Ok, best topic ever.
Features: (with intermittent photos)
- Dutch doors/doors to the outside to allow the horses to pick if they want to be in or out. I would also love the building to be insulated and have ceiling fans if possible. Good lighting is also a must.
- Auto waterers in stalls and outside - I HATE carrying buckets. You get wet and gross in the summer, cold and dump water everywhere in the winter.. plus they freeze, get black bucket rot, get bent handles, are never easy to hang and, if you do get the electric ones for winter, hold the possibility of BURNING YOUR DAMN BARN DOWN. I hate buckets.
- Long overhang over the dutch doors to provide shelter for the dry lot, as well as to keep hay covered and dry during wet seasons. This will also keep all but the most persistent rain out of my dutch door stalls and hopefully protect the building and possibly leaky dutch doors from the worst of the wind and drifting snow.
- Access to pasture, and pasture with safe fencing. Call me the safety mom, but I'm tired of horse injuries involving fences, which happen often at my current barn. Lots of people love the white PVC fencing, but I prefer the blackwood fences popular down south, especially as my itchy mares would figure out that those PVC posts pop out in no time. Add into this request gates that make sense and electric fencing that is effective but doesn't do shit like electrify gates, ground itself randomly while leaving 90% of your pasture without power... etc. I hate getting shocked by electric fences, but I also hate watching horses contort themselves between the wires if the fence isn't on.
- Large stalls for pony comfort. As Foxie loves to lay down, I want her to have plenty of space to get comfy, and make it easier for her to get up and lay down.
- Hay feeders in stalls, some sort of slow feeder outside. I hate wasting hay - watching Foxie drag hers out into her stall and then lay on it makes me furious. Bailey will spin hers into her shavings if she's anxious. Hay is too expensive for that, so I'm a big slow feeder person. Plus, it promotes happy tummies and horses who don't get bored and break things.
- A wash stall that is well lit and has cold and hot water. Call me a princess, but being at a barn where hot water has to be made with a hot pot or prepared and brought along has made me value the ability to clean wounds and horses in cooler weather. A wash stall set up like this also gives my vet a prime working surface and make life a lot easier.
- Hay and grain storage shut off from the horses. Not only do I hate it when horses escape and nearly kill themselves eating all of the grain, but I also hand mix my feed currently. Having an area to be able to scoop one scoop here and one there would make it a ton easier than mixing (especially when my Ultium freezes... again.....) and allow me to supplement to my heart's content. I also want some space to store hay especially for the winter, but prefer if the bulk of the hay stay in another building where there is less of a fire risk, and the bales will be less likely to gather rodent inhabitants. External hay storage is also a biggie, as I'd love to buy hay for winter and not need to scrap and settle when I run out like so many people do. Having the space will save me money in the long run.
That's just the start of it too!
Features: (with intermittent photos)
- Dutch doors/doors to the outside to allow the horses to pick if they want to be in or out. I would also love the building to be insulated and have ceiling fans if possible. Good lighting is also a must.
- Auto waterers in stalls and outside - I HATE carrying buckets. You get wet and gross in the summer, cold and dump water everywhere in the winter.. plus they freeze, get black bucket rot, get bent handles, are never easy to hang and, if you do get the electric ones for winter, hold the possibility of BURNING YOUR DAMN BARN DOWN. I hate buckets.
- Long overhang over the dutch doors to provide shelter for the dry lot, as well as to keep hay covered and dry during wet seasons. This will also keep all but the most persistent rain out of my dutch door stalls and hopefully protect the building and possibly leaky dutch doors from the worst of the wind and drifting snow.
- Access to pasture, and pasture with safe fencing. Call me the safety mom, but I'm tired of horse injuries involving fences, which happen often at my current barn. Lots of people love the white PVC fencing, but I prefer the blackwood fences popular down south, especially as my itchy mares would figure out that those PVC posts pop out in no time. Add into this request gates that make sense and electric fencing that is effective but doesn't do shit like electrify gates, ground itself randomly while leaving 90% of your pasture without power... etc. I hate getting shocked by electric fences, but I also hate watching horses contort themselves between the wires if the fence isn't on.
- Large stalls for pony comfort. As Foxie loves to lay down, I want her to have plenty of space to get comfy, and make it easier for her to get up and lay down.
- Hay feeders in stalls, some sort of slow feeder outside. I hate wasting hay - watching Foxie drag hers out into her stall and then lay on it makes me furious. Bailey will spin hers into her shavings if she's anxious. Hay is too expensive for that, so I'm a big slow feeder person. Plus, it promotes happy tummies and horses who don't get bored and break things.
- A wash stall that is well lit and has cold and hot water. Call me a princess, but being at a barn where hot water has to be made with a hot pot or prepared and brought along has made me value the ability to clean wounds and horses in cooler weather. A wash stall set up like this also gives my vet a prime working surface and make life a lot easier.
- Hay and grain storage shut off from the horses. Not only do I hate it when horses escape and nearly kill themselves eating all of the grain, but I also hand mix my feed currently. Having an area to be able to scoop one scoop here and one there would make it a ton easier than mixing (especially when my Ultium freezes... again.....) and allow me to supplement to my heart's content. I also want some space to store hay especially for the winter, but prefer if the bulk of the hay stay in another building where there is less of a fire risk, and the bales will be less likely to gather rodent inhabitants. External hay storage is also a biggie, as I'd love to buy hay for winter and not need to scrap and settle when I run out like so many people do. Having the space will save me money in the long run.
That's just the start of it too!
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