Horse Equipment

In the unlikely event that anyone else is considering buying a horse, and for my reference in case of future need, here's everything we've bought for Bugsy since getting him. Except that I've probably forgotten something. Horses are quite complex animals to keep and look after.

• Saddle. We paid extra for the one he had, and our saddler has now had a look and says it's OK.


• Bridle. His bridle was thrown in, but his previous owner was a young woman, and the brow band and nose band are sparkly. At least they're not pink, but we still want a new one. We put him in Angelo's spare (best) bridle at first, but he turns out not to be happy to be tied up by his bridle, and broke it.


• Half pad for the saddle (we had a spare one, since Jonny doesn't need his any more now that he has filled out).


• Numnah (2, but we had spares).


• Head collar. He came with one, but we didn't like it.


• Lead rope.


• Heavy, medium and light stable rugs.


• Heavy, medium and light turnout rugs.


• Fly sheet.


• Fly mask (but we have a spare one).


• Fleece.


• Two rug racks for the above (A rug rack of the kind we like has space for up to eight rug brackets, but only comes with five, and a new rack is cheaper than five brackets bought separately. So we now have three racks in total mounted on the wall, with eight brackets each, plus two spare racks and a spare bracket.)


• New masonry drill bits to replace ones broken when drilling into adamantium breeze block wall to attach the above.


• A bunch of screws and rawlplugs.


• Feed buckets (2).


• Water buckets (2).


• Salt lick.


• Five day wormer (just in case).


• Tapewormer (ditto).


• Saddle strap. (Not strictly necessary, but the other two saddles have them, and we like having them. Also, if no saddle strap, then we'd probably want a martingale instead.)


• Grooming kit (curry comb, body brush, dandy brush, hoofpick, sweat scraper and hairbrush, plus a bag to keep them in).


• Hoof pick (we don't like the one in the grooming kit).


• Plastic curry comb (the one in the grooming kit is rubber).


• Shedding blade. (Actually, he can probably use Angelo's, since he's shedding now and the Cushing's means that Angelo won't start until about June.)


• Wheelbarrow. (We need a second one now so that we can both muck out at once.)


• Verdo fork (ditto, haven't actually got it yet).


• Broom (ditto, but we already had a spare).


• Anchor points for stall guard.


• Stall guard.


• Carabiners to attach and extend stall guard.


• Bit of chain to extend stall guard.


• Kick plate for stable door (It had a bolt but not a kick plate, and while unlike some horses he can't open the bolt with his teeth, he can kick it open).


• Saddle rack (actually, we already had a spare one).


• Bridle rack (ditto).


• Tie-up rings (2) for tieing him up outside, and for hanging up his hay nets inside.


• Hay nets (2, but he's also using a couple of spare ones that we had lying around).


• Baling twine (lots, but since we get two pieces free with every bale of hay, we don't actually have to buy any).


• Grazing muzzle (not needed yet, on account of there being no grass, but in six weeks we'll put them back in the fallow half of the field, and the grass will be starting to grow now).

And of course I've not included bedding or feeds, which we use every day.

I have a nasty feeling that all of that cost more than the actual horse....