We’re doing our bit for the environment. If you’ve placed an order recently, you may have noticed we no longer use plastic bags to package our items.

However, if you want to buy a present for a friend and need it packaged, please let us know.

A positive step forward for the company!

Sent in by one of our lovely customers. Absolutely love the short haired pointer! Our XL dog beds really are the perfect bed for those who love to share ♥

Whenever you tie up a horse, you’ve got to be able to release it quickly and safely under pressure to stop it injuring itself – and you.

These clips are also ideal for use in the gerden, strapping things down on a car or motorbike and extremely useful when camping!

Laminitis is the inflammation of the Laminae.

There are two layers of interlocking Laminae, one is attached to the wall of the hoof, the other is attached to the pedal bone. As the laminae become inflamed the two layers begin to separate. This can be likened to the two sides velcro being pulled apart. Eventually the pedal bone will start to rotate and move downwards, this is excruciatingly painful for the horse. In the most serious cases the pedal bone may eventually perforate the sole of the hoof, unfortunately often results in euthanasia.

 What causes laminitis?

There are 3 causes of laminitis.

Overload: When one leg is injured the horse will bear all it's weight on the opposite leg. This can cause that leg to become laminitic. 

 Inflammatory: This is caused by toxins being absorbed into the blood stream. Consuming a large amount of starch rich grain all in one go, the grain is not fully digested and builds up in the hind gut where it starts to ferment and release toxins.

Septic conditions, for example where the placenta is retained after giving birth. 

A serious bout of colic where the gut is damaged.

All of these can cause severe illness that will affect the laminae.

 Metabolic: This is by far the most common cause of laminitis. There are 2 types, both are the result of an abnormal control over carbohydrate metabolism. Because of this they have an excessive response to insulin; starch in grain and sugars in grass.

PPID. Pituitary Pars Intermedia. (Cushings Disease) This is a disease of ageing. Part of the pituitary gland starts to secrete an excessive amount of hormones. Some of these hormones affect the carbohydrate metabolism which results in high insulin levels which in turn can cause laminitis

EMS. Equine Metabolic Syndrome. Many of our native breeds are genetically predisposed to EMS. The three factors that charaterise EMS are obesity, insulin resistance and laminitis. Horses susceptable to EMS that consume large amounts of sugars will have high levels of insulin which in turn will result in laminitis. 

 They come in all shapes, sizes and colours but what is their actual purpose?

 A saddle cloth is really just to protect the saddle, sweat can break down the fabric of the leather.

It makes cleaning easier,  will soak up the sweat and of course they look good.

A saddle pad should help to distribute the pressure that is created by the saddle and rider. It should also act as a shock absorber.

 Of course if the saddle is a perfect fit then in theory a saddle pad shouldn’t be necessary. The problem is that as the horse grows or develops muscle through training they will constantly change shape. Few of us can’t afford to change our saddles every couple of months. You could use an ultra thin pressure mat that contains hundreds of sensors that link via bluetooth to a computer to calculate the peak pressure points but not many of us can afford one of those either!

So how do we know if we need a saddle pad?

One most obvious sign is behaviour.  Bucking, swishing the tail and pinning the ears back are all indications that the horse has some discomfort. Look for areas where the hair is ruffled, tender spots or worse, sores. Imagine lying on a bed of nails, if the bed had only one nail it would be very uncomfortable to say the least, however, if the bed had a couple of thousand nails it wouldn’t be that bad. That’s because the pressure is spread evenly over the whole area and not just on one peak pressure point.

Our Therapeutic saddle pad uses a high density memory foam, proven by health experts to reduce pressure sores. Reacting to body temperature it softens on contact with the horse's skin. Being pressure sensitive it moulds to the exact contours of the spine filling in all the little gaps between the horse and saddle. This spreads the weight of the saddle and rider evenly helping to eliminate pressure points and absorbing shock.

Whilst we would never recommend using a saddle that doesn’t fit our Therapeutic saddle pad will help to avoid some of the stresses put on the skeletal and muscular systems incurred during exercise.