Want a free Memorial Day coupon for Cavender’s?

Hey, horse lovers. Who’s spending some of the Memorial Day weekend by doing a little Western shopping? 

Cavender’s is offering a discount coupon, which can be used to purchase cowboy boots, cowboy or cowgirl clothing, ranch and riding jeans, show shirts, and other related items for men, women, and children. The coupon codes are good through Monday, May 26.

Cavender’s carries such brands as:

• Ariat
• Carhartt
• Cinch
• Corral
• Cruel Girl
• Double H
• Justin
• Lucchese
• Montana Silversmiths
• Nocona
• Resistol
• Stetson
• Tony Lama
• Wrangler

They also have free shipping everyday for orders totaling $50 or more.

Here’s the Cavender’s coupon:

Maybe you don’t live in or near any of Cavender’s retail shops in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma or Texas. But you can grab the code and use it online at the Western wear retailer's website..

 NOTE: This blogger is not affiliated in any way with the merchant mentioned in this post and received no remuneration for its publication.

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Graphic created

by this user

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Cavender’s coupon

Promo/fair use

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Taking on a gazillion spiders at the horse barn

I hate spiders. I’m not horsing around, when it comes to arachnids – or nearly anything that creeps and crawls.

But I won the first spider battle of the season.

I knocked off work early on this chilly spring Friday and tackled the tack closet mess.

My mare lives in a big, airy stall that includes its own tack closet. It’s extremely convenient, especially on days when I choose to saddle her Western. I don’t have to lug that cumbersome Circle Y out into the aisle. I just swing it up onto the horse, right there in her stall.

It’s also nice to have my own private space for storing all things horsey.

But it was time for clutter busting and spider warfare.

It is amazing how much extraneous and miscellaneous stuff can pile up in this unshared space during the cold winter months.

While my horse was turned out, I took everything out of the tack closet for sorting and cleaning. And I was amazed at all the curious items I found, besides all of the expected contents (such as horse tack and grooming supplies).

• One long-missing flannel shirt
• One pair of muddy galoshes
• Two dirty English saddle pads
• Two pairs of riding gloves
• Two unmatched reins (one Western and one English)
• Three extra halters
• Three hand towels
• Three riding helmets
• Lots of tack calling for cleaning

And nearly everything was covered in cobwebs.

Mostly, I found mouse droppings and spider nests, which I attacked with a vengeance. Determined to wipe out all things spidery before this season's generation hatched, I vacuumed every inch of the tack closet – then threw away the vacuum bag at the barn.

I probably should have burned it.

That’s right.

There was no way I was hauling that thing in my car with those contents. What if a gazillion baby spiders came to life in my car or (worse yet) in the broom closet at home? Perish the thought!

The vacuum bag was nearly full, anyway. I stopped counting the spider nests. And the shelf that hangs over the stacked saddle racks was fairly carpeted in mouse droppings. Bet that’s more than you wanna know. It was bad. (Hours later, I’m still feeling all creepy-crawly, even after a shower and change of clothes.)

Next, I filled a big bucket with pine cleaner and warm water and scrubbed the entire tack closet.

I tossed a ton of junk and cleaned everything worth keeping. I even stuck a few dryer softener sheets in there, as these are rumored to deter tack closet pests from setting up shop.

At least for now, my tack closet and all its contents are spotless and pest-free.

Now, I wonder if I could hire a barn cat to live in there …

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Do the 5 love languages work with horses?

I think I love this guy’s approach to horses. He makes a lot of sense.

Just found an intriguing horse training video from an Australian horseman named Warwick Schiller, in which he applies the principles of a perennially popular Christian marriage counseling book to the horse-human relationship.

Have you read The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman? The series also includes:

• The 5 Love Languages Men's Edition
• The 5 Love Languages Military Edition
• The 5 Love Languages of Children
• The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers
• The 5 Love Languages Singles Edition
• The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
• The Heart of the Five Love Languages
• and probably a few more.

Basically, Chapman applies the same principles in each one. He outlines five different ways human beings express and feel love:

1. acts of service
2. gifts
3. physical touch
4. quality time
5. words of affirmation

Horse lovers can imagine which of these might speak loudest to our equine partners.

Aussie horse trainer Warwick Schiller takes Chapman’s love language idea and briefly discusses how this concept might work with horses. Essentially, it’s a matter of putting horse and human on the same page, so to speak.

Take a look.

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Here’s my favorite take-away quote from this short video.

“Don’t lie to your horse. Don’t ask for anything you don’t want.”

I can use that today with my own horses. Can you?

Maybe Chapman should team up with Schiller to write a 5 Love Languages of Horses edition.

Now, would someone please schedule a clinic with Warwick Schiller in the Upper Midwest US? I have no affiliation with him or his organization. I’d just like to attend and learn.

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with public domain horse clipart

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