My husband brought a snowblower home; he had fixed it for a friend and was allowed to use it in trade.
The horses are loving the balmy weather. Apparently, the gate into the corral panel pen that is set up inside the mare pen is the ideal location to sun oneself.
I watched the snow come off the barn roof into Beamer's pen- then I had to shovel through part of it to get his feed in for him. He was down at the far end of his pen watching. There is 12 ft of danger zone for the barn.
That fence post is 12 ft. from the barn wall.
One of my friends had her hay shed collapse, with all her hay and 2 horse trailers under it. Major disaster for her. Of course, she has to battle with her insurance company; I think they automatically tell people they aren't covered and hope they will go away and not fight for it.
Our wood shed didn't fare too well either.
We will be happy to tear this down this summer and build one properly and in a better location.
Which brings me to another thing I was going to mention- although you might think we are a bunch of hill billies when you look at the mare shelters and tarps, we really are just doing the best we can with what we have. Over the course of this year, we will get ourselves and the horses set up better, with a nice shelter and a better and more convenient system for horse care, as nothing was set up at all when we moved them here in November- we only had time to set up their basic pen before the hard freeze came. Plans include at least one 3 sided shelter for the mares- preferably 2; and a separate pen with a shelter that can be closed in for foaling and confinement as needed. A lot will depend on how this melt down goes as it will show us where the trouble spots are; the tendency is always to pick a nice flat spot but not if it will be a water trap.
7 comments:
Hey, I think you are doing great.
You are working with what you have and making sure the horses make it through in good shape.
Tarps, ingenuity, baling twine, etc, etc are essential on a working place.
I thought you were quite resourceful and tarps will keep out the wind, I saw you had them anchored well too with the snow. Sometimes you just have to make do with what you have! Just a little shelter goes a long way with a horse, they are pretty tough. Sometimes I smile when I see photos of the horse blankets, a well fed healthy horse will have a good coat for insulation and be just fine:) Yeah for a snowblower!!
Nothing wrong with being a hill billy! I prefer to thing of myself as being "innovative" and "resourceful"
Look at all that beautiful snow, I am sooo jealous!! Horses sure have a knack for finding the best spots! I would totally hang out there too!! It's hard to wait until we can have things set up as we would like for our beloved horses. I am all too familiar with that feeling...I think it bothers us, more then them. Your plan sounds great!
Oh, right!!!! yes I had a pen built back there that was 20 feet wide off the barn and the length of the barn before I built the sheep pen that Beamer now has.... I had built that pen after the winter of 96/97 for that reason, to be able to keep the horses away from the barn with snow coming off!!!
Yeah that's why we put Beamer's shelter where it is- far enough away from the barn to be safe but still on the flat spot. I might change things up a bit this year and build another safer pen for him to winter in.
Its hard to build the exact what you want when you just moved in and now you will see where the good spots are and bad spots are. I'm sure next year will be way different.
And yay for a snowblower!
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