Cob Jockey

Told you it's product review week.  Although to be fair I've made all these purchases over the past two months so it's not like I just dropped a bunch of $$ all at once!

Pretty quickly after I started shopping for a stepstool replacement, I knew I was going to end up with something "extra".

I'm very short, so I need all the height I can get, but none of the stepstools were doing it for me.  The tallest ones were A-frame which meant I wouldn't be able to get as close to the horse as I wanted to, and the non-A frame ones weren't as tall as I wanted.

So I turned to the home improvement section.

Pony for scale

I ended up with an aluminum work platform.  It's just a smidge taller than a 2 step mounting block at nearly 20" tall, 31" wide and 12" deep, and has a rung on both sides so that you can get onto it easily.  It also folds nearly flat, has a nice carry handle, weighs only 11lbs, and hangs nicely on my gridwall.

Things a mounting block can't do

Of course it made things like hanging my fan easier (and safer), but it also made my braids come out nicer.




The #1 rule of Dutch braids is that you always braid up toward the sky, because that makes the braids sit on top of the neck rather than against it.  The 20" tall walkboard made it easy to get way above Connor in order to do that (YMMV on a full-sized horse, of course).

And - since the walkboard is long as his neck, I didn't have to get down and reposition it every two braids like I did with my old stool.






In addition to all of the above, it also made a great mounting block, table and foot rest.  It was nice to have a flat surface off the ground where I could throw things, and I had several people walk by it at the show and murmur to each other what a good idea it was.

World's Tiniest Horse Trailer next to some normal-sized trailers

Shown next to a haybale for scale

The only downside to this is the price.  At $62.99 I felt it was steep, but justified it by how much I'd use it even outside of shows.  And that's definitely been true, so far I've used it for painting at home, for washing the horse trailer and for all kinds of grooming situations at the barn.  There are cheaper ones, but the reviews weren't as good, so I went with this one.

Bottom Line: If you're a shorty like me, this is a great multi-purpose option to replace your mounting block/braiding ladder/table at shows, and you'll probably find other uses for it around the house and barn too.

What: Finether Aluminum Work Platform Drywall Step Up Folding Work Bench
Price: $62.99
Where to Buy: Amazon