Creating my horse barn

[ustmd]

It's been a couple days now and they have calmed down a lot. They have started to spread out while feeding, but still follow the biggest one around. Today they finally came to the barn to eat out of the trough. Karen filled it with something called Ranch Pro Performance.




The tack room is 12x12 on the outside. It's just big enough to put everything in it and not be too crowded or cluttered. I'm guessing that we can store 40 square bales in there easily.


View attachment 420739



Eddie

Looks great.

If you have the space, I would recommend some metal trash cans for the feed. It will deter any rodent issues. Also, if the horses were ever to get into the tack room, it will keep them from gorging on the feed and foundering.

Also, that is a lot of feed on hand for four horses. I know that his will light up comments, but we try to avoid keeping more than 2 weeks of food on hand--especially in an unconditioned space. Less chance of it becoming damaged or being affected by humidity changes that will result in mold or fungus in the feed. AT least, I would recommend putting it on a pallet to ensure good air circulation underneath.

 

[Xfaxman]

It's been a couple days now and they have calmed down a lot. They have started to spread out while feeding, but still follow the biggest one around. Today they finally came to the barn to eat out of the trough. Karen filled it with something called Ranch Pro Performance.

Eddie

Looks great.

If you have the space, I would recommend some metal trash cans for the feed. It will deter any rodent issues. Also, if the horses were ever to get into the tack room, it will keep them from gorging on the feed and foundering.
------------------------------------

Karen needs to do some research on feeding horses and colic.

There is enough feed in that trough to kill a horse!

 

[jimmyj]

Very beautiful! Love it.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm far from a horse expert... years of helping my brother with his and crewing the Endurance Circuit is the sum total of my experience plus the Boy Scout Horsemanship Merritt Badge ;-)

The healthy horses tend to be lean and forage... the horses with all the problems seem to be barn kept and fed all kinds of special supplements... even feeding from feeders can contribute because in nature horses spend a lot of time foraging with there head down which tends to minimize sinus problems...

I think your new herd has an ideal setting with plenty of room and wide open space...

Looking forward to foaling time...

 

[ultrarunner]

Fence is just standard white vinyl three rail fencing from Gardner Fencing. Since it's not very strong, we ran three rows of hot wire around it. One at the top for the horses, one down low for Oscar and one between the bottom and second railing for the coyotes and raccoon's. We have ducks in the pond and we loose one from time to time to predators. We are hoping the hot wire will keep them out. It took ten minutes for one of the horses to touch the wire. She jumped straight up, all four feet off the ground, then spun around and rain away from the fence!! Later on in the day, another one did something similar. Those are the two that we saw get zapped. Hopefully that will be enough and they wont challenge it again. The charger is rated for 2 juels and my fence reading voltage meter tool maxes out at 7,000 volts when testing it. If you stand close enough to the fence, it will arc over to you. I got hit that way, it went right through my sweatshirt and it felt like a static electricity shop. Strong and to the point. While setting up the fence I got zapped real good by touching the wire while trying to adjust it and that was much worse then anything I've felt while working on a house. Right down to the bone!!!

View attachment 420786

Eddie

I'm on the Gardner Fence mailing list and Triton Barns too.

When I was doing my research the hot wire was essential for livestock containment with the Gardner type fences...

I've got fence charges here in the city otherwise the garden would be picked clean... well worth the time and investment... a ranch around here that raises goats say a bobcat encounter with his electric fence and credits it with keeping predators at bay.

I'm very interested in how it holds up through the years...

Thanks Eddie

 

[arrow]

Hi Eddie

We kept horses on the property for 20 years as all of my 3 girls were into competitive riding (3 phase). At any rate, you have built a beautiful barn for the beasts. I would recommend one thing however that will save you lots of work and material.
As I am understanding from what i have skimmed off of 11 pages of posts, you are keeping the floors dirt? I would hesitate with this move if I am anywhere correct with my reading. Horses are creatures of habit. If they get "used" to it, they'll spend a lot of time in the stalls especially when Texas gets hot. I would recommend stall mats for 1. cleanliness, 2. ease of cleaning and 3. economy of bedding. Not to put anything would eventually create such a stink to the dirt of dried urine, you couldn't go near it after a while. Your feet will smell like dead skunk and you would not want to walk in the house with the same shoes you just mucked the barn with and I mean even if you took them off and put them in the foyer.

I would get the mats, bed them up with straw, shavings or saw dust (my favorite) and the barn will be much easier to keep in the long run. Plus if you're foaling anything, you'll want the extra cleanliness it will provide.

If cribbing starts, apply a substance called "bitter apple". Some horses hate the stuff, some it has no effect on but I've had a couple that thought it was the ketchup on the fries delicious. It's cheap enough stuff to at least try it out if it comes to that.

 

[riptides]

A horse is stupid when it comes to eating. It will eat until it dies if left unattended.

One of mine developed a taste for "onion" grass one season. Was down in the field, had to call vet. Gas colic. Horse was burping, onion grass. Disgusting! And they don't burp.

Watch them for the next few days, fields, feeding, supplements, even weather changes. Moderation of all things is the way to go.

 

[ustmd]

Karen needs to do some research on feeding horses and colic.

There is enough feed in that trough to kill a horse!

I didn't even catch all of the food in the food trough. That all needs to go. :thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:

Not to pile on or to pile on for a different subject...what are you doing for water? I see the pond in the background. Many "farm" raised horses will not drink or drink enough out of a pond--they are finicky animals . I see the green buckets hanging on the troughs...those are way too small.

If you do not have one, you need to get at least 1 (maybe 2) 100 gallon water trough from TSC (or similar). Come summer, with 4 horses, they will easily go through 75 gallons (or more) of water. Just as too much food will cause colic, so will too little fresh water.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you, we went and read the recommendations on the bags and realized we had too much out there. It says half a pound of feed for every 100 pounds of body weight. Hopefully we didn't do any real damage, but for now on, it's going to be a lot less food for sure!!!!


Eddie

 

[ddbackhoe]

FWIW, that's more than I would give. Ours are Tennessee Walkers and weigh ~900 lbs. and they get ~2.5-3 lbs. each, twice a day. Hay twice a day (amount varies by season) and forage. This routine has been keeping them in their ideal weight range and (knock on wood), no serious health issues in at least the last 5 years.

 

[EarPlug]

Find a good Veterinarian now and post their phone number in the barn for emergencies. Get a health and shots checkup.

They will also advise you on feeding requirements. Feeding can and will vary based on general health, age and the quality of your pastures. It is possible that you will need to feed little or no grain/feed. Feed requirements also vary greatly with activity level.

 

[bobm6996]

The barn looks great, like the tack room. Glad to see that the horses have found a great home. I am like you, I ride once in a while, but really just like looking out in the pasture and seeing them. Our horses are very calm and friendly, they love attention. Enjoy brushing on them and seeing how much they enjoy it. We have 3 and they are quite "healthy" looking, meaning they eat well. The wife, daughters and grandkids ride them and they have been trail riding horses for several years. The comments here regarding feed are very true, a horse will eat itself to death. We give them grain twice a day, half oats and half sweet feed, but only about the equivalent of 2 or 3 big manly handfuls. They get about 2 flakes of grass/alfalfa hay in their stall at night when we put them up and we have feeders in the "sacrifice" lot that we put a bale of hay in when they are put out for the day. If the pasture is in good shape and letting them in it won't tear it up we do not give them hay because they will be eating the grass all day. We never leave them out on the pasture at night because we have a very rich pasture and they would end up sick. They primarily need two things; access to clean water and forage, feed is great, but if they have good pasture they can get by without it.
We will be moving this year from our 4 acres to 15 acres, building a new house and horse barn and giving them a 5 acre pasture compared to about 1.5 acre they have now. Can't wait to see how happy they will be and there will be a lot more room to ride without having to leave the property.

 

[ultrarunner]

When my brother bought his place it came with an old horse that had 50 acres to roam... horse belonged to a now deceased friend of the previous owners.

Old Maggie loves kids and if you have a carrot or apple she will be your friend for life... she is 18 and only forages... no supplements and the only item provided is water from the spring... she's been living this life for 5 years.

The local vet looks in on her from time to time as she was somehow related to the horses original owner...

It's amazing at how well she does living the natural life and good she can live out her days...

My brother's 3 steads are Rush Creek Arabs and raised on the prairie free to roam until needed for the cattle operation and they have much less space because he will not put them in the big area due to have t-post and barb wire...

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks again for all the great advice and insight.

The horses have about 4 acres of grass that's just starting to come in. There are some pretty good sections of it that Oscar has tore up and another area that we cleared of trees and I graded with the dozer that was planted last year and is still pretty thin with grass. They spent the first four days eating constantly. Today they have stopped eating non stop and have begun to play, run around and seem to be just watching what's going on around them. Karen went for a run around the outside of the fence. Four laps and they ran along with her the whole time. Seeing them just take off and run for no reason got her to thinking about going for the run. We've also cut down on the extras. Four small piles spread out in the trough that they all eat together and finish up in a few minutes.

Eddie

 

[tcreeley]

Read up on founder, colic. Bute is good for inflammation and pain - vet sells it. Good luck.

 

[/pine]

Very enjoyable thread to date...! (typical for E.W.)
Personally I know nothing about horses other than they like sugar cubes and apples...

Have a cousin in the Timpson/Tenaha area that's a hotshot calf roper...

 

[tallyho8]

Eddie, my stalls are covered with 3/4 treated plywood coated with brown Halt Cribbing coating and though they are 10 years old now the plywood is in great shape and has not been chewed or kicked through. My experience is that horses only kick walls when locked in and will not kick in run-ins like you have. The brown coating is an excellent wood preservative besides also keeping the horses from chewing and looks pretty nice in the stalls but since yours are painted now this coating is out of the question.

I have seen horses easily kick through 1/2 plywood but 3/4 is much harder and nearly impossible (not impossible) for most horses to kick through.

I covered my hay storage stall with treated 3/4 plywood and was one sheet short and used a sheet of untreated that I had and it lasted 2 years before termites destroyed it. Hopefully, you don't have the termite problem we have down in south Louisiana.

 

[EddieWalker]

Termites are bad here. I'm hoping I'll be already because I have all the wood sitting on concrete.

Worse case is that I just have to do it again!!!

Eddie

 

[mark02tj]

Barn looks great, Eddie!

And now that you have horses, maybe you can teach them to dance! :cool2::dance1::cool2::dance1:

From what I can find, the video was shot at S. Padre Island, so there's a good chance it's a Texan horse! They might be teaching it to two-step to some Jerry Jeff Walker music instead of Billy Ray Cyrus! :thumbsup::laughing:

 

[EddieWalker]

Woke up to a big surprise today. I was in my truck, leaving for work when I noticed something odd about the horses. There where five of them instead of 4!!!!! Bell was pregnant and we knew it was coming, but for whatever reason, we thought we had another month.

Best guess is that our new baby is a girl.