Independence Farm - Helpful Hints

Helpful Hints

The following are a few ideas and techniques that have been helpful to us in caring for the horses. If you have any comments on these hints or would like to contribute one of your own, send us an email at . We are always happy to hear from you.

Mane Braiding - A quick and easy way to braid your Friesian's mane is the "running braid". I've prepared some illustrated instructions for doing this here. This page may take quite a bit of time to load if you have a slow connection; it contains an animated sequence of diagrams as well as explanatory text and a picture of a nicely braided mane.

Muddy Feet - I use a toilet brush to scrub off the major portion of mud and crusty dirt on the horses' hooves. Works great and amuses my farrier.

Pasture Water Tub - If you find it difficult to clean out those big pasture metal water tubs, or if your metal tub has rusted out and started leaking, try this: Buy some plastic muck buckets, usually two for a smaller metal tub and three for a big one. Take the drain plug out of your metal tub and let all the water out. I like to set the metal tub up on concrete blocks to make it harder for the horses to get their feet in the tub. Put the muck buckets in the metal tub and fill them with water. When one tub gets low you can lift it out fairly easily, clean it, put it back and re-fill it.

Winter Water Heating Tip - Our friend Clark Long has found a way to cut his electricity costs in half for heating his big water tub. He has a 70 gallon tub in a run-in shed with a submersible heating element in it. He bought a $7 timer and hooked it up to the element. He set the timer so it repeats 2 hours on and 2 hours off over a 24 hour period. It keeps the water warm and costs about half as much to run.

Stall Latches - Braid a short tail on your stall latches; it makes them much easier to open when you are wearing gloves. I use hay-bale twine. This helpful idea comes from Verlinda Nutter, our friend and neighbor.

Feed Buckets - My horses destroy feed buckets if I leave them in the stalls, so I have put a double ended snap on each bucket handle and an eye bolt in each stall. At feeding time I snap the bucket to the eyebolt and then remove and clean the bucket when the horse is done. I had a filly who kept breaking the snap by putting her foot in the bucket, but my friend Verlinda Nutter solved that problem by attaching the snap to the bucket handle with a short length of bailing twine. The twine adds just enough flexibility to keep the snap from breaking.

Thrush Remedy - Try Fort Dodge Cefa-Dri for thrush. It is a product normally used to treat mastitis in cows. It comes in a box of 12 syringes with long pointed plastic nozzles. I squirt just a little into any cracks in the frog or heel, and usually just a single treatment does the trick.

Spigot drain - For a handy way to drain a hose without disconnecting it from your frost-free spigot, put a 2-way hose connector on the spigot, close one valve and put the hose on the other valve. When you're done with the hose, open the connector's valve so the air can come in and allow the water to drain out of the nozzle end of the hose. This also allows the water level in the spigot to sink to the frost-free level in the ground. This idea came from Matt Taimuty.

Itchy Mane - Try sprinkling Gold Bond Medicated Powder in the horse's mane and rub it into the roots. Our friend Sandy Holcomb gave us this idea. It works on the fetlock feather too.

Frozen Feed - I keep a drop light hanging in a corner of my feed bin. The heat from the light is enough to keep the feed from freezing. It is a lot easier to scoop feed when it isn't frozen. Make sure you keep the feed bags from touching the drop light.

Cleaning Stalls - I have a safety tip for cleaning stalls: Be sure to choose a shovel or fork with a short enough handle that you can comfortably keep one hand over the end of the handle whenever you are cleaning a stall with the horse in it. That way you are less likely to accidentally poke the horse in the eye with the end of the handle.

Shiny Coat - Holly Hansen told me about cocosoya oil. I buy it from www.uckele.com and pour a splash on the evening feed. It gives them a shiny coat, and a shiny coat resists sunburning much better than a dull coat. I also think a daily tablespoon of MSM powder has beneficial effects on the coat.

Stall Fans - Install electric outlets on the ceiling above each stall door and tie a box fan to each doon. Plug each fan into it's own outlet. If the fan ever gets knocked down, it will unplug itself before it hits the ground.