This post is meant for those who live in cold climates where the temperature can stay below freezing for several months.
As most of you know, I just built a barn last June so this will be my first winter with my horses at home. I did spend lots of time at various barns over the last few years so I have some ideas of what to expect, but because my layout is very different from others, I also have questions.
How do you prepare? What are the sorts of issues you've had to deal with and how did you solve them? What are the things you now do differently?
A little info on my setup: my stalls have dutch doors leading to a paddock, which then leads into a pasture. The plan is to shut the gate to the pasture when the snow gets too deep - or possibly sooner since the grass will no longer be growing at some point. We need to prep the field for spring too... so that probably means dragging and disking it to break up the manure that we haven't picked up (we get some of it, but not all) and to break up the soil and maybe lime it.
Ideally, I'd like to keep the dutch doors open during the day for as much of the winter as possible. There is a ten foot overhang and it's in a somewhat sheltered area, but when a blizzard is blowing, obviously I'll have to close the stall doors. I like the idea of letting the horses come in out of the storm, but it's no good if there's four feet of snow in their stalls.
And then there's water... I replaced my plastic muck bucket with a rubber one so the ice doesn't crack the plastic. But I have to figure out where to put it so I can dump out the dirty water without creating an ice rink. My water line inside the barn is in a box with an outlet for a light. I've heard this is a good way to keep your water from freezing. Anyone do this? I have one heated water bucket and will get another if I find I am using them a lot. However, I am home for a pretty good part of the day so I can easily water them three times a day. Once in the morning, once late afternoon and once in the evening.
I plan on building some hay feeders to keep the horses from trampling their hay and getting it buried underneath the snow. I've seen too much hay wasted that way. I'd like to keep my hay off the ground a little and will be using slow feeder nets that hold an entire square bale.
What am I missing?
As most of you know, I just built a barn last June so this will be my first winter with my horses at home. I did spend lots of time at various barns over the last few years so I have some ideas of what to expect, but because my layout is very different from others, I also have questions.
How do you prepare? What are the sorts of issues you've had to deal with and how did you solve them? What are the things you now do differently?
A little info on my setup: my stalls have dutch doors leading to a paddock, which then leads into a pasture. The plan is to shut the gate to the pasture when the snow gets too deep - or possibly sooner since the grass will no longer be growing at some point. We need to prep the field for spring too... so that probably means dragging and disking it to break up the manure that we haven't picked up (we get some of it, but not all) and to break up the soil and maybe lime it.
Ideally, I'd like to keep the dutch doors open during the day for as much of the winter as possible. There is a ten foot overhang and it's in a somewhat sheltered area, but when a blizzard is blowing, obviously I'll have to close the stall doors. I like the idea of letting the horses come in out of the storm, but it's no good if there's four feet of snow in their stalls.
And then there's water... I replaced my plastic muck bucket with a rubber one so the ice doesn't crack the plastic. But I have to figure out where to put it so I can dump out the dirty water without creating an ice rink. My water line inside the barn is in a box with an outlet for a light. I've heard this is a good way to keep your water from freezing. Anyone do this? I have one heated water bucket and will get another if I find I am using them a lot. However, I am home for a pretty good part of the day so I can easily water them three times a day. Once in the morning, once late afternoon and once in the evening.
I plan on building some hay feeders to keep the horses from trampling their hay and getting it buried underneath the snow. I've seen too much hay wasted that way. I'd like to keep my hay off the ground a little and will be using slow feeder nets that hold an entire square bale.
What am I missing?