Keeping Warm During Winter Rides

7:14 pm
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Whether you winter in sunny Florida or someplace significantly snowier, you’re going to be shivering at some point this coming season.

And your horse might be, too! Let’s take a look at some products that can help keep your toes from going numb and your horse from getting a chill as you train through the winter. We also have links to examples, although we haven’t necessarily tried all the products linked.

It’s hard to keep your hands soft when they’re frozen solid. Heating packets like HotHands hand warmers can slip right inside your […]

Hay is For Horses

5:33 pm
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Hay is for horses…

and how much and where you feed that hay can make a difference to the health of your horse. Horses are natural-born grazers, meaning that in their natural state, horses would work at roughage for fourteen hours a day or more. Stalled horses, in contrast, often only have food before them for a few hours a day. Although free-choice hay is the best way, not every horse can have hay before them all the time.  What can a horse-owner do to make sure their horse gets the most from their hay […]

Glue On Shoes

6:36 pm
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No Nails Required: The New Era of Horseshoeing

For about five hundred years, give or take, humans have been protecting horses’ hooves and giving their animals traction by nailing on shoes. And for just as long (presumably) horses have had their hooves damaged by those nails, whether simply because slowly-growing horn racked up too many holes from back-to-back shoeings, or because a “hot nail” hit sensitive laminae within the hoof.

Horseshoes are often seen as a necessary evil. Sure, we’d all love to have our horses barefoot — it would hurt less when they step […]

HDPE Fencing

3:56 pm
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A key element of any horseperson’s day: putting a horse someplace, and keeping them there.

Whether it’s a stall, a paddock, a round pen, or a pasture — since humans started working with horses, we’ve been building fences to keep them where we want them.

Traditionally, wooden rails have done that job for us. Wooden barns, wooden fencing — trees have been converted into corrals for much of horse-human history. Lately, faced with a world in which keeping trees standing is more important than chopping them down, horsemen have been turning to alternative methods of keeping […]

Greening Your Barn With Bamboo

10:41 pm
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As horse people, we all try to be good custodians of the land.

Our hobbies and sometimes livelihood depend on it, after all. Clean water, clean air, and clean soil are as important to the health of our horses as they are to our enjoyment of our outdoor lifestyle.

As many of us take up new composting techniques and other methods of easing our heavy footprint on the land, it’s time to consider how “green” we can make our permanent structures — such as our barns.

We are all accustomed to the predominate use of wood in horse […]

Finding the Perfect Paddock Fencing

11:54 pm
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Mission: Impossible?

If you have read my blog on finding the perfect horse fencing, https://equinefacilitydesign.com/2012/07, you’ll remember that I successfully found the perfect perimeter/pasture fencing as part of my overall horse farm plan for my facility.

While I am exceptionally happy with it for my pastures, I wanted something different for my paddocks.   So my next fencing dilemma was to search for the perfect paddock fence.  And like Don Quixote’s ongoing quest of tilting at windmills, I once again began my search; would I find a solution?  Poor Don only had […]

Earth-Friendly Horse Bedding Alternatives

12:02 am
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Horse bedding: for many horse-owners, it’s pretty straightforward.

Wood shavings tend to be the most popular bedding used for show and pleasure horses; straw tends to be the most popular bedding used for race and breeding horses. In an industry where tradition is king, we’ve been experimenting with different types of bedding for years, but never straying too far from the beaten path.

But are straw and shavings as good as we can do for our horses and our farms? Increasingly, curious scientists, horsemen, and entrepreneurs are seeking out new alternative (and sometimes ancient) forms […]

ArenaSlide – Riding Arena Window

Can you imagine your riding arena with this beautiful sliding window?

You could almost feel like Zorro (or at least like Antonio Banderas) riding in and out of the Lair of the Fox.

Only Zorro didn’t actually have a door this cool.

And this is not a door.

This sliding window is an alternative to shutters or garage doors to provide ventilation and daylight in your arena. I have to say that we’re pretty proud of the new window, created with our friends at Real Carriage Doors. Take a look […]

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