I love about the Quick Pick is that you can pick up and tip out it's contents without having to strain your wrists. The handle tips on a pivot and has a hand slot at the back so you can easily tip out the contents of the mucker bucket without having to awkwardly twist anything in your wrist, arm, shoulder or back! In the photo below it's so easy to see how it tips!

Plus as the mucker bucket pivots the poo and other junk in the mucker bucket falls to the back so you're far far less likely to drop or spill anything while carrying the Quick Pick back to your wheel barrow or muck heap! 

I think this ergonomic design is my favourite feature overall, as some will know that when I broke my wrist I have had some problems since with broken tendons and pain so by not having to twist the mucker to put the contents away I won't be hurting my already compromised wrist. This is a big plus for me because I cannot be 'off my game' when riding!

No twisting, an easy handle on the back and the main handle pivoting the bucket for easy emptying! 

Photo by Quick Pick

While the Quick Pick is certainly made for field poo picking I've also found it's dramatically reduced the amount of time it takes me to muck Erik's stable each morning! When you're on a tight schedule like me with trying to get mucked out and the yard clean before work it's been a wonder with picking up so much more muck! 
As the bucket is quite a size larger than traditional muckers you can fit in 3 poos in instead of the normal 1 or 2, meaning less stopping and walking over to the wheel barrow! And as I mentioned above, with the tipping of the bucket, is that you don't drop any muck and find stray nuggets all over the stable later! 

Regularly readers will also know that we teamed up with HorseDialog a few weeks ago to highlight the importants of Spring Summer #SSTimeItRight which is their campaign to time the worming of your horse at the right to reduce the risk of picking up worm eggs in the summer months so horses didn't head in to winter with a worm burden and now we're in to the winter months its time for #ESRWTimeItRight which is the Encysted Small Red Worm which affects horses in the autumn and winter months as the worms become encysted in the gut wall and then come spring they mass emerge after winter.  By regularly picking up droppings in your paddocks you'll significantly reduce the likelihood of your horse(s) getting worms and other parasites that can be transmitted by the grass they eat in their paddocks. It's something I am very conscious of so with the proper worming cycle worming and paddock poo picking you'll help in keeping your horse healthy and happy! Therefore anything to make poo picking in your paddock easier and therefore something you're more likely to do, the better for your horse! 

Thoughts 
Overall I've been using the Quick Pick Equine poo mucker for around 3 weeks and I genuinely love it! With everything in my life whether equine or otherwise I like tools and items to reduce the workload/time/stress of having to do a chore and I have really found that the Quick Pick has certainly done that for me. 
I also love it when the annoying little things that make a chore more difficult or problematic to have had real thought put in to them and the design to reflect the overcoming of those problems and this I have also found with the Quick Pick, it's been designed to speed up the amount of time doing a chore so you can spend more time riding your horse, it's also been designed to put less physical stress on joints and the body which is great! Repetitive strain is a real issue so to make steps to reduce that is a great and a real plus point in my thought process if I was buying one of these.

I can find nothing, if not very little, to fault the Quick Pick in that maybe with the foot slots make it a little too wide for some slimmer wheel barrows to go in face down but nothing that turning it on it's side or at a side angle wouldn't fix. They really are fabulous!

Cost 
You can buy all of the items separately or in a bundle all together so you're not locking in to buying part of the Quick Pick if you already have something similar.
To buy the Quick Pick bucket and Quick Rake together it's £49.99. To buy the Quick Pick only is £35 and the Quick Rake only is £25.
Some may scoff at the prices but these items are so hardy and well made. No thin plastic that cracks or splits after only a few uses or if you drop it. I've actually dropped the Quick Pick a couple of times from my wheelbarrow on to concrete and it's not even put a scratch on it!
They're extremely well made and are actually manufactured here in the United Kingdom, which I absolutely love! It's supporting local business and our economy, so none of the cheap imports!

You can buy a Quick Pick online via their website (which is easy to navigate and use, plus it looks beautiful too) https://quickpickequine.co.uk/ or if you're heading over to Olympia in December then they will be at stand H287 so if you'd prefer to 'Try Before You Buy' then head over to their stand and have a go scooping in their 'poo potatoes' and get it from them directly! 

Would I recommend the Quick Pick.... a resounding yes, very much so!




*If you read this blog and think you'd like me to try out a product and give it a rigorous test then drop me a message https://www.facebook.com/horsiness

Smart Grooming Review - Smart Mane &Tail thinner, the Multi use tool

It's been rather a long time since I did a smart grooming review, naughty me!

Then again the Tattersalls sales have started and horse aren't going to transport themselves, that's my excuse anyway!

So where was I? Oh yes, my very favourite horsey company Smart Grooming. Georgie and I aren't brand ambassadors for nothing, we genuinely do believe in these unsung heroes and their wonder products. Showing season may have ended but I well remember getting up at 4am to plait, wash and spruce and their wonderful products make it quicker and easier to get your horse show ring ready. 

A little while back they sent me a couple of mane and tail 'Smart Tails'. Sadly I haven't been able to try it on Beanies tail yet but I will - Georgie keeps beating me to it and I'm not there to take any photos. Saying that, in the mean time I have had to thin out his name, so rather than pull his mane (which often makes horses head shy, or reluctant to be plaited because they always think you're going to yank their hair out) I'd see how the Smart Tail worked. 

You what I'm talking about, you're mid-way through the perfect plait, but you have to pull it tight to get it to stay in..only for your horse to have other ideas and shake their head, or fidget. So, I tried to Smart Tail on thinning out his rather thick mane, which has a tendency to get pretty heavy in the middle.

First of all it was given a good wash and shampoo. Then conditioner was put in and that was brushed through, making sure to remove all the tangles. Now it was nice, soft and tangle free it was towel dried to remove most of the water, then I brushed the mane onto the 'wrong side' so the underside of his mane was now on the outside. Then with a Medium thickness Smart Tail I brushed it lightly through the mane to remove some of the thickness.

By doing so I wasn't removing big lumps of hair from the root like I would do if I was pulling the mane, which could leave you with a patchy thin mane. And that is absolutely not what you want! It took out some of the weight and thickness, without taking too much out. That's the beauty of having the different teeth and blade strengths.

Without taking too much hair out, I evened out the entire mane until it was one uniform thickness, thus eliminating a thick middle mane and the subsequent golf ball plaits that would have resulted if I didn't thin it.

All the while not pulling the hair from the root, and not damaging the hair follical - It's all very well in the summer when you horse has lovely thick aerated hair follicals, but come mid-winter when you horse has a neck cover on 24/7 and you've got suffocated hair frolics (making the hair more likely to die and fall out) and rubbed patches, then you'll wish you hadn't pulled it so vigorously all summer!

The result, a nice even thickness, and because you're not hurting your horse it means they're less likely to fidget and pull away from you every time you come to plait, and when you do need to plait up, your plaits are even and uniform in size.

To finish, take your thinning scissors and give the ends a trim to make your mane all one length, without it being dead straight.

The Standard Smart Tails come in course, medium and fine and are £15 each 

I even spotted Smart Tails in my local tack shop - Gibsons Saddlers in Newmarket. Oh and some whisker trimmers too!

The 'yellow handle range' (above) Smart Tails are £22 and come in course, medium, fine and super fine.

Or if you're feeling like splurging then the wooden handle 'professional range' of Smart Tails are £30 and also come in course, medium, fine and super fine.

All can be found in the new Smart Grooming Site - Totallysmart.com

GGGear Cross Country Base Layer Set

GGGear Cross Country Base Layer Set

Get ready to stand out from the crowd on the cross country course with GGGear’s base layer cross country colour sets!

I ordered a “children’s design your own base layer, polo and hat silk” set for my soon to be 6 year old daughter Frankie. She is beginning to go out competing more and more so to inspire her further, I thought her very own bespoke cross country set was just the ticket. I did a bit of research as there are a few companies that offer this service but I really like what GGGear had to offer. They are very competitively priced and a family business, which I liked, so I opted to order from them.

They have all sorts of options available with cross country colour; set that are pre-chosen for you, sets that include matching accessories for both rider and horse to co-ordinate and much, much more.

Website

I found the website very easy to use when ordering the bespoke option, with drop down boxes for each item, size, colour options, pompom options and patterns to go on the base layer, polo shirt and hat silk. There is a box where you tell GGGear what to print and where and what colour you want it too making sure you can relay exactly what you want and where the prints are to go. This is a real selling point for us, so you can customise your silks exactly to how you imagined them in your head. The print options they have for patterns is endless: stars, spots, paint splats, apples, you name it. If you have an idea they can probably print it for you!

Because Francesca is going to be 6 (and a tall one at that!) I ordered her the Small/Medium youth. I chose royal blue base layer and hat silk with bright pink stars and then a contrasting bright pink polo shirt printed with royal blue stars. I had picked this option because from the very beginning Frankie has worn her trusty royal blue with pink spots hat silk and loves it, so I wanted something along those colour schemes but not totally the same.

With the order placed and paid for it wasn’t long until it arrived just a few days later by Royal Mail Tracked service. I was delighted when opening the package to see what I had ordered was absolutely spot on and looked even better than what I expected!
I don’t know about you, but children can be hard to please sometimes; even when you think they are
going to like something they surprise you and don’t. However, when I presented Francesca with her
birthday present (albeit a bit early as she was going to a Hunter Trail) the response from her was
sheer delight at her new base layer, polo shirt and hat silk set and it had to be tried on immediately!

It fitted her great, with a bit of growing room so it can be enjoyed and worn plenty of times without
her growing out of it too quickly……hopefully. All she seems to be doing at the moment is growing
out of her clothes!

Look and Quality

As you can see from the pictures she looked so smart in her co-ordinating base layer set and she felt very special in it too as it was made especially for her. She opted on the competition day to wear the base layer on its own as it was a hot 24 degrees.  It was great to have the option of the polo shirt to layer over the top or to change into the polo shirt afterwards.

The quality of all the items is very good and the printed stars are sharp and stand out on the clothing. I was pleasantly surprised when I got asked a few times by various competitors and mothers where the cross country colours were from as they looked brilliant on. With mummy points earned for getting such an amazing birthday present in the eyes of a pony mad child’s as well as running round 24 jumps over a distance of nearly a mile at the hunter trial, this mummy hopes she will be lucky enough for someone to get her her very own bespoke base layer cross country set.

Link for design your own childs set here for £55!

​

The Husk - Brand new breathable products for your horse, all in areasonable price range

A new up and coming brand you may have heard of are the HUSK (Horse Active Sports Kit). Developed for the propose of bringing the fore front of innovation in horse equipment to the masses but keeping it reasonably priced! Good right?

Back in June Georgie and I tried out their very first prototype, a dressage numnah that is both comfortable and cushioned - it supports and distributes your weight evenly over the horses back, but being made of a breathable woven fabric, it subsequently allows air to circulate between the skin and the saddle. Therefore reduces sweat and keeps the skin cool, allowing the muscles to remain cool which is so important to reduce the likelihood of muscle damage when exercising.

And with all good equestrian equipment, you want it to look and striking and cool as possible. Which it does so, don't you think?

The technology behind HUSK. is that it's made up of this special honey comb woven fabric that allows air to flow under the saddle.

You can even see from the above photograph just how cushioned it is, it allows the saddle to mould to the horses back, therefore not creating any pressure points, but keeping the breathable structure.

The evidence - A saddle patch that is basically completely dry after exercise. This was after schooling in a HUSK. numnah for a solid 45 minutes. 

They've also created an entire range of new products too, not just numnahs. It's still a young  growing company, with advise being given by some of the best professionals to help build the best innovative products, without rushing it!

Prototypes are still being produced for the Jump pad, made to fit the monoflap and dual flap saddles. Cut perfectly to fit just right! 

We can't wait to have one for cross country!

Not just numnahs but a range of boots are on the horizon, just days now until they're released. We have a funny feeling they're going to sell out the first batch in no time at all.

I've written before about the importance of keeping tendons cool but supported, and now you can do so with the HUSK. tendon boots. They do look very smart indeed! 

Not only boots, but also bandages. A different type of support but a different role in equestrianism, same breathable system! Usually used for dressage, or just day to day schooling but keeping the tendon protected from knocks, strapes or just general support while the tendons flex, all while allowing air to flow over the tendon area and keeping it cool. 

They just look so smart and well made, we absolutely cannot wait to try them out! Keep your eyes peeled on our twitter for a release date. We'll be retweeting all the action from The HUSK.

Even more exciting is that we've been working with The HUSK. on a revolutionary new pad, and it's like nothing else out there. Won't spoil the surprise but it's traditional in it's look but revolutionary in it's design. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more info!

The HUSKs facebook can be found here. I recommend you follow it to keep up with all the release dates and new products

Show Ring Essentials - What I Have In My Basket

After reading showing mad mum Julia Gaukrogers post this week "What's in your basket? Baby wipes and gin" in Horse & Hound I thought I'd do a little blog post of my own about what show ring essentials I take into the ring with me in my basket when grooming for Georgie.

1) All my Smart Grooming products, obviously! -

As their brand ambassador and avid user of their products, of course my basket is going to contain these things! They're absolute life savers and however much prep you do leading up to them entering the ring, there will always be last minute smudges or brush over.

I'll use all of these in the run up. Coat shine to make him sleek, soft and shiny, leg and body whitener on his white socks, mane and tail detangler, perfect plaits - you name it!

2) Water -

A big essential item is water and lots of it. In summer showing its going to be sunny and hot (well, we hope!) so keeping the rider and yourself nice and hydrated is really important.You both sweat a hell of a lot in the ring so replenishing that with some nice cold water is a must. Don't want people feeling faint during their class now do we?

3) Brushes -

It wouldn't be a proper grooming kit without brushes. Both to wick dirt and dusty off but also to do quarter marks etc.

Make sure to give them a good washing after each use to stop them getting grubby and holding onto the dirt, oil and dust, otherwise you're just putting them back into the horses coat.

4) Hoof oil - 

Whether on grass or in an arena you always have to hoof oil your horse or pony. Things will stick to it and it will rub off a little but you must make sure you always do them before going into the ring. Shiny nice hooves make a final touch.

5) Baby products - 

I take in both baby oil and shampoo. You know the situation where you're just about to go into the ring and your horses gets a mark on its leg. You can't just leave it there so a quick dab of shampoo on a damp cloth and you can rub that mark off in no time at all. 

As well as highlighter I like to also have some baby oil to hand to just put a little on their noses before they go into the ring.

6) Cloths -

I do take more than 1, usually older tea towels for rubbing (a slightly damp) over the body with a little bit of super shine on to really make the coat gleam. As well as a dry towel for getting rid of Beanies slobbery saliva off his lips and chin, it's all about finishing touches.

7) Hair brush and hair wax. 

Usually to seal in stray hairs after plaiting we use styling wax, just helps get them looking neater.

Hair brush to run through a soft sleek tail to get rid of any tangles.

8) Plaiting equipment - 

Plaiting would obviously of been done long before entering the ring but it's always good to take to the ring side with you. You'd hate to be a bit stuck sprinting back to lorry to get your plaiting stuff cause you've got an unravelled plait 10 minutes before your about to go in! 

Honourable mentions are polos or treats to give your pony after they've been in the ring, no matter how they did. They've worked hard and should be rewarded.

Another mention is perhaps a sponge and saddle soap, you never know when you might need to rub it over your tack.

Everyone has different things they like to take with them but these are my essentials, what types of things do you use? Maybe I might pick up a new amazing product I didn't know about!

Hope to see some of you at Hickstead this weekend,

Sophie x