We haz them.
We've been doing a lot of work out at the barn. My trainer's family wants us to be able to get our horses (all of them!) out there in exchange for helping care for the place for a while. Well, we couldn't really do that the way the barn was set up. Not the barn, really, but the property. I don't want all of our horses in stalls 20-22 hours a day. Even with getting worked, I would want them out more. Especially our 27-year-old mare who doesn't like stalls much (she doesn't do anything bad, she just much prefers being outside and I think being cooped up so much would be a detriment to her overall health).
However, the current set up is one large pasture, which houses two retired horses (both 24+). I'm not certain but I think the pasture is like 8 acres or so. In the nearest corner of that pasture is a separated corral that is approx 3/4 of an acre. We usually turn out 2 horses in there for a few hours a day. The biggest problem with the way it is now is that of the two horses in the large pasture, one is an asshole. He attaches himself to one horse (ie the other horse out there with him, whoever it happens to be) and will go after anyone new. He would no doubt either directly hurt the horse(s) or run them into a fence. He's done it before, and it's not a risk I'm willing to take with any of mine.
The fences/setup needed to be redone sooner or later anyway, since my trainer's daughter and SIL are going to be building a house out there within the next few years. They plan to build out near the back perimeter of the property, which, currently, is within the large pasture. So, they will need to re-position the fenceline anyway for their driveway and such. Since we need something better set up to get our horses out there, we're doing it now.
My mom and step-dad agreed to pay for about 2/3 of the total costs of everything, and the daughter and SIL are taking care of 1/3 plus the SIL is doing the labor. We're putting in Electro-braid for the main fence line, with wood along the front (but electro-braid behind it to keep them off it). The large pasture is going to be "re-shaped" some, and the smaller corral within it is going to be extended, but then split in two, so we will have two large corrals out there instead of the one. Not only that, but we are going to build a run-in out there that is split between the two corrals. That way, we will be able to leave a few horses out (mostly) 24/7 if we choose to. (The original pasture already has a large run-in for the two other horses). The corral that is farthest back will have a gate that will be able to open up to a section of the pasture which will be separated from the other two horses, so at times we will be able to open it up and they can have a larger area to roam.
We bought all the supplies at Congress, but due to a bunch of rainy weather it was a slow start. But, he has all the posts in now, as well as all the brace posts and brace wire. Really, other than the shelter, all that's left to do is string the fence itself. So...weather permitting (as well as the SIL's work schedule), it should be done pretty soon.
I wish I'd taken some before pics, but didn't really think about it. I will get some pics of the finished product though. I'm pretty excited about it. It looks so different out there, but in a good way. We got a bunch of brush, old trees, etc cleaned up and out of there (it was way overdue). He had to change the outdoor arena a bit so it's not a "perfect" rectangle anymore, but it's still perfectly usable.
The other thing we're going to do before the end of the year is get some better electric wiring in the barn itself. Mostly because we want to get some heated buckets in there for water this winter (YAY!).
Next spring/summer the next project is to completely re-do the smaller corrals up near the barn. They reeeally need done. I mean, they're safe, they're just ugly. The ground has eroded a lot so we're going to take down all the existing fencing (all wood, 6 corrals total), regrade the ground to help with directing water away, and then put up new fencing (not elecro-braid, the corrals are too small for that IMO). Since we will have less horses up there and a lot of them will be out back, we won't really need 6 corrals there, so instead we're going to probably do 4 slightly larger ones.
Eventually, we're going to start re-doing the stalls one by one. The barn is a little older and the stalls are just getting kind of rough and chewed up. They're safe, just ugly
There's going to be more projects like that in the future (redoing the roof, the tack room floor, etc) over the next year or so, but I can't wait to see it all done. I know my trainer would have loved to do all of this stuff if he had been able to (couldn't afford to do it/couldn't afford to take time off to do it himself). I hope he sees all of this and is happy with what we're doing.
We've been doing a lot of work out at the barn. My trainer's family wants us to be able to get our horses (all of them!) out there in exchange for helping care for the place for a while. Well, we couldn't really do that the way the barn was set up. Not the barn, really, but the property. I don't want all of our horses in stalls 20-22 hours a day. Even with getting worked, I would want them out more. Especially our 27-year-old mare who doesn't like stalls much (she doesn't do anything bad, she just much prefers being outside and I think being cooped up so much would be a detriment to her overall health).
However, the current set up is one large pasture, which houses two retired horses (both 24+). I'm not certain but I think the pasture is like 8 acres or so. In the nearest corner of that pasture is a separated corral that is approx 3/4 of an acre. We usually turn out 2 horses in there for a few hours a day. The biggest problem with the way it is now is that of the two horses in the large pasture, one is an asshole. He attaches himself to one horse (ie the other horse out there with him, whoever it happens to be) and will go after anyone new. He would no doubt either directly hurt the horse(s) or run them into a fence. He's done it before, and it's not a risk I'm willing to take with any of mine.
The fences/setup needed to be redone sooner or later anyway, since my trainer's daughter and SIL are going to be building a house out there within the next few years. They plan to build out near the back perimeter of the property, which, currently, is within the large pasture. So, they will need to re-position the fenceline anyway for their driveway and such. Since we need something better set up to get our horses out there, we're doing it now.
My mom and step-dad agreed to pay for about 2/3 of the total costs of everything, and the daughter and SIL are taking care of 1/3 plus the SIL is doing the labor. We're putting in Electro-braid for the main fence line, with wood along the front (but electro-braid behind it to keep them off it). The large pasture is going to be "re-shaped" some, and the smaller corral within it is going to be extended, but then split in two, so we will have two large corrals out there instead of the one. Not only that, but we are going to build a run-in out there that is split between the two corrals. That way, we will be able to leave a few horses out (mostly) 24/7 if we choose to. (The original pasture already has a large run-in for the two other horses). The corral that is farthest back will have a gate that will be able to open up to a section of the pasture which will be separated from the other two horses, so at times we will be able to open it up and they can have a larger area to roam.
We bought all the supplies at Congress, but due to a bunch of rainy weather it was a slow start. But, he has all the posts in now, as well as all the brace posts and brace wire. Really, other than the shelter, all that's left to do is string the fence itself. So...weather permitting (as well as the SIL's work schedule), it should be done pretty soon.
The other thing we're going to do before the end of the year is get some better electric wiring in the barn itself. Mostly because we want to get some heated buckets in there for water this winter (YAY!).
Next spring/summer the next project is to completely re-do the smaller corrals up near the barn. They reeeally need done. I mean, they're safe, they're just ugly. The ground has eroded a lot so we're going to take down all the existing fencing (all wood, 6 corrals total), regrade the ground to help with directing water away, and then put up new fencing (not elecro-braid, the corrals are too small for that IMO). Since we will have less horses up there and a lot of them will be out back, we won't really need 6 corrals there, so instead we're going to probably do 4 slightly larger ones.
Eventually, we're going to start re-doing the stalls one by one. The barn is a little older and the stalls are just getting kind of rough and chewed up. They're safe, just ugly
There's going to be more projects like that in the future (redoing the roof, the tack room floor, etc) over the next year or so, but I can't wait to see it all done. I know my trainer would have loved to do all of this stuff if he had been able to (couldn't afford to do it/couldn't afford to take time off to do it himself). I hope he sees all of this and is happy with what we're doing.
