The Rider Adapts: Aquaphor

This is about one of those products that you probably see every time you shop at the grocery store or drug store. It is also a product that I should have recommended earlier, during the winter months when dry, chapped, irritated skin is more common.

As riders, we probably suffer quite a bit of damage to our skin from the elements; the cold especially causes me a variety of problems, not the least of which is hand eczema. Or chilblains. I’ve been told either. And they are two different things. Maybe I’ll just go with chilblains because it sounds like a 19th century affliction, like dropsy or consumption, and I have a strong affinity for the Victorian era. Anyways.

Aquaphor has been one of the few affordable and readily available products that relieves the skin of my hands during winter. Summer is a good time to have it on hand, too, as it relieves sunburn a little bit.

It isn’t winter right now, so I have only the remnants of blisters from the cold on my hands–I applied Aquaphor multiple times daily when the cold was at its worst and while I still have scarring from the blisters, the Aquaphor shortened their duration by a lot (which I know because the winter before I wasn’t using Aquaphor) and kept my skin from cracking and bleeding. My hope is that next winter, I will start using Aquaphor before I have a problem and it may prevent some of the blisters.

Apologies for the graphic nature of this post, but Aquaphor has significantly improved my winter skin and I thought sharing my experience would be worthwhile for fellow equestrians because we are all out in the elements with our horses on a regular basis. Sometimes gloves just aren’t enough.