Favorite Things 2025
“Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels. Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles.”
Actually, we are a bit partial to bay ponies versus cream ones, and I’ll take chocolate anything over apple. My favorite things are not included in the Sound of Music song, but they are below! Here are some of our favorite products…2025 version in alphabetical order.
Best Slow Feed Hay Bag – We love these bags! They are made by a small Amish company, and boy, did they think of everything! The holes aren’t too big or too small. The back is solid, but the bottom is web to allow dust to fall through. The strap at the top is attached in two places to keep the bag from collapsing, and closes the bag without Velcro to get full of chaff, so the horse can’t just pull hay out of the top. The strap is adjustable for height, too! We use these bags when we travel to events. I wish more people would take a closer look at these bags!
Bit Wash – I know that I talked about this stuff last year, but I really like it. If you have a barn without warm running water (we just have a hydrant) and a sink, Bit Wash works great to clean your bits easily and quickly, especially in the winter when you don’t want to get your hands all wet. It makes the bits sparkle and keeps the joints lubricated. I keep a rag in the barn just to use with the Bit Wash, but the kit comes with one for that purpose.
Bomber Bit Guards – I didn’t think a whole lot about bit guards in the past. I figured that they were for horses that got pinches at the joint between the mouthpiece and the cheekpiece. I learned from Boyd Exell that they work well to resize bits that may be just a little too wide! The great thing about the Bomber Bit Guards is that they are really thin and flexible, so if you only need to snug it up a little bit, you don’t have to stuff a larger, thicker bit guard between the horse and the cheekpiece. If you need more material in there, just add more bit guards or use the bit guards from Ideal, which are a little thicker. Both brands come in both Horse size as well as Pony, too! It’s great to have options, especially when your horse’s favorite bit isn’t available in a smaller size!
Fleck IVC Perfect Balance Whips – This year, we worked with Fleck Whips to develop what we consider the perfect whip. Many people don’t like long lashes, and historically a lot of the driving whips came with them. So, we shortened the lash to about 16”. We also had Fleck add weight to the butt end of the whip so that it balances just in front of the handle. If you hold the whip upright, it feels heavy, but if you hold it correctly, you can hold it all day long! The Perfect Balance also has a bit of a backbone that isn’t so floppy on the end. It has a little give, but doesn’t feel like a fishing pole with a mad bluegill on the line! We developed two versions, one with a grippy handle and a spun lash, and a Presentation whip with a fancy russet leather handle and a leather braided lash that is a little dressier. They are not necessarily inexpensive whips, but boy are they worth it!
Haukeschmidt Riesenbeck Gloves – I know that I wrote in general about the Haukeschmidt gloves a few years ago, but I can’t tell you how much I like the Riesenbecks specifically. They have an awesome grippy leather palm, but a fabric back that stays cool. They are a bit of a splurge, but when you realize that they wear much better than the average gloves, they aren’t that much more expensive. When you wear out the other gloves, the Riesenbecks will just be broke in! I wear them for training, and for obstacle classes, and I even wore them for a Reinsmanship class that I won this year!
Ideal EuroTech Anti-Slip Reins – I realized this year that we have A LOT of reins in our tack room. (And yes, carriage drivers call them reins. Heavy horse drivers call them “lines”.) I remember when we had one set of reins for each size horse. My absolute favorite reins are still the Bowman Ultimate Leather reins, but it is impractical to use them all the time if you are frugal like we are. We do have customers who feel that their comfort in holding the reins is worth it to use the Bowman reins all the time, but we save them for shows. For everyday use, we like to use grippy reins. We discovered the Ideal EuroTech Anti-Slip reins this year after we added the Ideal products to our offerings. The Anti-Slip reins are just a bit thicker than some of the other grippy reins, and so far, they are my favorite for everyday training.
Ideal Shackle Covers – These aren’t so much of a “favorite thing” as they are a requirement in our barn. Chad had a good quality pole strap shackle come open during a derby run because the pull must have gotten caught on something. Thank goodness the gelding that was hooked to the pole just went with it, or it could have been disastrous! From now on, we always use shackle covers on our shackles.
Weston Store Heated Insoles and Gloves – We just got access this fall to these products through our store, and boy do I love them! I have written in the past about riding gloves that actually kept my hands warm, and they do for a while, but eventually the insulation compresses, and I am back to square one when it comes to my frozen hands. I found the Weston Store products through an ad on Facebook, so I tried them last winter. I could finally stand to be outside doing chores when it was less than 40 degrees! The heated products are fully rechargeable, so you don’t have to stock up on individual batteries or seem like you are wasting those shakable hand and feet warmers for the 20-30 minutes you are outside! They are also adjustable for temperature, usually pretty easily. My gloves (liners) have a button on the wrist with three temp settings, as well as on/off. My insoles have a key fob that I keep on my coveralls zipper to adjust the temp. Weston Store also has heated clothing, but I haven’t tried those. It’s my extremities that would rather I live south of the Mason-Dixon instead of Wisconsin! If you really dread going out to do chores or work with your horses in the winter, you have got to try these products!
That does it for another year of My Favorite Things. There are more products we use quite consistently in our barn, but I wrote about many of them in years’ past, so I won’t expand on them too much, but here is a list:
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