The official newsletter of Horses for Clean Water, http://www.horsesforcleanwater.com
Published by Alayne Blickle, Director of Horses for Clean Water

	In this issue... Gimme Shelter: Providing Basic Shelter Requirements for Your Horse Book Review: Horse Housing; How to Plan, Build and Remodel Barns and Sheds Farm Focus: Rockin’ Circle C Educational Events

Gimme Shelter:

Providing Basic Shelter Requirements for Your Horse

by Alayne Blickle

Horses need shelter and protection from the heat, driving rain and severe cold. A healthy horse can withstand cold temperatures, but when it’s windy a horse looses a considerable amount of body heat. This situation worsens when the horse is wet from rain or snow. Horses should be provided with a place where they can get out of the mud and wet for at least half the day. This can be anything from a basic run-in shed to a larger structure like a barn with stalls. If you are thinking about designing a horse shelter, let’s review some things you may want to consider.

Horses should be provided with a place where they can get out of the mud and wet for at least half the day. This can be anything from a basic run-in shed to a larger structure like a barn with stalls.

Size

First of all, how much room do you need? Of course you’ll need room for you horse (or horses) but you may also need room to store feed (hay and grain) tack, supplies, and bedding. If you can’t afford to build the barn of your dreams, a run-in shed may be enough for the time being. A 3-sided, roofed, run-in shed can provide excellent shelter and may be the most natural for a horse. With this kind of shelter your horse is allowed regulate his own body temperature and have excellent ventilation. Closed barns accumulate dust, ammonia fumes and moisture. These conditions create an environment in which mold and germs grow. This can be harmful to the horse’s fragile respiratory system. If you do build a barn, each stall needs air movement to keep air clean and prevent condensation—a breeze down an aisle way is not enough.

Stall size for a horse is a minimum of 12'x12' and 10'x10' for a small horse or pony. A run-in shed for one horse should be a minimum of 10’ x 12’. For two horses (depending on their temperament and compatibility) 12’ x 16’ should be sufficient. When housing more than one horse in the same shelter, be sure to provide enough space to minimize the chance of injury. A dominant horse can easily trap a less aggressive horse in a small, enclosed area.

When making plans for hay storage, consider that one horse eats approximately 600 pounds of hay per month and that a ton of hay requires 200 cubic feet of storage. Remember that hay needs to be kept dry and out of the sun. Store it off the ground or cement on pallets with 4 to 6 inches of space between stacks (for ventilation and rodent habitat reduction). Grain should be stored in rodent-proof containers and in a location where you can be sure your horse can’t reach it.

Shavings or bedding also need to be stored where they are dry and convenient. Large amounts of shavings are best stored away from horses because of dust, mold, and fire danger. You may also want to consider trying wood pellets. Wood pellets have several advantages: they are more absorbent and virtually free of dust; they compost faster than other beddings; they come in watertight bags that are easily stored inside or out. And because wood pellets are more absorbent, you’ll use much less bedding and won’t need nearly as much space for storage.

Siting

When choosing a site for your shelter look for a high, well-drained location—don’t build in a low spot or wet area. It may be useful to check soil types. Gravelly soils are better drained and are usually good locations for buildings and confinement areas. Loamy soils are best used for pastures. Check with your USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, local conservation district, or Cooperative Extension office for more information on your soil types.

Stay as far away as possible from creeks, wetlands, or ditches. Watch that hills or sloping ground behind or near your structure doesn’t drain into it. Be sure to locate the shelter facing away from the prevailing weather patterns so that your horse is protected from the wind. Shelters, barns and other areas such as manure storage should be located at least 100 feet away from wellheads. If you are on a septic system know where your drain field is located and don’t place structures or paddocks over them. Contact your health department for help with well and septic questions.

Keep your community in mind when you choose your site. Manure storage facilities should be downwind from neighbors and if you can leave (or plant) trees, they can provide a barrier for dust and noise.

Accessibility and Chore-efficiency

It’s important to have a year-round road or driveway to your barn or shelter for the vet, farrier, and delivery trucks. Is the driveway in good shape and free of overhead wires or trees? Is it too muddy or narrow? Is it easy to clear of snow? Are gates wide enough for delivery trucks? Can emergency vehicles access your place if needed?

Review your proposed set-up so that deliveries of supplies can be made without moving horses (i.e., will people have to drive through pasture to get to barn?) Another thing to keep in mind is whether horses can be fed without walking through pastures or paddocks. This is especially important if you ever plan to have other people feeding your horses. Can you move horses to other areas (barn to pasture, between paddocks, etc.) with ease? Also be sure that alleys and paths are wide enough for wheelbarrows or other equipment that you will use.

Building Considerations

If you are planning on power, water, sewer or phone for your horse shelter or barn you need to investigate the feasibility for each. Research your county, city, or local regulations. Be sure to check with zoning and building codes before you start on your project.

The flooring in shelters should be dry and level. Packed clay is often used but erodes after time, creating potholes in the stall. Concrete and wood are slick and hard and should not be used as flooring in horse stalls or shelters. A better alternative is to use rubber mats on top of six inches of gravel. Rubber mats provide an even, cushioned surface for the horse to stand on, and they also reduce the amount of bedding needed and are very easy to clean.

Walls should be at least eight feet high and barn stalls should have a foot of space between the top of the wall and the ceiling to allow for air movement and ventilation. Walls should extend to the ground so that a horse cannot get its legs caught when lying down. Metal siding is not recommended for horse buildings. The metals edges and corners can be very dangerous and can easily cause a serious injury to a horse (or human!). Horses can also easily kick through metal siding.

When planning your barn, lay out the interior to simplify chores. Keep tools and equipment storage in a central area. If you will be using large equipment consider size of aisle ways, doors, gates, interior posts, etc. Also consider your options for future expansion. Is there a possibility of a second horse in the future? How about more storage areas?

A final thought for any sized shelter is fire safety and prevention. Always have good wiring and good electrical work done. Practice good housekeeping by keeping areas clear and regularly cleaning up cobwebs and dust. Keep the proper size and type of fire extinguisher centrally located and in good working order.

With these thoughts in mind you are ready to begin the design and construction phase of your horse’s shelter. Good luck and good horsekeeping to you!

November Book Review:

Horse Housing: How to Plan, Build and Remodel Barns and Sheds
by Richard Klimesh and Cherry Hill

	Some great books books available through Amazon.com: Purchasing these products by clicking on the links above will help support Horses For Clean Water programs.

by Alayne Blickle

Richard Klimesh is a farrier, an accomplished carpenter and cabinet maker as well as a photographer and writer. His wife, Cherry Hill is an award-winning author of 24 books on horse training and management, including the well-known Horsekeeping on Small Acreage. This beautiful book is their latest and greatest accomplishment. If you have any ideas of buying or building a horse barn this book will be an excellent resource. It provides assistance from the beginning of the contract process, through regulations, siting issues, materials selection, dealing with traffic patterns, horse health, and so much more. Horse Housing provides 17 different layouts, from a single stall shed to a home/office barn. It also has a Resource Guide for barn experts as well as a glossary of over 350 building and construction terms.

Horse Housing is an excellent addition to any horseperson’s library!

Cherry Hill and her farrier/photographer husband, Richard Klimesh, are authors of many, many other books, videos and educational materials including:

• Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage, by Cherry Hill. This is an excellent book on horse facility design and management. It includes information on understanding horses, designing a horse facility for your land, and general considerations as well as designs for horse barns and other facilities. A great reference book.

• Stablekeeping, by Cherry Hill

More good books on horse barns, shelters and farm management:

• Roofs and Rails, How to Plan Your Ideal Horse Facility, by Gavin Ehringer

• Complete Plans for Building Horse Barns Big and Small, by Nancy Ambrosiano and Mary Harcourt

• How to Build Small Barns and Outbuildings, by Monte Burch

• Building Small Barns, Shed and Shelters, by Monte Burch

Farm Focus: Rockin’ Circle C

by Elizabeth Clark

What do you do with a turn-of-the-century Enumclaw farmhouse on 10 acres of overgrazed and unmanaged pasture with a few outbuildings? You buy it hoping to restore it to its previous glory, of course!

Resident yellow Lab Buster	Buena and Ariel

It’s been a little over a year and a half now since Ben and I purchased this place. We previously had a manufactured home on almost 2 acres in Hobart. It was a big change, and a challenge, but we welcome it with open arms as it’s our dream to have a place like this. Since we moved in, we have added our first child, Jackson, a new lab, Buster, and a new Arab filly, Buena, to our small menagerie. Ariel, our National Show Horse mare, and Hazel, the cat, came with us from Hobart.

We have a variety of cats here now. We have trapped and fixed 5 so far and have 3 males that we trapped as kittens that we still need to fix before turning them loose with Smokey, who produced 7 kittens in the time that we have been here. Just call it the RCC Feral Cat Project. We have lots of good mousers now!

When we first moved in, we had lots of clean-up and safety projects to take care of around the property. The previous owners, who knows how many times back, have all used and abused the property. We have pulled tarps and baling twine and wire out of the mud, dirt and grass everywhere on the property. To this day we still find bits and pieces, and I am guessing it will go on for years.

Most of the fences are or were in complete disrepair. We have removed lots of posts and wire from around the buildings in order to remove potential horse and human and dog injuries.

All of the outbuildings have no gutters, or they are in complete shambles. This was one area that we were hoping to get done for this winter, but it still hasn’t happened yet. We will most likely be able to get cost sharing for this project.

New gate in Buena’s stall protects the exterior metal siding.	New wall made from recycled fence rails.	Gate fronts for both Buena’s and Ariel’s stalls.

The small barn is 4 stalls, but only 2 were really horse safe. One was being used as tack and feed storage when we moved in. This fall we have finished restoring it to horse use by putting in rubber mats, rebuilding one wall and adding a gate and rehanging another gate. We recycled old fence rails from the falling down arena fence to rebuild that wall and to build the gate. It looks a bit rustic, but saves a TON of money by not having to buy brand new lumber! Some day we will build a new barn with paddocks, but this solution is meeting our immediate needs. One of the other stalls was repaired and a dog run added to the outisde for Buster. He loves hanging out with the horses when they are in at night, and lounging outside in the sun during the day.

Swathed	Baling	Curing	Loading

When we moved in last year, the pastures looked completely over-grazed. Last fall, we hired out to have them mowed to even out the grasses and weeds. By spring we had a completely different looking stand of grass. We decided to have it swathed and baled for hay over the summer. At the end of July, it was baled and we got nearly 19 tons. Just through word-of-mouth to friends, we were able to sell a decent amount. Not enough to cover the cost, but we were able to put up what didn’t get purchased right away and we won’t have to buy hay from the feed store for our horses. We also can still sell some of what we have put up right out of the hay shed for folks that need it. It may be a bit yellow or brown on the edges, but it’s nice and green inside. What’s even better is that the horses LOVE it and we are getting rave reports from my friends who have bought some for their horses.

The Conservation District came out and showed us how to do soil sampling and we sent the sample in for testing. It’s a pretty good chance that there hasn’t been any fertilizing or liming done on this land for many years. The recommendations we got back were pretty amazing. We’ll be trying to boost the soil nutrients for many years just trying to get it back to a better balance for hay and grazing.

We have worked with some of the farm planners at the Conservation District to map out some of the projects and layout for the property. When we first moved in, a planner worked up a handful of ideas for us. After being here for a year, we decided that there were some tweaks we needed to make to that plan, so we just revised the plan recently to reflect some of the things we had already implemented, as well as to get some recommendations for some new things we encountered.

Long range plans for this place include:

• Building a new barn

• Adding on paddocks

• Expanding the arena with new railings

• Putting down footing in the arena

• Planting additional trees and shrubs along fence lines and in wild-land areas

• Putting up cross-fencing while still allowing for maximum ease of use for haying

Those are just the “outside” projects. With a 100+ year old house, there are always “house” ones, too. We hope to completely remodel inside and maybe even expand the kitchen a bit by adding on. The great thing with a place like this is that you are NEVER BORED. There is always something to do! And with a 1 year old little boy, not everything happens as planned.

In addition to everything above (like that’s not enough), I have recently started Buena under saddle. We acquired her in August through a rescue organization near Yakima. She hadn’t been started under saddle yet, and after a brief quarrantine and settling in period, I put my first ride on her in October. I have since had a great time getting to ride her and by the time this article comes out, we will have participated in our first Buck Brannaman clinic. Check our web site for a report on how that went. In January, we will be sponsoring a clinic with another clinician, Ricky Quinn. He has just started doing clinics and demonstrations and will be doing a clinic at a neighbors’ arena the last weekend in January. If you are interested in participating or watching that clinic, please e-mail me for more information.

We hope to have a farm tour here maybe sometime in 2005 to show off the progress. If you have any questions, or would like to stop by, just e-mail us and we’d be happy to have you over!

Educational Events

King County
Caring for Your Horse and His Home
Saturday, January 15th and Sunday, January 16th 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Maple Valley, WA	Are you new to horse ownership or do you have children who want a horse? Do you know what the regular health, dental and shoeing needs are for horses? Would you like to learn about shelter requirements and horse-safe fencing? Are you concerned about how to keep your pastures green and what to do with the 50 pounds of manure a horse produces daily? Then join HCW for this weekend workshop geared for novice horse owners. Depending on participants’ needs topics may include: Understanding horse behavior Horse and handler safety Planning your horse facility How to buy a horse Nutrition and feeding Vet and farrier care Taking vital signs Pasture, manure and mud management The workshop will be taught by Alayne Blickle at her Demonstration Farm in Maple Valley using her horses for the hands-on portions. The goal for the class will be to provide you with an introduction to the components of good horse management and the resources and professionals available to you as a horse owner. Bring a sack lunch and dress warmly as parts of the day will be held outside. The cost for the workshop is $250/person for those who register before January 5th; $300 for late registration. Each participant receives a Horses for Clean Water manual, educational handouts on topics presented as well as a certificate of course completion. Hot drinks and light refreshments will be provided. Course is limited to 12 participants. To register or for more information e-mail Alayne or call 425-432-6116.

Whidbey Island
The HCW Horse Farm Management Series
Tuesday evenings March 1 to 29 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Community Meeting Room Bayview Cash Store Langley, WA	Plan now to join Alayne Blickle and HCW on Whidbey Island in March 2005 for the full 5-week series. Learn great ways to care for your horse while reducing mud, managing manure, getting rid of weeds, making pastures productive, controlling insects, and more. To register or for more details contact the Whidbey Island Conservation District at 360-678-4708 or whidbeycd@coupeville.net.

If you have any questions or would like to submit an article for publication in The Green Horse, please e-mail info@horsesforcleanwater.com.