Horse keeping tips - share yours

[mydaddysjag]

Do you have any tips on saving time, sanity, or just making life easier?

Im not a morning person, I fix my morning feed the night before. We put it in plastic folgers coffee cans with the supplements in the can too. In the morning I can run out, dump it in, and not worry about measuring things.

An old broken deep freezer makes a good pest proof place to store grain, and you can always find them free

 

[LittleRibbie]

Yes, sell all your horses except for one....much easier,less time,costs less......BUT WHO WANTS TO SELL....SURE NOT ME!!

But it will be fun reading everyones ideas!!

 

[Jill]

The way we laid out our paddocks, with a central aisle, speeds things up.

Not stalling horses routinely but rather having it so they can come in and out as they please is also a time saver and I think healthier for the horses both physically and mentally.

A good hay cart if you have enough horses is a MUST.

Water hydrants conveniently located saves time.

Toilet brushes (bought only for horse use) are great bucket and trough scrubbers.

Apple flavored ivermectin ("Bimectin") can make most deworming sessions a breeze as the horses love the taste and the cost is so low ($3/tube).

"Foaling" cameras and buzzers are obviously great for foaling, but should you have a sick horse, they come in handy then, too, for monitoring.

Keep a sheet or bookmarked book of horse vital statistics in your med kit, along with your vets' phone numbers, if there's any chance under stress you will not remember these details.

 

[Sixstardanes]

Using a hand held fish net to scoop out hay bits and beet pulp remnants to help keep the water cleaner.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I have my horses a fair distance apart, boys at one location and mares in another. This means carrying hay to the mares (the hay barn is near the stallions) and I disliked trying to push a wheel barrow back and forth or a sled in the winter so I went to Princess Auto and got a leaf tarp (it is a tarp with a rope sewn into it and can be gathered and carried by that rope when full. I put the amount of hay I need for the girls in the tarp gather it up and sling it over my back to pack it to them. Easy to carry and no hay falling out on the way.

 

[MindyLee]

Have extra fence and materials just incase you need to repaire or replace a section of fence!

If you have stallions, you may know what I mean!

 

[sfmini]

We gave up putting grain in feed tubs, first thing they would do is dump the tubs and then eat the feed out of the dirt. Now, we put down a flake of hay and the grain on the hay and no more dumping grain in the dirt, no more rooting around for missing feed tubs, I can walk the fence line tossing flakes of hay, then back with the grain, same thing in the stalls. It makes feeding go so much quicker.

We do still feed the full sized horses in those untippable feeders since they are on pasture and any hay is in a rack but they don't seem to mess with the tubs like the minis do.

 

[wingnut]

sfmini: but I like collecting my pretty colored buckets! I've got one in nearly every color

LOL!

That is an interesting idea though. As I feed all but one of my horses the same amount of grain (Strategy) at each feeding, it would definitely be a time saver. I still have to feed the hard keeper separate because I need to know how much she's eating each time. Maybe I could just rotate the unused buckets for just her?

Love the idea of a toilet bowel brush for cleaning buckets. Gonna hit the dollar store for that this coming week!

We keep our feeds in metal trashcans that are kept tightly closed with bungie cords. Keeps both rodents and horses out. Even if the horses were to get into the tack room where the feed is kept, the lids stay on tight if knocked over.

 

[MindyLee]

sfmini: but I like collecting my pretty colored buckets! I've got one in nearly every color

LOL!

LOL!!!

Well I happy to see Im not the only one! I even have way to many halters! 9 minis, 40+ halters! in every size and color, many new never used BUT at least I have them!

 

[sfmini]

yes, but my feeders never have to be cleaned!

We use a toilet brush for the troughs too, also used to keep goldfish in them all year. Never had to feed them, they ate bug larvae. We had one for almost ten years, and it was one of those cheap $.20 feeder fish. It was big and gold when it died, small and brown when we got it.