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The K� SUMMER 2015

SSG Riding Gloves

SPON S O R E D

BY

Horse Health and Equipment Guide for a Happy Hunt Season.

E V E R Y T H I N G F O R T H E H O R S E & R I D E R117 E A S T 2 4 T H S T • N E W YO R K C I T Y

Vogel - Alexander JamesBerney Bros Saddles

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Drive SafelyDrive SafelyB Y T O M A N D N E V A S C H E V E

RE-ACTIVATING YOUR HORSE TRAILERFor a lot of reasons, haul-ing horses in your trailer after it has been parked for a long period is just not a good idea. Before heading out, use the following maintenance checklist to get you and your horses back on the road safely.

TIP 1 Check the age of your tires. The build date is stamped on the tire. Tires only last about six years whether they are worn or look new.

TIP 2 Make sure the air pressure in all your tires is fi lled to the Maximum PSI. The “max psi” is located on the tire near the rim. Fill-ing them to the max will allow them to ride cooler, fl ex less, and therefore be less apt to blow. If you are driving from a cold to hot climate, remember that

temperature affects the air pressure, so check often.

TIP 3 Be sure the trailer is level so that the weight of the trailer is sitting on both axles/all four tires evenly; otherwise you will overload the tires/axle carrying the most weight.

TIP 4 Be sure there are caps on all tire stems. They keep dirt, sand, and grime from damaging the spring in the stem.

TIP 5 Have the bearings lubed, the brakes adjusted and checked, and be sure all the running lights, turn signals, and brake lights are working properly.

TIP 6 Check the inte-rior of the stall area for wasp nests, spider nests, and any other creature that may have adopted your trailer as a home.

TIP 7 Check the fl oorboards for damage or aluminum fl oor for corrosion. Work all doors and check all latches for damage and workability.

IF YOU ARE HEADING OUT ON A FREEWAY, KNOW THE SPEEDLIMIT OF YOUR TIRES.

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1.800.558.9441 www.andis.com

All creaturesgreat and small

It’s not just a sport, or a hobby, it’s a way of life and a passion for what you do. We understand. After nine decades, our passion for grooming has led to great ideas. We’ve never lost our curiosity for developing tools for every animal and for every way you work. Take care of your animals by providing the healthful benefits of regular grooming. See the full line of Andis products at www.andis.com

UltraEdge™

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MORE TRAILER TRAVEL TIPSB Y D O N N A M A R T I N , B L U E R I D G E T R A I L E R S

TRAILER TIRESand everything else associated with the trailer — will last longer if kept out of the sunlight. The optimum location is under a shed or at least covered with both tire covers and a cloth trailer cover, if possible (trailer covers are available in many different sizes online).

BRAKESshould be examined and adjusted about every 3000 miles. A typical state inspection (Virginia in particular) might only require that the brakes on one side of the trailer be working — not requiring that they are work-ing correctly. The breakaway battery should be checked that it is fully charged, before every trip.

REMOVEwet bedding and manure after every trip. Floor mats should be removed and washed, along with the floor about every 3 months, during use.

BEFORE PULLING OUT TO TRAVEL,

walk around the trailer one final time to ensure that the hitch is attached and locked correctly, that the dressing room door is locked (tongue weight and road vibration tend to cause an unlocked dress door to open during travel), that all exterior lights are on and working correctly and that all doors are closed and the ramp(s) are up and latched.

Donna Martin owns Blue Ridge Trailers in Ruckersville, Va.

TIP 8 If you have changed tow vehicles since you last towed the trailer, check the weight ratings of the frame mounted hitch to be sure it is rated to tow the weight of your trailer. Inspect the coupler and be sure the coupler size is the same as the ball on your tow vehicle.

TIP 9 If you are heading out on a freeway, know the speed limit of your tires. Exceeding it could cause tire failure.

TIP 10 Be sure you have a tire pressure gauge, trail-er jack (TrailerAid), lug nut wrench that fi ts your lug nuts, triangles/fl are kit, and a fully infl ated spare tire.

Neva Kittrell Scheve, along with her husband Tom, is the author of the nationally recognized textbook “The Complete Guide to Buying, Maintaining, and Servicing a Horse Trailer.” Both Tom and Neva have designed and developed the EquiSpirit, EquiBreeze and ThoroSport line of horse trailers.

2 The K�

1.800.558.9441 www.andis.com

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It’s not just a sport, or a hobby, it’s a way of life and a passion for what you do. We understand. After nine decades, our passion for grooming has led to great ideas. We’ve never lost our curiosity for developing tools for every animal and for every way you work. Take care of your animals by providing the healthful benefits of regular grooming. See the full line of Andis products at www.andis.com

UltraEdge™

#22760

LargePin Brush

#80590

SmallNail Clipper

#65260

Weigh-inWeigh-inB Y J O A N N E M E S Z O L Y

Lots of people struggle with winter weight gain. Cold weather spurs our cravings for hearty com-fort food and the holidays beckon with tempting treats. It’s easy to pack on the pounds.

But as many of us announce our New Year’s resolutions to exercise and diet, some fi eld hunters experience the opposite problem: they are shedding weight.

Weight loss has a way of creeping up, since the heart of the hunt season overlaps fall and winter, and often workloads increase as pastures be-come dormant and grazed

KEEP YOUR FIELD HUNTER IN GOOD FLESH THROUGHOUT THE SEASON.

4 The K�

down. In cold climates, winter weather also takes a toll on horses who require more energy to maintain body heat when temperatures plummet.

Once your horse is whittled down, it may be springtime before he regains his fl eshiness. Your best bet? Monitor his body condition, and manage and supplement his diet to stave off weight loss before it appears.

SIZE HIM UPDental problems, a high parasite load and ulcers are a few ailments that lead to weight loss, but among healthy horses, the most common cause is defi cient nutrition.

“When a horse’s feed doesn’t provide enough energy, the horse has to use energy stored in the body,” says Carey Williams, PhD, equine extension specialist

FOR YEARS, sweet feed and con-centrates have gotten a bum rap in the feed bin. Experts have empha-sized the starchy nature of grain, and cautioned about carbohydrate excess and lactic acid production. The message: forage only, if possible.

But in last few years, the anti-starch climate has changed. Experts have found that a little grain plays a valuable role in the working horse’s diet. “We found that in a normal, healthy horse, a little starch kept the body well primed to utilize starch and sugar,” says Crandell. “We’ve also studied normal horses fed only fat and fiber, and found that they’d become a little insulin resistant.”

If your horse’s work-load or his appearance suggest a need for more calories, consider these additions to beef up his meal.

BEET PULP is the fibrous byproduct of sugar beets, once sugar is stripped from the plant. Because of its high fiber/low starch proper-ties, beet pulp is digested slowly, like forage. It’s commonly sold in shred-ded form and is saturated with water to increase palatability, then mixed with a grain meal.

RICE BRAN is the outer layer of rice, which is removed when rice is processed for human consumption. It is high in fat as well as digestible fiber and starch, which makes it a good source of energy. Look for product fortified with calcium, and stabilized to prevent rancidity.

GROUND OR WHOLE FLAXSEED, from the flax plant, is high

in fat, fiber and protein. Many horse owners prefer to feed ground flax, and most supplement prod-ucts are sold that way; it is believed to be more nutritious without the hard shell. Like rice bran, ground flax goes rancid quickly, so consider a stabilized product.

CORN OIL is a quick, easy way to boost calories without adding bulk to a meal. Pour it over the grain meal for a 99% fat top dressing. Equine nutritionists recommend adding no more than a cup of corn oil a day. Oil does leave a slimy residue on bucket and tubs, especial-ly if a horse doesn’t “lick the bowl clean,” so plan for additional scrubbing.

MAKE THE MOST OF MEALS

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and associate director at the Rutgers Equine Science Center. “Horses use fat stores to mobilize fatty acids -- through a process called fatty acid oxidation. It’s a long, slow process to mobilize the fat but it keeps the horse sustained. However, once the horse loses weight, it takes weeks for a horse to start gaining again.”

To prevent weight loss in your hunt horse, fi rst assess his condition. Look at the areas where fat is

stored: along the ribs, crest, withers, the back, tail head, and behind the shoulder. Apply your horse’s appearance to the equine body condition scoring system. Some-times called the “Henneke System” for its founder, body condition scoring allows a handler to evalu-ate fat deposits and score the horse from a range of one (“poor”) to nine (“extremely fat”). Ideally, performance horses score a fi ve, though anywhere

from four to six is ac-ceptable. Versions of the Henneke’s body condition score, with supporting photos, are found online.

In addition, estimate your horse’s weight. You can use a weight tape – sold through tack stores – which requires a measurement of your horse’s heart girth, or measure both heart girth and body length and plug your fi ndings into one of the many equine weight calculators online.

THE EDIBLE COMPLEXSo, you’ve assessed your horse’s weight and condi-tion. The next question: how many pounds of food does he eat each day?

Nutritionists recom-mend that the average horse consume the equivalent of two percent of body weight daily (ap-proximately 20 pounds for a 1,000-pound horse) though active fi eld hunt-ers and performances horses require more.

However, many owners don’t know how much their horses eat. They measure rations by the fl ake and the scoop, not by the pound.

“People ask me why their horse isn’t gaining weight,” says Carey. “And I’ll discover that they hav-en’t weighed their feed or hay. When they do, they fi nd that their horse only gets 12 pounds a day.

6 The K�

That’s why the horse isn’t gaining.”

It’s easy to weigh a scoop of feed. “You don’t need anything fancy – an $8 food scale will do,” says Kathleen Crandell, PhD, a nutritionist at Kentucky Equine Research. “I’ve even heard of people who weigh a ration on a pro-duce scale at the grocery store. The point is, weigh it once and you’re set.”

It isn’t feasible to sneak a bale of hay into the grocery store, so use a standard home scale. If it’s diffi cult to see the reading beneath an unwieldy fl ake, place the hay in a container. Otherwise, weigh yourself while holding a bale, and divide

your fi nding by the num-ber of fl akes (subtracting yourself, of course).

Ideally, the hay to grain ratio in your horse’s diet refl ects his herbi-vore design. Using the 1,000 pound horse example, 15 of the 20 pounds in his ration should come from forage.

While weight is a valuable measure, it isn’t a good indicator of nutrition. Ideally, any species of hay is harvested when it is immature and has more leaves, which

contain protein, as well as thinner stems, and little or no seed heads.

“Horse owners tend to think that timothy is a high quality hay,” says

Lester Vough, PhD, a forage crop specialist and consultant. “And they want to see mature seed heads like they see with a small grain crop. But tim-othy is low in protein, low in nutrition. And when it’s fully mature and ‘headed out,’ crude protein levels drop even more.”

To offer more nutrients in a forage meal, Vough recommends mixing alfal-fa with grass hay. Alfalfa is high in protein; in fact, it exceeds the average horse’s

daily requirements. “Most horses don’t need straight alfalfa,” says Vough, “but a mix will have a higher en-ergy content than straight grass hay.”

Joanne Meszoly is a free-lance writer who hunts with Potomac. She is a frequent Covertside contributor.

Not sure if your hay is immature and leafy, or stemmy and mature? Williams offers this tip: “I tell horse owners to grab a handful of hay in your bare hand, then squeeze it or crumple it up,” she says. “If it hurts your hands, those are the thick stems you are feeling. But if you ball it up and it’s nice and soft, it’s less mature and higher in quality.”

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Kit CareB Y T R I S H B O S L E Y

BRUSH, STEAM, HANGWhether you buy your clothes ready-made or from a custom tailor, a few simple steps will help improve their longevity.

Sending everything to the cleaners each time you wear them can lead to premature ag-ing or disintegration. Here are a few basic steps to minimize that disintegration and improve the life-cycle of your riding apparel:

1Acquire a quality clothes brush, with real hair bristles

stiff enough to loosen any dirt or mud that might set up on the surface of the fabric of your coats.

2 Use steam to remove wrinkles and the occa-

sional dirt or stain that has worked its way into the weave of your fabric. A hand held steamer or steam from a hot shower will freshen the fabric and release any lasting odors and wrinkles.

3 Hang coats on a properly sized wooden clothes

hanger. The frame of the

hanger should stop at the top of the sleeve head — where the sleeve joins the shoulder of the jacket, and the hanger should have a slight curve or bow shape.

4 At the end of the day hang your jacket on

its hanger where air can circulate freely around

the garment, not in the closet — often the show-er rod works nicely. The next day, brush and shake the garment to loosen any remaining dirt.

5 Leave jackets unbuttoned in cloth bags when

hanging for an extended period. Plastic and vinyl bags are great protection

8 The K�

The K� Horse Health and Equipment Guide for a Successful Hunt Season.

SUMMER 2015

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to use when traveling, but not for long-term storage. If they must be used, leave them open to ensure air circulation.

6 Cotton shirts, whether you wash and iron

them yourself or send them to a cleaner, are best laundered without starch. Fine cloth ages and disintegrates faster when its pores are fi lled with starch.

LEATHER REQUIRES special main-tenance to keep it healthy, especially boots that traipse through manure and urine. Try to clean leather as soon as possible after drying at normal room temperatures.

Using a ph neutral cleaner, be espe-cially careful to clean along the area where the leather “upper” joins the sole of the boot. Once the boots are dry and clean, apply the conditioner, oil and polish that your bootmaker suggests.

With new boots, rub mink oil into all of the leather and then more frequently where the sole and the boot meet. Rub

briskly to raise the surface temperature of the leather slightly. If using a cream polish, it is not necessary to use a conditioner; it is part of the polish. Wax-based polish provides the dual benefit of protection from damp conditions and a relatively high shine. The key to longevity for all of your leather foot-wear is to keep the underlying leather properly conditioned and shaped.

When possible, use wooden trees for your boots. The relationship between wood and leather is symbiotic, making it far superior to plastic or rolled news-paper for storing boots.

A FEW WORDS ON FOOTWEAR

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First Aid B Y J O A N N E M E S Z O L Y

We all strive to safeguard our horses and conclude a day of hunting in the same fashion as we started: with a sound, unscathed mount. But injuries can and do occur, sometimes in a spectacu-lar, dramatic fashion and other times in the most

innocuous forms. While it is fruitless to

fret over the “what ifs” that you or your horse may encounter, it is prudent to have a plan.Here’s a run-down of some injuries that occur more frequently in the hunt fi eld than in other horse sports.

LIKELY CAUSE: We are all familiar with the call, “ware wire!” when someone stumbles on a strand or section of abandoned wire fencing. Typically, the offending material is concealed by leaves or overgrown cover and is not evident until a horse treads over the wire or snags a leg. At a walk, a horse can usually step free of the impediment, provid-ed he remains calm. But if

the strands are tangled or the horse is moving quickly, the downed fencing can snag the leg.

THE INJURY: Wire wounds usually occur on the lower legs though a strand strung over a coop can scrape the forearms of a horse. Injuries span the gamut

from superfi cial cuts to se-vere lacerations involving tendons or joints; the latter may require surgical repair. Consult your veterinar-ian as soon as possible, even regarding seemingly superfi cial cuts. “When a horse gets cut by wire, the wound is going to be contaminated by dirt and mud as you take the horse back in,” says Lora Howell, DVM, who hunts with Caza Ladron in New Mex-ico, and grew up hunting in upstate New York. “At minimum, the horse will likely need antibiotics and a tetanus booster.”

KEEP THIS IN MIND: Fencing varies by region and all wire is not alike. In the Mid-Atlantic states, for example, high tensile wire can be troublesome,

Wire LacerationCONSIDER THESE TRIAGE AND TREATMENT GUIDELINES.

12 The K�

but downed page wire contributes to more severe leg lacerations. “If the foot goes through [a square of fencing], the wire can saw through a pastern or tendon,” says Eliza-beth Reese, DVM, who is a longtime member of Maryland’s Potomac Hunt. “The severity of the injury and the damage to tissue often depends on whether the horse panics, or is sen-sible enough to stand still and wait to be cut free.”

In Colorado and many Western states, barbed wire is the preferred choice for livestock fencing, says G. Marvin Beeman, DVM, who is MFH of the Arap-ahoe Hunt and has served as the hunt’s whipper-in or huntsman for 72 years. When encountering this fencing, Beeman recom-mends a response that might seem counter intui-tive to most riders. “If you

find your horse in barbed wire, don’t dismount if you can possibly help it,” he says. “Staying on might go against your mindset, but if you get off, the horse will turn around and can get caught in the wire even more. If you stay in the sad-dle, chances are, the wire is going to break and cause less damage to the leg.”

IMMEDIATE CARE: If your horse’s leg is cut, you can use your stock tie to bandage the injury. Do not wrap the injury using a tourniquet which can damage the tendons in the leg. Once the wound is covered, resist the urge to remove the bandage should blood seep through; the steady pressure of a saturated bandage can help slow the bleeding and prevent fur-ther contamination until your veterinarian arrives.

LIKELY CAUSE: Virtually any sort of sharp, pointy matter can pierce the skin, including a nail, a stick, a wood shard on a damaged jump, even the frozen tip on corn stalk stub-ble. (Hoof punctures are addressed below.)

THE INJURY: Compared to a lacer-ation, a puncture isn’t very bloody and, at first glance, may appear fairly harmless. But these injuries require prompt veterinary attention. Punctures can be decep-tively deep and remnants of foreign matter may be embedded deep within the tissue, even when the object has been removed. Infection also is a concern as bacteria can be trapped within. In general, these wounds are difficult to clean, and they drain poorly because the entry point is small.

KEEP IN MIND: Though any puncture wound requires attention, one near the joint calls for emergency veterinary attention, due to the risk of infection which can be life threatening or cause permanent lameness. “Studies have found that the joint capsule in the fetlock and pastern can extend farther than you might think,” says Reese. “So a puncture that looks like it’s an inch away, can still communicate infec-tion to the joint.”

Puncture Wounds

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IMMEDIATE CARE: In most cases, a puncture will curtail your day in the field — certainly if your mount shows any signs of soreness or lame-ness. In the rare case of a puncture on the upper body, you may be able to continue hunting. But contact your veterinarian immediately afterward.

Once you are back at your trailer or barn await-ing the vet, says Beeman, “you can hose the wound and apply a Fura-Zone ban-dage [over a leg injury], but I wouldn’t spend a lot of time messing with it. Your vet will flush the affected area and clean it out.”

A KickLIKELY CAUSE: We all try to maintain a safe distance between our mounts and other horses at all times, but accidents happen — especially when you let your guard down. A blow might come not from a known kicker (whom you already avoid) but from a well-behaved horse who responds uncharacter-istically when suddenly crowded.

THE INJURY: The majority of kicks are not bone-breakingly severe, but ensuing dam-age depends on whether the kicker is barefoot, shod, or wearing studs. Proximity also factors in (usually a kick has less force when the horses are sidled close togeth-

Hoof InjuriesLIKELY CAUSE: In the hunt field, anything hard or sharp on the ground is suspect. Acute injuries can occur when a sharp object punctures or cracks the sole or frog. Flinty rocks fall into that “sharp” category as do nails, discarded from construction, dumped with trash, or lodged in downed board.

THE INJURY: Shortened stride and soreness are primary indicators of hoof injury. You may notice your horse’s tenderfoot-ed response to a stretch of rocky footing or he may take a buckling step as his hoof presses against a sharp object. Immediate or escalating lameness suggests that the material is embedded in the foot.

KEEP IN MIND: If possible, try to walk your horse home without removing an embedded item; pulling it out, then walking your horse, further exposes the wound to contaminants. What’s more, “if you remove a nail, we can’t be sure where it went,” says Howell. “There are so

many important structures that can be penetrated. If we can X-ray the nail, we can determine whether bone, tendon or ligament have been compromised, and how aggressive we’ll be with treatment.”

IMMEDIATE CARE:To prevent the nail from pressing deeper into the foot, cut off the nail head so the metal is flush with the foot or shoe.

14 The Kit

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er); and location of the blow. The body absorbs force better than spindly, bony legs.

KEEP IN MIND: Some kicks smart right away and a horse who takes a few bad steps might be sound once the sting of the blow recedes.

If the kick grazes your horse or hits a fleshy part, you may be able to continue riding.

IMMEDIATE CARE: As always, if your horse is lame, he’s done for the day. And if you suspect a leg fracture, stabilize the limb before moving

the horse. Says Beeman, “If you can’t get a trailer there, use a few stock ties and two or three whips to make a splint.”

All sorts of scratches, swellings, soreness and bruises may surface several hours after work, so give your horse the once-over when you’re

back from the meet and again the following day. Once you’ve confirmed his healthy status, you’ll know he’s ready for the next meet and the chal-lenges to come.

Joanne Meszoly hunts with Potomac in Maryland and writes for Covertside.

A BLOW MIGHT COME NOT FROM A KNOWN KICKER BUT FROM A WELL-BEHAVED HORSE,

WHO RESPONDS UNCHARACTERISTICALLY WHEN SUDDENLY CROWDED.

Bargain HuntBargain HuntB Y K A T I E B O W I L L I A M S

FOUR WAYS TO SAVE MONEY ON HUNTING COSTSIn college, I drove a Dodge Ram Hemi that ate its weight in gas; I couldn’t afford to fi ll the tank. It had a diamond-plated toolbox in the back and when I popped the lid up, instead of jumper cables and a lug wrench, I kept a velvet lady’s helmet, a dried-out tin of Kiwi boot polish and the long, braided thong of my mother’s hunting whip. There were also three or four empty 7-Eleven coffee cups, a plastic baggie of spare hairnets and a water bot-tle of liniment cut with rubbing alcohol — all the less-sexy trappings of a foxhunter and none of it worth as much as the gas I put in the truck.

I feel pretty confi dent

in saying that no one knows how to hunt on the cheap better than a college student. Meager college jobs rarely pay enough to cover the cap-ping fee, horse upkeep, kit and gasoline to drive impractical pick-up trucks into obscure and distant counties.

I learned a number of valuable lessons while at university about hunting economi-cally — without sacrifi cing safety or turnout — that can apply to a foxhunter of any age. I humbly sub-mit them here.

If you’re a competent

rider, fi nding a horse to borrow isn’t diffi cult. I recommend keeping a little “riding resume” that you can pass along; mine gave my background and provided contact informa-tion for a few trainers who could testify to my riding

ability. If you are new to a particular club (or

hunting in general), this

IF YOU CAN ONLY AFFORD ONE ENSEMBLE, GET A BLACK

COAT, DRESS BOOTS AND ONE PAIR OF BROWN GLOVES.

1. RENT OR TRADE.

Consignment stores like Middleburg

Tack Exchange offer a range of items at

very good prices.

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16 The K�

Shop at ontyte.com

OnTyte Magnetic Stirrups

let you focus on the chase, not your feet.

“Hold Hard!”

is an easy way to give people the confi dence to loan you a horse.

You can also fi nd someone in your hunt that may need help in their barn in exchange for catch rides in the hunt fi eld, says Colleen Roberts, who runs the Deep Run Hunt Club stable along with her husband, Huntsman Richard Roberts.

“I fi nd horse people love to trade services,” Roberts says.

If you’re not a mem-ber, you can sometimes work out an arrange-ment where a horse’s owner pays your cap in exchange for letting you take a green horse into the fi eld — pro-vided you’re a good rider. Over the years, I have ridden young horses that needed some experience under their belts, and the

owner would cover my capping fee. The same applied to staff horses — I would get the huntsman’s second horse fi t and I would get to hunt without writing a check that, at the time, constituted half of my monthly budget.

Even if you are paying a capping fee (or mem-bership dues), borrowed horses are a signifi cant fi nancial improvement over owned horses. You don’t have to feed them, you never have to call the vet and if they mis-behave, you can shake your head and say, “He’s not mine.”

This brings me to the more important point: If you’re going to borrow someone else’s horse, do your homework. A bor-rowed horse — named “Buckie,” after his most salient characteristic —

once left me impaled on a jagged stump in Fluvan-na, Va., jumping three fences without me before anyone in the fi eld noticed I was missing. I don’t feel bad about telling this story, because the owner of the horse in question was my mother, who, like all good horse parents, apparently has little to no concern for my physical well-being.

Bad jumpers, bad actors, bad spookers — none of them are worth it (especially bad jumpers). The take-away: If I’m borrowing a horse from someone I don’t know well, I always try to make a phone call or two beforehand.

My favorite pair of breeches were my moth-er’s, circa 40 years ago. They are of indeterminate

brand and although they were once a gorgeous brick, they’ve faded to a kind of Halloween orange

now — a color not too far off the dusty red clay of South Carolina cotton country. They are also

deeply, deeply unfash-ionable: They fl are out at the hips, button at the calf and have a drop-

2. GET COMFORTABLE WITH HAND-ME-DOWNS.

Timing is everything when shopping for used clothing. Wait until the end of the season when foxhunters are trading up.

18 The K�

front that occasionally comes unbuttoned in the middle of a spirited run and fl aps like a fl ag in

the wind. I love them.

First, they were free (thanks, Mom). Sec-ondly, I come from the school of thought that as long as your kit is clean and well-mend-ed, old-school — er, hopelessly outdated — is cool. Friends call me a foxhunting hipster — they are always fl awlessly turned out in gorgeous and au courant kit — but I believe if you can pull it off with style and grace, you can save a mint by embracing older clothes and look great in the bargain.

If you don’t want to crowdsource your entire kit, there are a lot of great options for used gear. eBay is a terrifi c resource, although caveat emptor applies strongly here. eBay does provide avenues to dispute your purchase and you can check out seller reviews,

but you do have to wait until the product shows up on your doorstep to see what you’re getting. That said, everyone knows someone who knows someone whose cousin once found a beautiful pair of custom Dehners that fi t him like a dream. It’s like the foxhunting unicorn.

My personal avenue of choice is the consign-ment shop. You can try before you buy and, if you go on the right day, you might steal a gor-geous vintage Harry Hall tweed. The Middleburg Tack Exchange in Va. is my favorite — the go-to location for second hand items. Their inventory is extensive, changes frequently, and prices are fair. The Snooty Fox Tack Exchange in Alpharetta, Ga. and the Grey Pony in Highland, Md. also have great selections.

Roberts also points out that there are a couple of key times to shop for kit.

“Be prepared to wait for the end of season sales,” Roberts says. “It’s hard to think about buying blankets for your horse in March, but this is when you get the best discounts.”

Plus, Roberts men-tions, the best time to shop for used hunt-ing equipment is the beginning or end of the season, when people are making decisions about what to replace or discard in their kit.

There are a few things, though, that I don’t recommend going the consignment route for. Do not skimp on your helmet — and replace it after every serious fall.

I also think if you are going regularly, it’s worth ponying up for custom or semi-custom boots. You’re going to be in

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them a lot and there’s nothing to ruin a good day’s sport like ill-fitting boots. Once, before a day’s visiting with the Galway Blazers, I pulled on a pair of hand-me-down boots I hadn’t worn much over several layers of socks. I realized very quickly that they were so tight across the calf that they were cutting off the circulation to my feet. It was agony and I didn’t have a boot jack. It took the poor bartender at the B&B 20 minutes to wrestle me out of those leather death traps (while I wept on the floor). I peeled off three or four layers, jammed my feet back into the boots, and went. Even without the padding, they were still tight and I worried over every fence that my pins-and-needles legs were going to give out. Not to mention the murderous look the bartender gave

me when I ran past in the boots he had just spent almost half an hour getting me out of. Moral of the story: Always, always wear your hand-me-downs with your coldest day hunting socks out hacking before you attempt to hunt in them.

Seven-layer cookies, for the uninitiated, are exactly what they sound like: seven layers of sweet things all glommed together with condensed milk. They’re easy to fix, the ingredients are cheap and they’re a fan favorite at tailgates. They also fit nicely into a sandwich case, and I carry them for a pick-me-up on long, cold days. They’re pure sugar and I think they give you more energy than a plain-Jane

sammy (especially if you put nuts in them). You’re burning off all the extra calories in the saddle, anyway.

The layers vary from chef to chef, but I start with graham cracker crumbs and butter stirred up at the bottom of a Pyrex casserole dish and

then add choc-olate chips, but-terscotch chips,

pecans and shredded coconut. From there, just pour a can of condensed milk evenly over top and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until they’ve all melted together.

If you’ve noticed that I’m not including any measurements, that’s because there aren’t any. Seven-layer cookies are pretty hard to mess up, another thing that made them ideal for a college cook. You can make a big old platter of them for 10 bucks.

THE BACK OF THE FIELD is the best place to catch nips off of other people’s flasks.

IF YOU WANT TO GO visiting, check out the silent auction table at your hunt ball for good deals on guest caps.

FORMAL IS ALWAYS CORRECT, so if you can only afford one ensemble, get a black coat, dress boots (not field boots) and one pair of brown gloves and forego the brick and tweed.

…and if you can find someone to carpool with who has a gas-efficient vehicle, there’s nothing more I can teach you.

Katie Bo Williams is a freelance journalist, blogger and ex-pat Southerner who hunts with Mooreland.

3. LEARN TO MAKE SEVEN-LAYER COOKIES.

4. MISCELLANEOUS ADVICE

20 The Kit