Mugs are always a great gift idea on a budget. Fun coffee mugs are always appreciated! A pretty floral arrangement inside the mug creates a beautiful presentation and a unique way to gift a coffee mug to you mom, girlfriend, wife, grandmother, barn friend, or anyone else who enjoys getting flowers. The best part is it doesn't require a box or wrapping paper! Here's how to do it yourself:
Step 1:
Gather your supplies:
Step 2:
- Cut the foam to fit snugly inside of your mug and add a bit of water to the mug.
(We don't want your flowers to get thirsty).
- Place the foam inside of the mug with the water.
Step 3:
- Cut the stems of the flowers so they are short enough to not stick out of the mug "too" much. You don't want them too tall or they will be too high. You can make them just about the same height as the mug.
Step 4:
- Place the flowers into the foam in the mug. Be sure to put the highest flowers in the middle and angle the bottom flowers outward as you push them into the foam.
Step 5:
- Fill the rest of the mug with the flowers and create a "dome" with them. Pull flowers out or push them into the foam more so they create the appearance you want.
Step 6:
- Add some leaves and greenery to fill in any gaps and create a little texture in your arrangement. Be sure the stem is "clean" without extra leaves for the parts that go into the foam.
Step 7:
Give your beautiful flower arrangement in the mug to your gift recipient! Ta da!
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The Painting Pony carries a large variety of fun gifts for equestrians of all ages. Pricing ranges from higher-end items to more affordable items. When shopping for the perfect Christmas gift, sometimes it's necessary to keep the cost below a certain price. Whether you're on a budget or not, these gifts for horse lovers under $25 from the Painting Pony, will be sure to bring a smile to the recipient's face! Perfect gifts for all of your barn friends or holiday party gift exchanges.
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It's the end of Summer and all the kids and college-bound students are about to head back to class in the Fall. To make the experience more enjoyable, we've put together a helpful guide to some great products from The Painting Pony that any horse lover simply must-have to go back to school with. Read on down our list to get some great gift ideas for the scholastic equestrian.
Horse Lover Backpacks
Our
top product on the list that is essential for anyone going back to Fall
classes is a backpack. The Painting Pony has just released a line of
attractive and fun equestrian themed backpacks perfect for the horse
lover. Made in the USA, these bags feature zippered pouches in the
front, inner pockets, and hidden zippered compartments in the back.
These bags will keep you organized and stylish at the same time!
Equestrian Accessory Pouches
These
little clutch style bags are absolutely a must-have for the horse
lover! They are really useful to keep little things from getting lost in
larger bags and also make unbelievably cute pencil pouches! Available
in T-bottom or Flat Envelope styles and small and large size options.
Also proudly made in the USA
Spiral Notebooks
Our
mid-sized spiral notebooks are colorful and fun with original patterns
and artwork from The Painting Pony. They make great little books to keep
notes in and to-do lists and the smaller size makes them easy to put
into a bag to take where ever you may need to go.
Bullet Journals
Our
equestrian themed bullet Journals will make keeping track of goals easy
and fun. Available in your choice of blank or dot grid pages. Create
weekly task lists and schedules, keep track of important dates, or
anything else you can think of to organize your collegiate lifestyle.
Horse Lover Phone Cases
Your
phone is something you can't leave home without and a phone case from
The Painting Pony will make your phone even more fun! Choose from over
50 different equestrian themed patterns and artwork you won't find
anywhere else so you can be unique (Your phone won't be mistaken for
anyone else's). Custom colors are also available upon request if you
don't see one you love.
Equestrian Laptop Sleeves
Need
to take your laptop computer to school with you? Our attractive laptop
sleeves will help protect your computer where ever you need to take it
and they'll do it in equestrian style.
Horse Lover Lunch Bags & Totes
Make
taking your lunch from home to school more fun with an equestrian style insulated lunch bag or neoprene lunch tote from The Painting Pony. Many fun
horse lover designs to choose from with matching patterns for our
Backpacks too!
Equestrian Travel Tumblers
Need
your coffee to stay awake during those early morning classes? We've got
stainless steel horse lover travel tumblers to help you bring 15 or 20 ounces
of your caffeine-fix with you!
Hair Scrunchies
Everyone enjoys stepping out in their own unique style entering new classes and meeting new friends. Equestrian hair tie scrunchies make a great small accessory piece for anyone's fashion to add an extra bit of horse-lover flare! Each is made one at a time by hand in the USA and every order directly supports a self-employed artist.
Equestrian Mouse Pad
A lot of homework is done on the computer! A beautiful mousepad will be a great gift idea for anyone who uses a computer regularly!
Equestrian Youth Tee's & Adult Shirts
Everyone loves to wear a new outfit on the first few days of school. Find your next favorite horse shirt available in youth size and adult sizes. These comfy shirts feature original artwork and designs exclusive to The Painting Pony and are a great way to share you love of horses anywhere you go.
1. Horse Lover Beach Towels
Colorful and fun, these towels feature equestrian patterns perfect for any equestrian. They are perfect for drying off after swimming at the pool or laying on perfecting your tan at the beach.
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2. Equestrian themed Swim Wear
Available in two-piece bikinis or modest one-piece styles, these bathing suits are made especially for the horse lover with fun equestrian themed patterns.
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3. Can Coolers
An essential on any warm day, a can cooler will help keep you canned drinks cold longer while outside enjoying the Spring and Summer days.
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4. Travel Tumblers
Made from stainless steel, our travel tumblers come in 15oz or 20oz size options that are insulated and will keep you drink either hot or cold for hours! They are perfect for road trips to horse shows as well as heading to the beach on vacation.
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5. Tote Bags
Everyone needs a bag to carry their stuff! Carry it in equestrian style with fun totes from The Painting Pony!
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6. Accessory Pouches
Perfect to keep you sunscreen, glasses, lip balm, hair ties, and other small items from getting lost in a larger bag. Available in two different sizes for your needs.
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7. Embroidered Hats
Keep the sun off your head and face with our embroidered hats that are custom made for you in your choice of colors.
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8. Hair Tie Scrunchies
Longer hair can get hot on warm Spring and Summer days. Keep it off your neck and cooler with fun equestrian themed designer scrunchies. Every order supports an independent artist!
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]]>FIRST: Put the turkey in the pot, last year we just stuck the whole turkey in the pot which, once it cooked down left us with the problem of bones. If you can secure it with cheese cloth etc. then you can get the goodness out of the bones but still keep them contained.
All you really need to do is mix it all together and let it simmer and simmer all day until everything is soft and cooked. Stir and taste. If it needs more of this or that, such as salt or pepper etc, add it in until you have it tasting just right. When the vegetables are soft it is ready.
And if you want a cozy horse mug like the one in the picture to enjoy your soup with, get one here from The Painting Pony and support my small business. :)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
A great, little gift for barn friends, co-workers, your horse trainer, or other equestrian professional, an accessory bag can be filled with candy, horse treats, hair ties, or other small items to make a creative gift that wraps itself. No gift wrap needed - just tie a ribbon around it to add a gift tag and you're done.
2. Tote Bag
A stylish tote bag is not only handy to have, but it can fit larger gifts inside it than the accessory pouch can. Put a fleece throw, hoodie, throw pillow, or a combination of smaller items inside easily for a fun gift that is itself a unique presentation.
3. Metal Enamel Bowl with Lids
These enamel bowls come in three different sizes. Buy one or one of each and stack them for a three-tiered gift topped with a bright red bow on top. Fill each bowl with something different such as cookies, candies, horse socks, horse treats, rolled-up horse tee shirt, or anything else your mind can think of that might fit inside. The plastic lid will help maintain freshness on baked goods too.
Pictured above is a country floral horse patterned enamel bowl filled with a matching equestrian neck gaiter and holiday candy for a sweet, finishing touch.
4. Wine Tote
A bottle of wine is a popular gift among fellow equestrians. A wine bottle can be a challenge to wrap, however. An easy solution is a fun horse lover themed wine tote from The Painting Pony. The wine tote will cover the bottle so it's a surprise what's inside with a fun pattern on the tote. Tie a ribbon around the handle and it's instantly festive as a gift.
Travel Tumblers from The Painting Pony are stainless steel and keep your drinks hot for hours. But you can also fill them with fun goodies and use them as an attractive container to give as a gift for things such as horse cookies, a fun pair of socks, lip balms and other fun items. The lid of the tumbler will keep things secure and you can easily add a bow on top with tape to make it more festive. No gift wrap required!
Who doesn't enjoy a cute coffee mug as a gift?! Whether you prefer coffee or tea, a horse themed mug is always a good idea for the equestrian. When you use a small bag and fill it with something sweet, you can put it inside the mug to make a cute presentation to leave on your horse friend's tack trunk at the barn as a cute gift. No need for gift wrap - just add a ribbon or bow!
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I thought this morphing bats and horse design was extra creative!
Do you not trust yourself with sharp objects? Try using paint instead like this stylish dressage horse pumpkin!
Not into carving pumpkins? How about a horse decorated pumpkin PIE instead!
And while you're busy carving and decorating your equestrian pumpkin, you might want a tumbler to keep your pumpkin spice hot while you work. Check out all of the Pumpkin Spice and Ponies Fall gifts and decor in the special Fall section now on The Painting Pony. (and remember every order supports an independent self employed artist!)
Stay inspired this Fall and feel free to email your pumpkin designs. I would love to see what everyone comes up with!
Horse Lover Backpacks
Our
top product on the list that is essential for anyone going back to Fall
classes is a backpack. The Painting Pony has just released a line of
attractive and fun equestrian themed backpacks perfect for the horse
lover. Made in the USA, these bags feature zippered pouches in the
front, inner pockets, and hidden zippered compartments in the back.
These bags will keep you organized and stylish at the same time!
Equestrian Accessory Pouches
These
little clutch style bags are absolutely a must-have for the horse
lover! They are really useful to keep little things from getting lost in
larger bags and also make unbelievably cute pencil pouches! Available
in T-bottom or Flat Envelope styles and small and large size options.
Also proudly made in the USA
Spiral Notebooks
Our
mid-sized spiral notebooks are colorful and fun with original patterns
and artwork from The Painting Pony. They make great little books to keep
notes in and to-do lists and the smaller size makes them easy to put
into a bag to take where ever you may need to go.
Bullet Journals
Our
equestrian themed bullet Journals will make keeping track of goals easy
and fun. Available in your choice of blank or dot grid pages. Create
weekly task lists and schedules, keep track of important dates, or
anything else you can think of to organize your collegiate lifestyle.
Horse Lover Phone Cases
Your
phone is something you can't leave home without and a phone case from
The Painting Pony will make your phone even more fun! Choose from over
50 different equestrian themed patterns and artwork you won't find
anywhere else so you can be unique (Your phone won't be mistaken for
anyone else's). Custom colors are also available upon request if you
don't see one you love.
Equestrian Laptop Sleeves
Need
to take your laptop computer to school with you? Our attractive laptop
sleeves will help protect your computer where ever you need to take it
and they'll do it in equestrian style.
Horse Lover Lunch Boxes & Totes
Make
taking your lunch from home to school more fun with an equestrian style
metal lunch box or neoprene lunch tote from The Painting Pony. Many fun
horse lover designs to choose from with matching patterns for our
Backpacks too!
Equestrian Travel Tumblers
Need
your coffee to stay awake during those early morning classes? We've got
stainless steel horse lover travel tumblers to help you bring 15 ounces
of your caffeine-fix with you!
Face Masks & Neck Gaiters
Whether you want to or not, some areas of the US are requiring face coverings while out in public. This means that fun face masks from The Painting Pony might be a handy item to add to your back to school supplies for the horsey kids. They will make mask-wearing a little more fun and stylish.
And while you're shopping for your back to school supplies, don't forget that
all orders from The Painting Pony of $100 or more will ship FREE to US destinations!
Have you ever noticed you always feel better after a GOOD laugh? It's true! A cheerful heart IS good medicine! The time we are all in is definitely a strange new world full of fear and uncertainty of the future, but instead of looking at what you can't do, focus on what you CAN do! Something that you CAN do currently is laugh. Laugh about how you can't remember what day of the week it is anymore. Laugh about how you don't have to change your cloths or that you ate breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast. But if you're having a hard time finding something to laugh about, I've put together this collection of funny equestrian memes about our current situation with the Covid-19 virus. Laugh with me as you go down this list...
$50/bale. Local Pick-up Only.
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I hope these silly memes have brought a smile to your face today!
Here's one last meme with parting thoughts of encouragement:
We're all in this together. Keep your eyes up and heels down and keep on riding through this. Remember that every storm eventually runs out of rain. The sun WILL shine again! Just take things one day at a time and don't focus on the fear. Keep your eyes up! Just like riding a horse, we have to keep our vision on where we want to go! Look forward and focus on what you CAN do instead and where you WANT to be.
(and if you still can, hug your horse! and give them an extra hug for everyone who's stuck at home and can't go to the barn)
]]>I have been handling horses most of my life and in all of my years, I have fortunately not had to deal with but two other "abscesses" in horses. One was my akhal-teke stallion, Gardiyan, when he was a young 2 year old. Gardiyan had gotten an abscess that I had treated and it seemed to resolve only to return a few weeks later. When it had come back, his foot had gone septic and he required surgical removal of part of his coffin bone. During that surgery it was discovered that a small stick somehow had gotten into his hoof and was the cause of the massive infection. If I had not had the surgery performed, the stick never would have been found and I would have lost him to the infection. The other abscess was a VERY simple abscess that resolved overnight and I only wrapped it one time and it was done. Naturally, with my very scary experience with my stallion, anytime I see an abscess (which isn't often) I get a little more concerned than most people do.
When I first discovered Buddy "lame" back in June, it was after I had turned him out for the day. When I went to bring him back in, he was walking on just three legs. I immediately called my vet, (Four Star Equine Veterinary Services) who specializes in equine podiatry, and she came out that afternoon to take a look at him to make sure he hadn't injured himself. She examined him and diagnosed him with an abscess and told me what I should do to treat him. I followed her protocol over the weekend and by the next week, Buddy seemed to be his old self again. Satisfied we had resolved the abscess, we went back to our usual routine and life went on.
About a little over a month later in August, my farrier was out and I noted to him that Buddy had seemed "off" again within the past day or so in the same foot he had had an abscess in previously and I asked him to take a look at it while he was working on him. He ended up digging out an area on his toe and a lot of puss came out when he found another abscess. We then packed it and wrapped it etc. to treat it for the abscess again.
About 1-2 weeks of wrapping his hoof and waiting for the abscess to finish "draining" I noticed a "bulge" on the front of his hoof. I had figured that this might have been where the original abscess had tried to "blow out" from the top of his hoof before we had opened up the hole on the sole to drain. I took a picture of it and sent it to my vet and also told her that I was concerned about the abscess *still* seeming to be draining. Everyone I had talked to about treating abscesses had told me they usually drain within a week and are done. When we kept seeing "liquid" that had a puss-like appearance continuing to come from the hole, I got concerned that maybe things were more serious than we thought and bugged my vet again about what we should do. She then prescribed Buddy with two different antibiotics to help him get over the abscess.
After the course of antibiotics had finished, Buddy's foot "seemed" to be drier but I still thought I saw moisture from the hole coming out. I trusted what everyone was telling me and I continued to treat his foot with wrapping and added some wonder dust to help "dry" the hole up better. Two months later, Buddy was walking and moving normally and his hoof had finally seemed to finish growing out the tract where the puss had been in his hoof and the hole was seemingly finished healing.
Due to our conservative "trimming" on his hoof to prevent any compromising his hoof while the abscess was being dealt with, his hoof had grown a little longer in the toe than what I would like it to be. In early December, the farrier came out to help "correct" this problem and he gave Buddy a proper trim. After the initial trimming, the farrier thought his foot was still looking a little on the long side, so he decided to trim a little more off of his toe. It was after this "second" trim that we discovered another pussy area in Buddy's hoof. The farrier at this point recommended a call to the vet to take an x-ray to see what was going on inside his hoof because a normal abscess doesn't typically go on for months like this, nor do they usually require antibiotics.
The vet came out the very next day and took x-rays of Buddy's hoof which showed an area where the coffin bone was "missing." This would indicate that the infection had "eaten" away his bone and we needed to debride the area and remove all of the "bad" stuff inside of his hoof. An appointment was made for a few days later to have the vet out again with the farrier to put on a hospital plate shoe which would help stabilize his hoof and make it easier to change gauze etc. while Buddy's hoof healed from the infection.
While my vet was looking over the x-rays the night before she was going to perform the procedure, she noted the clean margins on the missing area of the bone which led her to suspect a keratoma could be a possibility. The next morning, before we started to cut away at his hoof, she performed a venogram (a special x-ray done with injected dye so you can see the blood flow in the hoof) for a better look at what was going on inside his hoof. While the venogram did not show a "definite" "yes this is a keratoma," there were anomalies present that hinted further at the possibility of the presence of a keratoma being there.
It was decided to go into the hoof from the front instead of the sole of the hoof due to this possibility of a keratoma and its location. When the initial piece was removed from Buddy's hoof wall, the keratoma was indeed present! An additional piece of his hoof wall had to also be removed because the tumor went up higher than the first piece that was already removed and it was important to remove ALL of the tumor or the risk of it coming back would be higher.
I am very relieved to finally have an answer as to "why" we were having such a hard time with this abscess. I had thought I had been doing something wrong, that what I was doing hadn't been working. It eventually turned out that this abscess was a little on the "special" side and wasn't JUST an abscess. So, the next time you're treating a routine "abscess," keep Buddy in mind and if it doesn't resolve like it should, HAVE THE VET OUT! Because abscess are so common, they can be treated a little too casually sometimes. By not paying close attention or letting an abscess go on a little too long, a bigger problem could get missed and it could lead to a much more serious problem. Remember, no hoof = no horse!
Here is a video showing the removal of the keratoma from Buddy's hoof.
Buddy's surgery was expensive and the care he will require over the next year as his hoof grows back out will also be costly. In order to help us cover these costs, we are offering some of our favorite paintings by done Buddy printed on a few select products. If you would like to help support Buddy and his recovery, please check out the special section on the website featuring these products.