FINALLY counting down as the clock begins

It has been eight months – 2/3rds of a year – since husband moved out of state. My patience and endurance has run very thin, especially this last month. On Wednesday, what I thought was just severe allergies, developed into a head cold and I was lucky enough he was able to come home Thursday afternoon and look after me.

Next weekend we start the actual move-in at our country place. Some time ago I had labeled and packed up horse stuff so it would fit nicely on my large storage shelves. Things all had a place and equipment was hung and ready to go.

Nowadays, since my current barn has NO TACK ROOM ARGH!! I’ve been living out of the trunk of my car and garage for horse equipment. Horses are at three separate places and stuff has gotten spread around; it’s why I didn’t have Bute with me when Pandora got hurt in MO.

When I get my Feng Shui messed up I feel awful and anger more easily. I’m very particular about my personal space and while I can shrug off daughters’ messy room (sometimes) having my own stuff jumbled up, disorganized, misplaced or vanished really, really depresses me.

The new tack room is 10′ by 18′. We measured and I can fit 5 storage shelf units (like the grey one above) down one wall.

I’ll put in a nice table with a countertop for measuring and sorting feed that is high enought that feed barrels roll under it. I’ll be returning to my own feeding schedule - changing Z back to a safe carb product and oats (instead of that expensive, sugar laden sweet feed crap the barn is using now), and getting Pandora back on her glucosomine supplement.

The bridle and saddle racks I’ve sold, as well as two of my saddles. I’ll opt for a freestanding saddle rack this time around. It will be heavy duty enough to hold Western saddles (my own and daughters) and my dressage saddle is light enough to be on highest rack. Because it is freestanding, that sidesteps the issue of when you rent, anything attached to the structure becomes the owners’ property.

I’ve stuffed husbands SUV with almost all the horse stuff, excepting the saddles, some things I still need down here or a couple of things to sort out. These he can take out to the barn now and store until next weekend when I bring up the storage shelves, which will also be the weekend we move husband’s things over as well as pony.

Moving like this is a bit of a pain, but it’s giving me the time to sort through all that we have. I’m making stacks of stuff that I’ll selll via Craigslist, stuff I’ll donate, and trashing what I don’t think it worth selling or giving away.

We have a huge house so yes, time is needed to sort through, label and wrap properly so it’s moved safely. Since the new house is small, I’ve got to really think out the how and what. Some things may remained packed during our lease there, and other things need to stay here until the OK House sells (such as lawn maintenance equipment).

You really don’t know how liberating it is — I WANT TO BE GONE!! Finally, the clock is ticking on countdown….

My L-shaped dream barn

I had posted previously that I would most likely go with an L-shaped barn. Here is a to-scale plan and some thoughts on it:

Wood L-shaped barn

TACK ROOM: The 8′ x 16′ tack room is the north/NW wall. Those corner walls will be heavily insulated and provide some wind break shelter to the stalls. This should give plenty of room for 4 horses and their collective goodies.

This area will have power and outlets. Would prefer the floor be cement but due to costs may have to go with stone, reclaimed brick or plywood.

EXTERIOR STALL DOORS: The stalls on the north edge have full walls with a 4′ wide door opening from the pasture. These will be sliding, solid barn doors. If you leave these without a door you will regret it – snow and rain will inevitably blow in on those worst days and it plays hell with your bedding and drafts.

I’m not a fan of Dutch doors for horse stalls. If the horse is going to be stalled for long periods of time I guess they help, but I have found that the dinky latches are hard to open/close with gloves on, and they catch in the wind, making it hard to close in storms. I would rather have the north wall be solid during storms and have the horse have viewing interest in the front of the stall where he is protected from the weather.

The stall wall with slashes on the exterior wall will start as an open run-in/loafing shed, and later become half walls with a 4′ wide opening (no door).

Before the dividing wall, a fence panel partition

One thing I like about these types of buildings is they can be built in stages depending on how quickly your budget recovers. Here we used metal U-channels (see photo below on left post) mounted on the posts to slot the boards to make a solid partition. BTW when you use slotted boards, when one is kicked and destroyed you replace ONE board vs. an entire sheet of plywood.

Hmmm naughty Z! that wall needs to be a bit higher...

Another example of staggering work is each stall wing could be built at different times as long as the entire pad is leveled in the beginning.  This is important to me as I do not plan on loaning money to build the barn but build it with cash and our own sweat labor.

INTERIOR STALL DOORS: Stall doors and doors to turnout are also not close together. This alleviates some pushing behavior and allows horses to have  a comfort zone when entering to be fed. This is important as two stalls will open to one pasture.

European Style - open front for stalls

It really depends on you and your horses, but I will be opting for half walls on the aisle side and 3/4 walls between stalls. I like horses being able to reach over and be petted or where they can interact with me and visitors.

100 percent view often seen in vet clinics

OTOH, if you have a biter or boarders this is a real pain in the neck (I had one boarder horse bite the tongue off another boarder horse because they could reach each other over the stall door!!).  That type of design opens you up to issues so I think it’s a personal decision how much you want to close horses off from each other and the barn life.

Horse Gossip Gate... Loving it!

FEED ROOM: The feed room is centrally located. This allows two people to feed going in opposite directions. Anyone who has dealt with impatient horses knows why.

Now here's some organization!

There will be a way to feed without going inside the stall (a passthrough or door). Note that corner feeders in the stall are NOT adjacent to the neighbor but on opposite corners. When you put feeders together, fights break out, even if there IS a wall between them.

Hay will be placed in slow feeders (BTW in this next pic my only issue is the gap between feeder and floor – a rolling horse could get cast under this). Read this from the website: “the most important aspect of slow grazing for horses is psychological.  Horses live in the moment. If they don’t have something to graze on they think they are going to die.” ROFLMAO!!! So true!!!

The feed room will also contain a laundry sink with cold water to rinse and a water pump. Locating the water pump centrally in the barn allows it to go either direction without being short in length.

There is a hall and gate passage next to the feed room so I can visit the pasture on that side of the barn without going through a stall. For example, imagine that you have quickly called horses up to eat as a blizzard is coming! I can dodge though this gate and close their exterior doors while they are busy munching.

Next to the feed room is an open bay to store square hay bales. This is an awesome feature so you don’t have to wheelbarrow hay from your hay barn when the snow and rain hits (as long as you planned ahead and stacked some!).

AISLES & FLOORING: All aisles are 4′ wide, covered and with a surface of either pea gravel, brushed cement, or brick (rubber or stone). The aisle wall of the feed room (going to the gate) will store shovels and picks for stall cleaning.

All stalls would have rubber matting. It makes the clean up way easier and prevents the soil floors from becoming rutted and stinky. I’ve gone with both soil and mats, and I would choose mats any day. Pine shavings is the preferred bedding in my area and bags can also be stored in the open hay area.

ELECTRIC: The electricity in the barn will be powered by solar panels with back up to “real” electricity. The interior corner of the L will have an exterior barn light mounted on a pole. This should provide me with enough light to get in and check horses or turn on more lights without stumbling around in the dark.

Each stall will have an electrical outlet (safely hidden from playful horses) for water bucket defrosters and summer fans. If there is one thing I can’t stand and that is breaking ice out of water tanks. I’m also a firm believer that horses prefer warm water in winter vs. ice cold.

WASH RACK: I’ve gone into wash rack matters elsewhere, but in brief, I want a stock situation so I can bring the horse up (see the hay rack!?), tie him up to munch and then hose him AND his tail down without dancing about. The wall will have storage for shampoo etc… and the stock be centrally located in the floor space with room on both sides for the groomer to move. The water for the wash rack will be heated with passive solar power.

Also, I prefer wash racks to be located at the end of the barn. It’s a huge pain in the neck for someone to bring a horse all the way through the barn to reach the wash rack! Having it on the end also allows draining off to the grass instead of into a wall or a nearby stall or barn aisle.

COVERED EXTENSION FOR SHADE: BTW if I wanted to make this barn cooler in the summer, I would put an extension on the south facing stalls – such as another 10-12′ overhang. This cools the summer wind before it enters the barn and provides another shade option for the horses.

Hm well I am sure there are other things I could tell you about this plan. I do have photos galore (but not on this computer) of this and that feature I want to put in.

Little buildings to love

Looks like, despite all evidence to the contrary, that we will pay off a big bill at the end of the year, putting us on track for the move to the Missouri to happen within the next 18 months. To keep the dream alive, here is one of my favorite little outbuilding plans:

It was featured in Popular Mechanics magazine and I guess it’s the red barn color with the gray roof, and the New England style barn features that makes my heart go pittypat. Hm but I think I would put sliding barn doors on the exterior of the open area maybe with an arbor, delete one of the door areas and put a row of windows (which can be propped open) with windowboxes where the door once was.
 

The cement floor would become stone or reclaimed brick. Face it south and stick some solar panels on the roof for electricity. Remember, to plan for it to vent during summer. It could function as a stand alone tack room, but I’m thinking of reserving it for husband’s pottery studio and/or tool shop. Better plan for a hammock I’m thinking so I can hang out and read while he putters about…

Here’s the little kitchen garden that would go with it (fence lowered to prevent rabbit entrance though):

If I decided to do a greenhouse – not sure on that, I would go with a Salt Box design. Facing south for the plants. Would this need some sort of radiant heat in the depths of winter to keep plants going or would passive solar be enough? (note to self – ask Chico):

For some reason, defying all logic, I LOVE saltbox buildings. Maybe I lived in New England in another life. Probably will be the place to keep all the garden tools, rakes, wheelbarrows, compost heap, but could make a neat feed/tack room too. Thinking of it being built from reclaimed wood such as this staircase was:

And it needs a Dutch Door don’t you think?

I think the garden shed would need a lean-to as a place to provide cover for a riding lawn mover but would that spoil the look?? (hm I guess the riding mower could go in the tractor barn). 

Here is an easy DIY on making a rain barrel system. If it’s a blueprint that I can understand then it’s feasible folks:

Yet, I see from my files, that I have not put any serious thought into how the chicken house will look! Hm I better get on that this week…. (after I get back from trip to Missouri to see hubby and scope out possible school for daughter).

A bit of the beginning

Since the downturn in weather and my out of state trip, will put me out of using Rugby Player this week, I decided that I will work with Z getting her used to a bit. I’ve wanted her started in a bitless rig so no reliance by her or the rider would be placed on the bit. However, I’ve always planned on using one eventually and now that I know her dental has been fixed, and I have a bit that fits her, it’s time to try it out.

I had a choice of a loose ring or an eggbut snaffle. Here the loose ring is on the left and the eggbutt on the right.

The loose ring needs an intelligent hand as any movement of the hand causes the bit to shift in the horses’ mouth. For those that may not feel good about the steadiness of their hands, this bit should be avoided. The upshot though is that for horses who lean, get heavy in the bridle, or (like Big Guy) goes behind the bit, the loose ring can be minutely adjusted by the movement of the riders’ hand, and require the horse to change it’s position – meaning the leaner suddenly has nothing to lean upon!

For Z, I’ll be using the Eggbutt. An Eggbutt gets it’s name from the oval shape of the ring which is fixed. It will give her more stability as she tries out the bit in her mouth. It will also be impossible for her to suck the bit sideways into her mouth, which can be done with a smaller ring snaffle.

Both of these bits have a peanut center. Looking around Julian is right – it is a French Snaffles but NOT the kind with the flat middle piece (and definitely not a Dr. Bristol). The large round piece allows the bit to the bit to lay in a curve over the tongue, and not break at a right angle while in the mouth.

I’ve ridden in this bit for some time and like it. With Big Guy I use the loose ring version due to the aforementioned leaning.

sizing a horse bit

It’s been on my to-do list for some time to get Z sized for a bit. With hubby in town to help and take photos, I finally remembered to bring out some string to get it done.

It’s pretty simple but often people won’t do it and just guess. For example, since Z is only 14.2 you would think she would take a pony bit – maybe 4.5 or 4.75, but let’s find out…

I put a knot on one end of a piece of soft twine. This will go on the off side of the horses mouth and I will hold the knot close to exterior lip of the nose while I slide the twine inside the mouth, where a bit would sit.

The knot also helps in not allowing the twine to slip through the mouth. I mark the twine on my side with my fingertip and then compare the length to those of the bits I brought.

The first is a loose ring, snaffle 4.5″ pony bit. It is way too small in length.

The second is an Eggbutt snaffle 5″ bit I’ve used for Big Guy (16.2) and Dear One (15.3). This is a much better fit.

Bits have a right and wrong direction. This shows the wrong direction for putting a bit on the bridle.  The corners would pinch the horses’ lips and the pressure applied through the rein would be quite painful.

You want to have a curve that bows out like the following so it doesn’t pinch the corners of the mouth and aligns better with the shape of the mouth.

When cleaning tack, if you get in a hurry or aren’t paying attention it can be easy to put the bit back wrong on the bridle. If this happens, your horse will let you know in a hurry with head tossing, balking, and perhaps even worse behavior.