More Time Saving Barn Hacks (part 2)

Here are some more tips to save money, time and energy when you work at a horse barn or when you have your horses at home.

Haynet Hacks

Use Clips

Use clips to hang the nets, not knots. Saves a lot of frustration and time a few times a day. Especially when you have more than 2 horses to take care of. It is only a few minutes, but the frustration of knots that you hardly can untie (with cold hands in Winter!) and the worry your horse gets entangled in a net are not worth it.

I prefer cotton nets above the nets that are made out of polyester or similar materials.

Easy Hoop Feeder

This is a clever and time saving favourite of mine! It is an expensive one (about $50 for just the Easy Hoop) and then another $50 or so for the slowfeeder nets, but totally worth it.

Natural Grazing Posture

Depending on the circumstances you can even choose to offer your slowfeeder nets on the ground. Some things to consider are the surface. Perfect to do on gravel, hog fuel/ wood chips or in a field, not so smart for in the mud on on sand.

Take the knot out of the rope to hang the net and knot the net close. Then offer the net from the ground. This is only a time saving hack if you buy a big net that saves you offer one feeding.

House-Train Your Horse

This takes a time investment but it will safe you so many hard labour hours in the future.

Teach your horse to poop in a designated place in the stall, paddock, pasture and even in the arena. I share tips to clicker train a mule to become house trained in this video.

In another blog I share my training strategy how I house-trained Kyra in the arena.

You can even teach your horse to poop before you take him out of his stall/paddock/field so you never ever have to clean up the hallway, cross ties or poop scoop the arena. We all know we forget once in a while! We also know forgetting this a few times in a row can damage our relationship with the barn owner or other boarders (who do clean up).

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10 Winter Barn Hacks for Horse People

Here are some barn hacks that will make your life easier at the barn in winter. This winter is one of the coldest in Vancouver, BC, Canada since decades. We had a lot of snow too. Not the nicest weather to work in if you work at a barn.

#1 The joy of using de-icers

I have discovered the joy of de-icers in water buckets for horses. The only drawbacks are that you need a power point nearby and they are expensive with $70 – $100+ apiece. If you can use them, they are definitely worth it.

The horses had to get used to them, some horses preferred the icy water above the warmer water at first. It took some horses up to a week to get adjusted to the weird things in their bucket. But it is worth it!

All the horses had access to water due to the de-icers. Something very important for horses that are already compromised with a body score of 2 or 3. I work at the SPCA, so most horses are not (yet) in the best shape. If you feed more hay, see tip #7, horses need more water. If they don’t drink enough they can get colic.

It also saves a lot of time, not to peck ice out the buckets multiple times a day. Frozen buckets are more likely to break.

#2 Insulate your water buckets

For some farm animals de-icers are a hazard. For instance bucks and goats with horns. We put their buckets into a bigger bucket and insulate the space in between with straw. You can also use shavings or whatever bedding you are using. As long as it holds air and provides insulation. If the water bucket is outside, find a spot out of the wind. This is not foolproof, but every bit helps.

#3 Don’t provide warm water in order to prevent it from freezing

Don’t provide your horses with warm water in their buckets. Warm water can freeze even quicker than cold(er) water. This is called the Mpemba effect.
It is a good idea to offer horses that won’t drink luke warm water.

#4 Provide more bedding for the horses

I find flax the best bedding, but only if you use a really thick layer (15 cm or more). Take out only the manure and leave the wet spots as they are. The bottom layer becomes stable and provides warmth and good insulation. Don’t poke around in the wet spots as the ammonia will come free.

This kind of cleaning will work with other bedding materials as well, although flax absorbs moist the best. Better than shavings (too dusty) or straw (this will be very heavy to remove after a while and doesn’t make a soft bed).

#5 How to deal with slippery ice patches after spilling water

You can put some bedding on it (shavings work well) or use some Stall Dry or cat litter (some cat litter is made of clay and can become very slippery when soaked!).

If you have an arena with sand, keep a wheelbarrow with sand in a spot that doesn’t freeze at night so you can use sand.

#6 Stay warm at the barn

The other day I read the best trick ever to warm your cold hands in a few seconds. Totally safe too. Just put your hand in your own neck (or someone else’s LOL). I tried it on myself and it really works like a charm. It is only cold for a few moments in your neck but then your hands are warm. I read this tip on Pure Cottongrass, one of my favorite blogs.

Another great tip is to keep your head warm. Wear a toque or ear warmers. You don’t want to risk  frozen earlobes. On the other hand, if you are working you will stay warm.

Wear lots of layers. Especially when you are working. Once you’re warmed up, you can peel of a layer.

#7 Make sure your horse stays warm

You are not the only one who wants to stay warm in winter. The best way is feeding your horse enough roughage (fiber). Slowfeeder nets prolong the time your horse eats, it keeps the hay clean (horses don’t waste it) and they are easy to fill if you use this trick. If you have really big ones it can even save you a feeding round.

In some areas the winters are so cold you have to blanket your horse. Do your research before buying a blanket. Make sure the blanket fits  your horse properly.

And a no brainer: provide shelter from the elements for your horse.

#8 House-train your horse

Scooping poop in snow is like searching for Easter eggs (only equestrians will understand the happiness of finding manure in snow). If you house-train your horse to poop in a certain corner of his paddock or pasture you know the Easter bunny’s secret when it has been snowing overnight. A big pile of manure doesn’t freeze as quickly and is easier to remove than frozen, rock solid dung.

House-training your horse costs time but think of all the hours you save in the next 15-20 years if you can half your poop-scooping time.

#9 Snow shoveling made easy

Keeping the pathways you use often snow free is essential. Spray cooking spray or horse detangler on your snow shuffle to prevent the snow from sticking to it.

#10 Have fun!

Not really a hack, but still important. Have some fun!

Build a snowman in the pasture and stick lots of carrots in his head. Then let your horse investigate this weird intruder.

Take your camera with you to the barn and make dozens of snow pictures of your horse. Here in Vancouver snow is not a common thing in Winter, so I made sure I have enough snow pictures of Kyra to last a decade.

If your horse is used to driving, you might look into skijoring or letting him pull a sleigh.

Read more:

• Time Saving Barn Hacks
• Old-Fashioned Barn Hacks

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Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

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Time saving barn hacks for horse people

All equestrians know that having a horse and working at a barn is hard work. Feeding, watering and turn ins/outs are time consuming. To save some time I made a list of time saving barn hacks I used myself.

Brush on a string

For buckets in paddocks and pastures keep a brush on a string attached to the bucket. Without the string it wanders off… For stalls a dishwasher brush works perfect.

Keep a skimmer handy

For big water buckets that are not emptied daily, keep a skimmer at hand to take hay and leaves off of the water surface. Works much faster than using your hands and in winter you keep your hand dry and warm.

Use a leave blower to sweep the isles

Needless to say that you can only use a leave blower when there are no horses inside. It causes a lot of dust to fly around. Wear a dust mask and earplugs.

Teach all the horses how you want them to behave

This is a time investment but well worth it. Teach them all that they have to keep their heads low while haltering, put their noses into the halters themselves and walk with you without pushing or pulling.

Teach your horse food etiquette

Rule about safe and desired behaviour around food is not innate. It is taught.

When I worked at a barn in the weekends it only took me 3 weekends to teach the horses that hay and grain where only provided to horses who kept 4 feet on the ground and stepped back & looked away so I could throw in the flakes of hay in their stalls (which saved time and increased my safety). I hate the noise 15 horses can produce when they are kicking their doors simultaneously.

Master the hay nets

If you need to fill hay nets I hope you use square slow-feeder nets. They are a bit more expensive but you can fill them up in a few seconds.

If you have to fill old fashioned hay nets use a plastic roll-up sled to keep the opening of the net open. They are a $3 -$10 dollar investment and save a lot of man hours.

Key ring knife

When I was a barn help I bought a small key ring knife to open up bales. You can also cut through baling twine with another piece of baling twine and use it like a saw. Or attach a pair of scissors to the wheelbarrow you use for feeding.

Do you have useful barn hack? Please share it with us! We would love to hear about them.

Read more:

• Winter Barn hacks
• Old-fashioned barn hacks

Join our Clicker Training Community for Horse People!

• Are you looking for professional positive reinforcement advice?
• Do you want an affordable program?
• Do you want to turn your equestrian dreams into reality, but you don’t know where to start?

If you have answered ‘Yes’ to one or more of the above questions look into one of the online programs HippoLogic has to offer.

Join our community for online positive reinforcement training tips, personal advice and support in training your horse.

Sandra Poppema, B.Sc.

I help horse owners get the results in training they really, really want with joy and easy for both horse and human. I always aim for win-win!

Free Clicker Training Assessment for Clicker Trainers!

Book a free 60 minute Discovery Session to get a glimpse of a new future with your horse. In this conversation we’ll explore:

• Your hopes and dreams and goals so that we can see what’s possible for you and your horse

Where you’re now, where you want to go and which path is right for you

What’s holding you back so you can make a plan to get these hurdles out of your way.

At the end of the call I’ll give you some ideas and advice for your next step and if it looks like a fit, we can explore what it looks like to work together.

Simply check the best time for you in my online calendar and click to reserve your free call today.

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Slowfeeder nets

A slowfeeder net is a hay net with much smaller mazes/holes than regular hay nets. Whereas the regular hay nets have mazes varying between approximately 8 – 15 cm (3,1 – 5,9 inches), slowfeeder nets have mazes of 3,5 cm – 6 cm (1,2 inch – 2,4 inch).

The goal of a slowfeeder net is to slowdown the intake of hay the horse eats so he spends more time eating and less time doing other behaviours (vices).

Why a slowfeeder net?
Horses are built to eat 16 hours a day. A big difference between a human and a horse is that we humans only excrete acid in the stomach while we are eating. The stomach of a horse produces acid weather he is eating or not.

The upper part of a horses stomach doesn’t have a protective layer against the acid. So if the horse is not eating and doesn’t produce a lot of saliva to neutralize the effects of the acid on the stomach wall, horses can get ulcers.

I can’t help thinking that it must also give them a miserable feeling when they have an empty stomach when Mother Nature want the relatively small stomach always filled with high fibre and low nutrient grasses.

Most domestic horses don’t have the possibility to spend approximately 16 hours a day grazing. If they do get to forage we often give them a flake or few flakes of hay which they finish very quickly. Slowfeeder nets mimic grazing.

Other advantages
It can save a lot of work. If you purchase a big net for your horse(s) that you can fill, you could skip meals. Depending of the size of the net and the amount of horses you have to feed, you could go from feeding hay 3 or 4 times a day to one meal of hay.

Hay doesn’t get spilled, blown away by the wind outside or spoiled by horses peeing and pooping in their hay anymore. This can save money in the long term.

It also saves work because you don’t have to spend time raking spoiled hay. It might even save disposal costs because the manure pile isn’t filling up with spoiled hay.

In general it extends eating time, prevents boredom and helps the horse mimic his natural behaviours.

As a bonus it saves you time and money you can then spend on your horse in a different way.

How to deal with the disadvantages 
Filling a net can be time consuming. Make sure you buy a net with a big opening that makes filling the net quick and easy. There are “hoops” available that keeps the opening open if you use the round shaped nets. For the square nets I found my own way of filling it quickly. See this video:

Slowfeeders can be very expensive to purchase. It can take a while before the hay saving costs cover the price of your net. In general you will be saving money by buying the more expensive ones instead of trying the cheap ones first. The cheap ones I tried broke quickly and were frustrating to use. I recommend doing some online research about size, shape, material and maze size.

If you choose a slowfeeder with holes that are too small for your horse it can create frustration or your horse might not eat the amount of hay he really needs.

To prevent frustration when introducing a slowfeeder net to your horse, it can be a good idea to give only half or less of its normal portion in the new net and provide the rest of its ration the way you always do. Most horses learn quickly how to eat out of a slowfeeder net.

Depending on the way your horse has to keep his neck and head while he is eating out of a net, it can cause an unnatural position which can cause health problems.

Be aware that you are introducing a new activity and be alert for any changes this causes in your horse.

Sandra Poppema