Braids by Britt makes it personal

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That’s how we stay positive and motivated through adversity. Brittany Fantarella has that winning attitude. A barrel racing accident recently landed her in the hospital with a frightening array of injuries, including broken ribs. Thankfully, she avoided surgery, […]

Welcome Elm City Trailer!

We welcome Bobby Fantarella and his company, Elm City Trailer to the NickerNews and BestHorsePractices family! For years, Bobby was that friendly, knowledgeable guy I’d visit with at the Equine Affaire. I still have my awesome trailer (a four-horse, gooseneck by Featherlite) purchased from Bobby […]

July Storm: poet gives us telling image

July Storm Like a tall woman walking across the hayfield the rain came slowly, dressed in crystal and the sun. Rustling along the ground, she stopped at our apple tree only for a whispering minute, then swept darkening skirts over the lake, and so […]

The scoop on winning Kicking Horse and more

How to win: You can automatically be registered for giveaways by joining the growing list of paid subscribers. For just $10 per year, (the cost of a few cups of coffee) you’ll get every newsletter, a MudLOVE wrist band, an Eco Lips lip balm, and […]

Introducing The Clothes Horse

It’s not common knowledge, but aside from being an accomplished neuropsychologist and horse book author, Dr. Steve Peters is a heckuva clothes horse. He’s mighty particular about his riding outfits. Everything has to be Just So. In the morning, he doesn’t so much as get […]

Kicking Horse Coffee, perking up DIY

I stumbled across Kicking Horse Coffee in a Utah supermarket. The name and flashy tin caught my eye and had me buying what would be my first of many whole bean purchases. If nothing else, I could put the container to good use. But […]

Stablefax coming soon

Several years ago in Maine, I ran 24 Carrot Horse Care, taking care of horses while their owners were away or too busy. I tossed hay, mucked stalls, exercised, medicated, and even hauled horses to vets for surgeries. Most of the time, instructions and specifics […]

Horse Skeleton offers nightmares, but no answers

For nights after discovering this skeleton, I had trouble sleeping. Couldn’t get the image out of my head. Instead, I extrapolated back to this horse’s final days – it died a pointless and likely painful, drawn-out death, getting tangled in branches by its blankets. Ridiculously, […]

Comeuppance in Equine Terms

Sticking it to the man: Performing an act of civil disobedience in order to oppose established power hierarchy. Horses do it. Mules do it, too. No, we’re not anthropomorphizing. We’re just using this slang term to help describe how horses lower in the herd rank […]

Redmond’s For Real

On the surface, you might be tempted to say, “Salt is Salt is Salt.” It’s such a humble, ho-hum commodity. But we live in a world of consumerism and we have choices galore. There are inexpensive, synthetic blocks. There are pricey, Himalayan blocks from 7,500 […]