DIY Coat Conditioner

One of the many new routines I've developed since bringing the horses home is regular use of a coat conditioner. When the horses were boarded and on 24/7 turnout, the use of a coat conditioner wasn't a priority for me. My horses were completely covered in mud for so much of the year that using coat conditioner would have been like putting lipstick on a pig. It'd have been nice for the time I was there, and then would have been promptly reversed when I left and they ground mud deep in their coats again.

I really looked forward to bringing the horses home to a more controlled environment where they'd be mud free. However, despite the lack of mud, the dry lot contributed quite a bit of dust to their otherwise clean coats. This dust dried out their coats and gave them a dingy appearance.

In an effort to offset the effects of the dust and stay budget-friendly (because horses are expensive, yo), I scoured the internet for DIY coat conditioner recipes. I modified what I found to my own tastes and settled on the recipe below. It's shockingly affordable, smells great, and works just as I hoped by putting life and shine back into the horses' coats all while helping to repel dust/dirt. Added bonus? The horses love the extra quality time spent grooming.

DIY Coat Conditioner

You will need the following ingredients and one 16-oz. spray bottle. Cost per bottle ~$1

• 2 Tbs. fractionated coconut oil (cost per use $0.78; 16 uses/bottle)
• 2 tsp. vegetable glycerin (cost per use $0.09; 129 uses/bottle)
• 1 tsp. witch hazel (cost per use $0.04; 96 uses/bottle)
• 10 drops lavender essential oil (cost per use ~ $0.03; 265 uses/bottle)
• 10 drops eucalyptus essential oil (cost per use ~$0.03; 265 uses/bottle)
• Distilled water to fill remainder of spray bottle

The essential oils could certainly be modified to suit whatever scent pleases you. 

At ~$1 per bottle, this conditioning spray is stupid affordable. Purchasing all of the ingredients off-the-bat only cost me ~$45. As far as budgets go, I imagine this would be well within most people's. It also doesn't take any time to throw a new batch together. I've got all of the ingredients in my tack room and simply toss each into the bottle when I run out. It seriously takes me 2-3 minutes MAX to make. And I love how good the tack room smells after!

Let me know if you try it out!

A Rime Ice Paradise

We had a unique phenomena in Canaan last week: rime ice.

Rime ice happens when supercooled droplets freeze and attach to surfaces, often during windy conditions. Rime ice can be both soft and hard depending on the wind conditions. Hoarfrost is a similar phenomena and the two are often confused. Read more about rime ice (and hoarfrost) here.

Rime ice itself is relatively common in the Valley due to its high elevation, but what made this rime ice spectacular and unique was that it stuck around for 5-6 straight days and only built upon itself during that time!

In the first days, there wasn't a lot of accumulation on the trees. Just enough to be pretty.

Beech tree near the barn

A veritable winter wonderland

The following day during my commute home, the high elevation areas were remarkably beautiful

My drive home took quite a bit longer because I drove super slow and stopped multiple times to take photos lol

Cabin mountain and Weiss Knob rising above Canaan Valley

Super zoomed cell photo of the horses in their field when I pulled in that night

Mt Porte Crayon looking absolutely resplendent 

Rime encrusted trees on one of my neighborhood roads

Grif in the pasture. Look at the coated wire!

Trees downhill of the barn that night while I mucked

Absolutely incredible. And yes, they did begin breaking under the weight of the rime ice on this night.

Rime ice buildup on my redbud tree out front

The horses spent a significant amount of time in their stalls 

But they really didn't seem to mind!

It was better than having their tails and manes encrusted in rime ice lol

So cool though!

By Thursday, it was really caked on the trees.

And so Kate and I headed out to ride and take photos in the magical wonderland we're lucky to call home

I mean.... 

Look at it...

It's so damn magical!

We were simply beside ourselves

So beautiful

I've got a shot almost identical to this during peak autumn foliage I need to pair up with this image...

Starlight Lane Farm + a lonely Q

Ran in to get the DSLR to try to get some shots.

Dusky rime ice

So um, that beech tree mentioned earlier in this post? Here it is at the end of the week.

Soft rime where the winds weren't as intense. This little copse of trees is pretty protected from the winds

Our tiki torch holders on the front porch however.... lol

Stanimal and Kate taking a call for work 

Kate and Stan strolling through the magical landscape

Yeehaw!

Photos really don't do justice.

Especially because the light was waning fast at this point

The exact moment Stan was allowed to turn and canter uphill hahaha

Happy faces! Stanimal was a very spicy pepper this evening.

Kate giggled the whole evening. How could you not?

LOOK AT THAT LITTLE DOG. I LOVE HER.

After capturing lots of photos of Kate and Stan, I had her snag a few of Grif and I.

The light was seriously disappearing by this point

But I'm still so grateful for photos to remember this beautiful ride

Whatta good boy

Lots of laughter

And smiles

He's the best boy.

On Friday morning, the world was just as beautiful 

And I wasted no time taking oodles of photos with my phone as we set up the mountain

The conditions were great

I'm so glad I nabbed the photos I did because by the afternoon everything fell away from the trees.

But before it fell away, the buildup on branches was truly spectacular

Looking south-southwest; you can really see how elevation played into the rime ice phenomena

And east-southeast

Since Friday afternoon, all of the rime ice has fallen away. Temperatures have soared up into the 60s and now it's raining. The rime ice encrusted world was really incredible while it lasted!