Half Diamond tail braid

Start with a clean fully detangled tail, I had washed Reds tail 1 week ago. Today I started spraying tail with ACV, then applied baby oil or you can use MTG conditioner/detangler of choice. I sectioned the tail in layers applied oil and brushed each section.

Ok once tail is fully brushed and combed, find your top section I wrapped the tail under to make it easier to start banding my first row, also the oil is your friend if doing for a show I would use gel or hair spray quick braid to set hairs as I worked.
Starting at the far left working to the right start parting into sections I was able to get 6 for my top row. Adjust bands as needed for banded sections to be even and lay as flat as possible(this is why oil is your friend). Once top bands our how you want remove wrap.
Take the full far left "tail" and split the "tail" next to it in half band the full to half, then 3rd from left split in two and band 1/2 from 2nd to 1/2 3rd until you get to the last half next to far right and band 1/2 and full as you did on the left.
Now your on row 3:
This time add to your "tail" add a section from back of tail band new piece with original"tail" over top your last band, do this from left to right and then section and band like row 2
Row 4 repeat as above, do as many as you want.

Close up

Once I got to 2 sections I decided to run a 4 strand braid as red was getting tired of my not letting him swat at the few flys still surviving

Summers heat

We have all seen the idea of milk jugs of frozen water to keep horses water cool on the heat of the summer, and it works other then my milk jugs always crack after the first freeze and thaw, I started searching for a better "ice cube" and found the plastic jugs we get cat litter in worked amazing. I washed them out very well, filled with water and put in deep freeze took about 24 hrs to freeze solid but as summer went on I added 3 more for a total of 4 and just rotated them 1 by 1 and it seemed to keep our 100gal water tank cool.

I also freeze bottles of gateraid to add 5 gallon buckets I carry out to the pasture to encourage horses to stay hydrated!

And on super hot n humid nebraska days when the horses are locked in the dry lot and soaked in sweat they get grain cubes, I use the plastic containers lunch meat comes in fill half way with grain and 2/3 with water, I usually throw in some electrolytes also put lid on and throw in freezer I keep 2-4  premade in freezer once it starts heating up.

Window well feeders

When we moved to our acerage we found some window wells and screwed them to the inside of lean too at first I had rim covered with pool noodle but horses ripped it off.

Up cycle used tack

I grew up horse poor and never out grew it, I was always having to buy used tack to show in and it caused me to appreciate good leather used or new good leather is good leather, I would much rather buy a plain used headstall with good leather and add conchos and bling, then buy  junk leather new just because it has bling. My go to for new headstalls has always been weaver leather, you can always find a browband headstall for under $30. Below  is a plain acorn tooled headstall I added conchos to. Their are tons of places that sell conchos and any theme you can think of. Most average between $5-$15 some more and if you go custom a lot more but, Tandyleather.com weaverleathersupply.com and conchos.com are reasonable.

Making tack- para cord

Recently paracord has become very easy to get and in a wide range of fun colors, iv always thought about making my own barrel reins in my coordinated colors, and now I had my chance! I messed around with many different braids their are millions of paracord how tos and instruction on the internet and Pinterest.
tie dye+ black reflective reins

Camo + black copper headstall and tie down - flat braid + cobra and reused a leather browband saved from a broken English bridle.

Diy sport boots

Sport boots are expensive, and I'm one of those horse people that want everything to match. Here are some classic equine boots I dyed as the white turned more tan and to match my horse better. Just used normal fabric dye like you see in the tie dye section.
I will say double up gloves as you have to kind of rub dye in, trust me iv had to explain blue fingers more then once,
WARNING- this will also void the warranty provided with the sport boots. I have also had success with fabric markers in adding color.

Adding bling!!! I have now added bling to these sport boots my first attempt using glitter paint literally a week of painting layers of glitter to each strap was a epic fail as I thaught I would re dye boots for a brighter blue soaked dye over night and per dye instruction put in washer well all paint peeled off so I had some glitter ribbon I cut into strips applied sealer to keep glitter from flaking off and used no sew double sided tape to attach to straps,  then had crystals on rubber backing  that  I  attached with hot glue 

Save those tires!!

Next time you get a hole in your tire or replace all 4 save the old ones. Tires come in handy for so many things. I cut out inner 3" of one side to keep hay from getting stuck and horses throwing them to free said stuck hay.

I also us tires to weigh down our dry lot drag, make obsticals sky is the limit with ways to recycle any size of tires for many equine needs.

tractor tires,
   Great feeders! Took saw cut the inner 4 inches from inside wall to make more open and throw hay in,

Laundry basket slow feeder:

Day 1:
Diy laundry basket slow feeder

What you need:
2 round laundry baskets
  I got mine at dollar store for $1 each total cost $2
Baling twine
You can fit 1 flake in each side

 Start by adding 2 pieces of baling twine to one side of baskets, don't tie to tight this is your hinge
With baskets side by side load 1 flake in each.

 Close baskets together and tie closed with more baling twine and double knot a bow

Day 2: found some of the dividers had cracked so I cut off the cracked pieces and made a few bigger slots