This blog post isn’t my typical one for adulting equestrians.
Instead, this one goes out to all the friends and family of us horse loving adulting equestrians! That being said, I think the gift ideas listed below would also make great gifts for not just horse loving adults, but teens too.
Growing up, I could tell my own friends and family had a hard time finding gifts for me – that is, gifts I really wanted or needed.
After receiving the 10th cup with a generic horse on it, I started to realize maybe they just needed a little guidance. Luckily for you, the internet can be helpful with solving this problem – unlike in the 90’s and early 2000’s when this once horse crazy teen (now horse crazy adult) was stuck with whatever the mall sold with a horse on it.
Hopefully this post will give you some great ideas for Christmas horse girl gift-giving (or any time of the year, really!)
Gift Idea #1 – Horse Books
Spoiler Alert: Shameless Author plug ahead.
But what can I say? I was obsessed with any book that even mentioned a horse in it as a young girl, a teenager, and well, even today. So, it really shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise to my family when I started writing my own equestrian book series a few years ago.
If you’re looking for a book series that’s written clean, and has everything you could ever want in a book (horses, mystery, suspense, romance, friendship, horsey tropical paradise settings and more horses) than this series might be the perfect gift for your horse-loving person. I have mom-approved 12+ year old readers and readers as old as 85, so this series can be for pretty much any aged horse girl.
This one’s also a great gift for the horse lovers that maybe don’t own a horse or don’t have access to be around horses anymore, since I have reviewers that say they can “practically smell the horses” when they read this book series.
As a bonus, it’s a complete series, so if you’re really wanting to knock it out of the park on Christmas morning, you can gift them all 5 books in the series all at once.
You can find this book series on Amazon here
As a side note, I just recently started another book series called “The Wellington Equestrians Book Series” so be on the lookout for my of my books on amazon if you need ideas for next years gift-giving!
Gift Idea #2 – Gift Cards
I know what you’re thinking. “I want to buy them a real gift and not a gift card!”
(And don’t worry, more of those items to come in this post).
But trust me when I say nothing gets us more excited than free money to spend on our horses, more riding gear, or pretty much anything horse related that speaks to us. Horses are expensive, and if we get a gift card to buy that expensive leather cleaner for our saddle, or a million bottles of fly spray in the summer, they will be thanking you when they are checking out at their favorite online tack store later.
If you still want to add in a bonus gift that’s more tangible, go for it. But I’m telling you, a gift card will be a big win with any horse lover and especially horse owners. Every. Single. Time.
If you need gift card recommendations, you can’t go wrong with SmartPak, Dover Saddlery, or Stateline Tack. Odds are, the horse person in your life will find something (or a lot of something’s) to buy on there with said gift card.
Gift Idea #3 – A Saddle Pad
Some girls can never have too many shoes. But horse girls, on the other hand, can never have too many saddle pads. It’s literally impossible. Ask my husband – the gift I was most excited about last year was the Back on Track Saddle Pad he got me.
Now here’s where it gets tricky – you need to make sure you get the right size saddle pad. But saddle pads don’t play the typical numerical size game. Instead, you need to do a little digging (if you don’t know already) into the discipline your rider-friend does.
For example, if your friend or family member rides dressage, they will need a dressage saddle pad. For jumping and eventing, and all purpose pads will do. For western, you need a western pad. Catch my drift?
It definitely would not hurt to visit a local tack store so they can help you out if you’re still scratching your head about what to get. Show a nice tack store employee a picture of the persons fully tacked up horse, and I can guarantee they will be able to point you in the right direction.
But just for a little inspiration, here’s some of my favorite all purpose saddle pads that I own:
- Weatherbeeta All-Purpose Saddle Pad
- Back On Track All-Purpose Saddle Pad
- Weatherbeeta Marble All-Purpose Saddle Pad
Gift Idea #4 – (Winter) Riding Socks
Like Saddle pads, every rider I know can literally never have enough riding socks. But for those of you needing gift ideas for horse lovers in colder states, one thing I (or any of my riding friends) seem to never have enough of are winter riding socks.
Maybe it’s because they are pricier, or because all the “fun” designed socks are made for summer riding, but its the one thing I feel like I always need more of and never actually buy.
But if you really want to light up a northern horse owners face Christmas morning, you’re going to need to go with the big guns. Aka, heated tall socks.
And while we are talking about heated gear, I would most definitely not survive Ohio winters in the barn without my Ororo Heated Vest. That was my Christmas gift to myself (via an Amazon gift card I got) and I would buy it all over again if I could! This would make another awesome northerner horse girl gift.
Here’s a few of the winter riding socks I love!
Gift Idea #5 – A Printed Picture of Their Horse
This one is a fail-proof.
Literally every horse owner is obsessed with one thing: their horse, and pictures of their horse.
I recommended doing some digging through that persons Facebook page to see if they had any professional pictures taken with their horse or if they bought the digital version of professionally taken horse show pictures. That way, the quality is there if you decide to do a larger print out.
Get a really nice frame that matches the style of their home, or get a framed canvas made somewhere like Smallwoods (I bought one from them and it was stunning), and I can guarantee no matter how many pictures they already have printed and framed of their horses they will be thrilled.
If you want to get creative, you can get on Etsy and look up some different things that sellers can do with that picture to make it extra special. Like this.
They even have ones that are geared toward those who have lost a horse, and speaking from experience as someone who has lost a heart horse, this gift would one hundred percent make me cry (in a good way).
Here’s some frames on Amazon I’ve bought and loved for my horse picture print outs!
Gift Idea #6 – A Horseshoe Necklace
This is one for horse lovers who may or may not not own a horse, but speaking from experience, it’s one of my favorite gifts I’ve been given.
I love to wear it when I’m at work, or when I’m dressing up (and not at the barn for once). I got my (also horse obssesed) sister one the following year and she wears it almost every day.
We horse girls may not wear a ton of jewelry, but this is one jewlery item I wear all the time.
Here’s the one I got my sister
Gift Idea #7 – Custom Breyer Made To Look Like Your Horse
I don’t care how old I get, if someone bought me a custom Breyer Horse model that was an exact replica my horse, I’d lose it (and then display it in my living room despite my husbands protests).
While technically this is probably a gift geared towards horse crazy girls or horse crazy teens, I bet you the Breyer nostalgia paired with having their horse mini-sized in Breyer form would be a killer gift anyway.
Check it out the custom Breyer models here
I hope this best of horse lovers gift ideas was helpful + inspirational. Happy shopping!