Mr. Larson’s Wonder Oil—WD-40. Over 2,000 Uses and Counting

My tack room has the normal things one would expect to find within. Tack, of course. Headstalls, reins, saddles, horse equipment, feed, first aid supplies, and grooming items—whatever is needed for riding.

But, my tack room would not be complete without one must-have item. WD-40.

Want to keep rust at bay? Spray the metal on your shovels and rakes. It keeps hinges squeak-free as well as the stall door tracks sliding easily. With a spritz of WD-40, you can extend the life of snaps and clips when they want to stick open or closed. I also use it on clipper blades. The WD-40 site graciously provides a link to help you discover all the uses for their miracle oil https://wd40.com/uses–tips.

In my opinion, WD-40 ranks right up there with Duck Tape. Invented by Norman Larson in 1953, WD-40 is a penetrating oil that at least 2,000 uses, and it seems like we find a new way to use it every day. I’ve found use 2,001!

When I first moved to Texas, I discovered cockleburs. Or rather the horses did. Beautiful Arabian mares would come in from the pasture to be fed, wearing nature’s version of curlers. Curlers with attitude! I only grabbed those things once with haste.

I tried Show Sheen—good stuff for what it was designed for, but not so much for burr removal. Cowboy Magic works pretty well too, but it’s not cost effective when you have ten horses with manes full of the little prickly demons.

Spray a little WD-40 on a wad of hair and burrs and the burrs will slide right out with minimum effort. I would recommend that you wear leather gloves, cloth ones will stick to the burr. I never used gloves because I hate wearing them. I developed some serious calluses, but would still have sore fingertips after a long burr picking session. Guess that makes me hard-headed, as my dad would say. Cocklebur removal remains one of my favorite uses for WD-40. A note of caution, though. Always be careful not to get this in the horse’s eyes or mouth.

Once, we had a tornado blow over the barn. It blew the garage door at the end of the barn clean through it and out the other end. All the pictures and plaques on the wall were blown out as well, and items came off of shelves.

When the dust settled, and I came out of my hidey hole, it was a mess. But the can of WD-40 still sat in its place on the shelf next to the wash pit. Unmoved and undamaged.

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