Tie Stall Recommendations

I like tie stalls a lot. Sometimes takes some patience initially as buddy sour horses can tend to pull back until the gear breaks, usually for me they have seemed to do this when the chain is tied lower, say only 2 ft. up. When I set up a chain almost as high as the withers, for some reason they don’t pull back as hard, rather quit before putting all their weight into the effort and breaking things….. Also patience needed for nervous horses as they can get a leg over the chain when pawing with their head down, but I try to put the chain through the front of the stall with a small weight/ball of chain on the end so the slack is always taken up.

I have been told that eating off the floor is best, even if you have a high (which would make it deep) manger. Digestive juices are increased when the horses head is fully extended and colic is reduced. Many racehorse barns are done away with the clean, high hay nets because of this…. I like just a 3 by 8 about 18 inches back from the front of the stall to keep the hay from getting pawed to the back of the stall when they are eager to get the leafy stuff first….

Also been told mangers can be bad because the saliva laden morsels grow mold and spores which can later be ingested and cause other horse problems, so ability to clean the manger is important.

We quit putting water in the stalls also 80 percent of the time.

I am interested in this concept of watering horses periodically. I have always kept a water tank (heated in winter) so the horses can drink at will, but I can definately see the practical benefits of periodic watering at some times (especially in winter). For those of you that do this, how do you determine how much water is enough? Is it much they can drink in x minutes? Or possibly x gallons per horse? It’s a little scary to break my 4H rule of “always make sure your animals have water”…

feeding hay on the floor has the added benefit of keeping the horses jaw in alignment. Hay racks and hay nets have the horse eating at an unusual angle which effectivly brings the lower jaw back and helps to create hooks which then cause all sorts of problems with the bit…
John

County Mouse, in my experience hungry horses don’t drink till they have eaten their fill and thirsty horses don’t eat until they have drunk their fill (or close to it) Unless they are working hard, all you have to do is give them all the water they will drink after they have had their feed. Then you can wait for the next feeding before you worry about water again.

Do all you guys with tie stalls have a corral or turn out area if the weather turns really bad ? if you dont then how long can you leave the horses without exercise.. I have loose boxes but like the idea of stalls. Im a bit concerned about the lack of movement tho.. mind you i suppose they dont get a lot of exercise in a box either…
John

Our problem Mitch, is mud… Our fields would resemble the Somme {its rememberence sunday here tomorrow BTW} with 5 Clydes I might need to build a sand corral so I can turn them out..I dont have enough work for them in winter and end up hitching them up just to get their legs stretched.. but the rain we get here makes it a miserable operation for us all sometimes:D… I often wonder how that pregnant mare urine thing they do works out.. are they not all stalled….
John