Horse Housing

[Ed Thayer]

Kristan,

I built a compost shed a little smaller than Jen and have found it to work well. It is smaller because I only ave two horses and claculated the size based on that.

Mine is simple and is constructed on a concrete pad. All posts are pressure treated and the roof is tin. The bins are lined with 2″ thick hemlock and seems to hold up well.

The concrete knee wall on the back like Jens would have been nice to push against with the tractor when turning the compost but was out of my price range.

Here are a couple of pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/108015252120457183879/CompostShed#

Ed

[Rod]

My housing consists of two box stalls and a run in shed. The box stalls are for when I have my mules harnessed but waiting for work. Otherwise they stay outside and have access to the run in shed or a covered area where they are fed their hay. Some photos below.

[near horse]

Rod – That’s quite an array of solar panels you’ve got visible in the 3rd pic. Are you completely off the grid?

[Rod]

With that system our annual cost is about 10% of what we used to pay for power before we put this system in. Any extra power we produce above what we use ourselves is purchased by the Green Mountain Power Company and they also pay us for any the power we produce and use at the farm at about 1/2 the retail rate. The system rides on the Power Company grid so no need for backup batteries. That array is a 5 KW set of panels. Works great.

[Does’ Leap]

Thanks for all the pictures of the housing, it really helps with ideas. Ed do you bring your manure out with your tractor bucket? Is this your first winter using it,or did you compost in it last year too. I’m interested in how much you are turning and if it stays hot all winter or if you need any extra water?

We are trying to put ours under the same roof as the horses to make it wheelbarrow accessible for our daughter!

Kristan

[Ed Thayer]

Kristan,

We have used the compost bin for 2 years and are very happy with it. I use the tractor as little as possible and collect our manure with a wheelbarrow mostly. When I collect in the winter I am not concerned with picking up a little snow with the poop because it adds some moisture to the pile.

I turn the compost pile about once a week or so. In the winter the heat from the pile when turning is amazing. It produces a big cloud of steam. Keep in mind that we use no bedding or shavings as our horses are rarely shut in and prefer to spend their time outside. Therefore we apply our compost to the pasture from the previous winter after the first cutting of hay.

This last summer we added water several times because it was so dry. We have a hydrant next to the barn and the compost shed is within easy reach. We never added water in the winter.

Hope this helps.

Ed

[richa]

@Does’ Leap 21934 wrote:

We are planning on building a horse barn for our 4 horses (2 drafts, 1 draft cross, and 1 halflinger) next summer and are in the planning phase. What do folks do for horse housing? Better yet, if you were to do it over, what would you do? We are considering tie stalls, box stalls, and loose housing or a combination of all three. How does a tack room fit in along with harnessing and manure management?

Thanks.

George

Hello,
I read your request about the Draft horse barn. Are you still in the planning stage?

We have two Percherons that we built stalls and a barn for.

Thank you
Happy Holidays
member of Draft Animal Power
“richa”
Richard and Rosemary Edge
Moved from USA to Acores farm.

[Does’ Leap]

Richa, yes we are still in the planning phase. We plan to start building this spring.

George

[bird]

This is an old thread I found while searching for information about setting up horse housing. I have a situation in my shed where the ground has been hollowed out. I plan to refill and thought I’d canvass you all for suggestions about a good material for horses to stand on while in box stalls.

[karl t pfister]

Hay bird , A few years ago i found some stall mats, seconds for sale, and put them in my straight stalls ,over wood . I really like them ,and they hold up well to the drill tech corks I use in winter. The ones I got are 1/2″ or 5/8 ‘s”. There are ones that inter lock and one might be able to back scape with a bucket (carefully ) in a run in shed situation .good luck karl

[bird]

Takes me a long time to get back to this forum b/c I’m outside working! 😉 I never thought about stall mats over something else. But first I have these big holes to fill in. I might put in some gravel and then layer over that. Maybe clay. That’s what I remember using as a kid.

[Big Horses]

The bad thing about using any clay is that it doesn’t drain very well. We went with 1 1/2″ crush then down to 3/4″ crush, and topped it with sand. That gives good drainage and yet will stay where you put it….although if they’re going to paw, they can still get a good hole going.
John

[Author]

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